Wrasse, << ras, >> is the name of a family of over 500 species of ocean fish. Many species live in tropical reefs of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. Others live in cool waters off Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand. The California sheephead, for example, is a wrasse found in cool Pacific waters from the Gulf of California in Mexico to Monterey Bay in California.
Wrasses show a greater variety of size, shape, and color than any other fish family. They range in size from 2 inches (5 centimeters) to 6 feet (1.8 meters). Some wrasses are long and cigar-shaped, and others are short and oval in outline. Many wrasses go through rapid, but temporary, color changes.
Wrasses start off life as females, but some individuals of a species turn into males as they grow older. Their color and shape often change dramatically with growth and the shift of sexes. For example, a small, strikingly colored young wrasse may change into a drab, medium-sized female, which may in time change into a larger, colorful male.
Many of the larger wrasses feed on crabs, snails, and clams, which they crush with strong teeth in their throat. The cleaner wrasse feeds on parasites it picks off the skin, gills, and mouth of other—often much larger—fish. The fish being cleaned will open its mouth and gills and allow the cleaner wrasse to enter. Most wrasses spend the night buried in the sand.
