Species introCountry intro
Yellowhead Wrasse
Sep 13, 2017. Seen in the dive site Oil Slick Leap, Bonaire.
Juveniles yellow with silvery blue stripe along side. Super males (terminal males), have black vertical bar behind tip of pectoral fin, merging with broad black area on upper side, continuing to top of caudal peduncle and upper caudal fin. One of the easiest wrasses to identify at all its stages.
It is a protogynous hermaphrodite, meaning that it starts as female and as the animal ages, based on internal or external triggers, it shifts sex to become a male. Male fecundity increases greatly with age, unlike female.
The yellowhead wrasse, ''Halichoeres garnoti'', is a fish species belonging to wrasse family native to shallow tropical waters in the Caribbean Sea and western Atlantic Ocean.
