A weed-feeding wrasse of southern kelp beds. Females are mottled brown, males almost black with a blue sheen.
To about 50 cm. A long, flexible fish that moves through kelp with a sinuous, almost eel-like action, which is how it is usually recognised before any colour is seen. The teeth are completely fused into a pavement-like beak. Females are brown, darker above, with narrow blue wavy lines on the head and a bluish-white spot on each scale. Males are pale blue to almost black with bright blue lines along the edges of the tail.
It is a herbivore, which is unusual for a wrasse: it eats the kelp Ecklonia radiata. It sits in the surge zone among Ecklonia, Phyllospora and Lessonia, and it is abundant there.
Nought to thirty metres on inshore rock. One source describes it as changing sex from male to female, which is the opposite of the usual direction in this family, so treat that as unsettled. Of no interest to anglers because of what it eats.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.