Surge wrasse
(Thalassoma purpureum)
Image source: Susan Prior | inaturalist.org
General data
The surge wrasse has 8 spines and 12-14 soft rays in its dorsal fin while the anal fin has 3 spines and 10-12 soft rays.
It can grow to 46 cm (18 in) in total length and 1.2 kg (2.6 lb) in weight.
It has a rather deep, laterally compressed body and a pair of caniniform teeth in the front of its bottom jaw.
This is a colourful species of wrasse in which the females are greenish with their snout marked with a dark red V.
The males are greenish-blue in colour with two bright reddish stripes along their flanks and they have a large head with a blunt snout which is greenish-blue with pinkish-purple markings.
It is very similar to the ladder wrasse (Thalassoma trilobatum), especially the females, but the surge wrasse has a larger head and no spots on the head.
The surge wrasse has a wide Indo-Pacific distribution which extends marginally into the south-eastern Atlantic along the coast of South Africa. Its main distribution in the Indian Ocean extends from the Red Sea south to South Africa east through the Indian Ocean islands and coasts of Asia to the Pacific Ocean where it extends north to Japan and south to Lord Howe Island, Kermadec Islands, and Rapa Islands and east as far as Panama in the eastern Pacific.
