Moon wrasse
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[Photo] Moon Wrasse, Thalassoma lunare at Great Barrier Reef, Cairns, Australia. Date February 8, 2005. Author Leonard Low (http://flickr.com/people/leonardlow/) from Australia

The moon wrasse, Thalassoma lunare, is a wrasse of the Labridae family found in the Indo-Pacific oceans at depths of between 1 and 20 m. Its length is up to 25 cm.

Adult moon wrasse have a large yellow crescent posteriorly in the caudal fin and blue pectoral fins with a large elongate pink area distally. Large males turn blue on the head that grades to green towards the tail. The body is dark green to blue with vertical red to purplish-red lines. The head is green to blue with irregular pink to violet bands. Juveniles have a large dark spot in the middle of the dorsal fin and a large diffuse black spot at the base of the caudal fin.

They occur in the upper portions of lagoons and coastal reefs, and in protected seaward reefs, and they also enter estuaries. They feed mainly on small benthic invertebrates and fish eggs. They are protogynous hermaphrodites.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_wrasse

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