Banded Maori

Description

The redbreasted wrasse is a large wrasse of the family Labridae from the Indo-West Pacific. The species grows to about 40 cm and has a deep body with black and pale crossbars, a red-orange breast and, in older males, a greenish head. Adults inhabit lagoon and seaward reefs, usually in areas of mixed sand, rubble and coral. As a bottom predator it crushes hard-shelled prey such as molluscs, crustaceans and sea urchins with powerful jaws. Like many wrasses it is a protogynous hermaphrodite: it begins as a female and can later become a male. The species is a local food fish and is harmless to humans.