A small wrasse that cleans as a juvenile and eats coral polyps as an adult.
To about 10 cm, white with two dark horizontal stripes running the length of the body and a bright yellow tail. Juveniles are more strongly marked than adults and are the stage that cleans. The thickened, protruding lips that give the genus its name are visible at close range.
Juveniles set up at coral heads and remove parasites and mucus from larger fish, in the manner of the cleaner wrasse but less systematically. Adults switch largely to feeding on coral polyps and mucus. It is a common small fish on the coral heads of inshore reef, including at the muck destinations, and is often mistaken for a juvenile cleaner wrasse — the yellow tail and the two stripes separate them. Recorded from about 2 to 25 m.
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.