Cleaner Wrasse Identification Guide

Key identification features

• Slender, elongated body reaching about 4 inches (10 cm)
• Bold black horizontal stripe running from the tip of the snout through the eye to the tail, widening as it goes
• Pale blue coloration above and below the black stripe, sometimes with a yellow tinge near the head
• Small, slightly upturned mouth adapted for picking parasites
• Distinctive undulating, almost hovering swimming motion rather than steady forward swimming
• Often seen at fixed "cleaning stations" on the reef

Common look-alikes

• False Cleanerfish (mimic blenny): nearly identical black-striped pattern, but swims in short darting bursts rather than the wrasse's smooth undulating motion, and has an underslung mouth rather than a small terminal one
• Bicolor Cleaner Wrasse (juvenile form): shows a similar stripe but with a yellow-and-blue split body rather than the pale blue tones of the adult Cleaner Wrasse

Where you'll see one

Cleaner Wrasses are found on coral reefs throughout the Indo-Pacific and Red Sea, holding fixed cleaning stations on prominent coral heads where other reef fish line up to be serviced.