Twinspot Wrasse

The Twinspot Wrasse (Coris aygula), also called the clown coris, is one of the largest wrasses, with old males reaching up to a metre. It shows extreme change with age: juveniles are white with orange saddles and two conspicuous red-ringed black spots on the dorsal fin, while large adults become dark greenish-grey, heavy-bodied, and develop a prominent bulging forehead. It is a powerful reef forager that flips rocks and rubble to reach hard-shelled prey. Its dramatic transformation makes juveniles and adults look like entirely different fish.

Identify Twinspot Wrasse by life stage:

• Juveniles: white body, orange-edged saddles, and two black spots ringed with red on the dorsal fin (the 'twin spots').
• Adults: large, robust, dark green-grey, often with a paler vertical band and a bulbous forehead in big males.
• Very large size for a wrasse (to ~1 m).

The twin dorsal spots on white juveniles are unmistakable.

Twinspot Wrasse inhabit coral reefs, reef flats, and rubble zones from shallow water to about 30 m across the tropical Indo-Pacific. Juveniles favour shallow, protected reef areas, while adults range over open reef and rubble where they can excavate and overturn debris in search of food.

This wrasse is a strong, active benthic forager, using its size to turn over rocks and rubble to expose crabs, molluscs, sea urchins, and other hard-shelled invertebrates, which it crushes with powerful pharyngeal teeth. Juveniles are more secretive and site-attached. Like other Coris it is a protogynous hermaphrodite, with large terminal males dominating. Individuals bury in sand to sleep and to escape threats.