Fishes - Australian Museum Fish Site

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Checkerboard Wrasse
Halichoeres hortulanus (Lacépède, 1801)

Checkerboard Wrasse
A Checkerboard Wrasse at a depth of 12m, Cormorant Pass, Great Barrier Reef off Lizard Island, Queensland, December 2001. View larger image.
Checkerboard Wrasse
A Checkerboard Wrasse at a depth of 10m, Mantis Reef, Great Barrier Reef off Fair Cape, Queensland, December 2001. View larger image.

The Checkerboard Wrasse can be recognised by its colouration, which varies as the fish grows. Juvenile Checkerboard Wrasse have alternating black and white bars on the body and a yellow-edged, black spot in the dorsal fin.

Adult Checkerboard Wrasse have a white body with a black spot between each scale, creating a checkerboard pattern.

The head is green with irregular pink-orange stripes. There is a yellow spot on the back below the fourth and fifth dorsal fin spines and a second yellow spot in the middle of the soft dorsal fin.

This species grows to 27cm in length.

Juvenile Checkerboard Wrasse are usually seen under ledges near deep sandy holes, or surgy areas. Adults inhabit lagoons and seaward reefs.

This fish feeds primarily on sand-dwelling gastropods, bivalves, hermit crabs, polychaetes and small fishes.

It is found in depths from 1m to 30m.

The Checkerboard Wrasse occurs in tropical marine waters of the Indo-Pacific, from the Red Sea, throughout South-east Asia and Micronesia, north to Japan, south to Australia and east to the Tuamoto Islands.

In Australia it is known from the north-western coast of Western Australia, and the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland to southern New South Wales.

View a map of the collecting localities of specimens in the Australian Museum Fish Collection.

Further reading

  1. Allen, G.R. & R. Swainston. 1988. The Marine Fishes of North-Western Australia. A Field Guide for Anglers and Divers. Western Australian Museum. Pp. 201.
  2. Kuiter, R.H. 2002. Fairy and Rainbow Wrasses and their Relatives. A Comprehensive Guide to Selected Labroids. TMC Publishing. Pp. 208.
  3. Myers, R.F. 1999. Micronesian Reef Fishes. Coral Graphics. Pp. 330.
  4. Randall, J.E., Allen, G.R. & R.C. Steene. 1997. Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Crawford House Press. Pp. 251.
  5. Westneat, M.W., 2001 Labridae. Wrasses (also, hogfishes, razorfishes, corises and tuskfishes) in Carpenter, K.E. & V.H. Niem (Eds). FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes. The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific. Volume 6. Bony Fishes part 4 (Labridae to Latimeriidae), estuarine crocodiles, sea turtles, sea snakes and marine mammals. FAO, Rome. Pp. iii-v, 3381-4218.
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