Creole wrasse

Creole wrasse
Conservation status
	; Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Labriformes
Family:	Labridae
Genus:	Clepticus
Species:	C. parrae
Binomial name
	Clepticus parrae; ( J. G. Schneider, 1801)
Synonyms
	Brama parrae Bloch & J. G. Schneider, 1801; Clepticus genizara Cuvier, 1829;

The creole wrasse (Clepticus parrae) is a species of wrasse native to the western Atlantic Ocean.

Description

The creole wrasse is a small wrasse, with males reaching around 30 cm (1 ft) in length, while females are smaller. It has a typical wrasse shape. Like many wrasse, it changes colour markedly during its lifetime, with juveniles being almost completely violet-purple. As it matures, it develops a yellow patch on the rear part of its body.^[2]

Distribution

The species is found throughout the tropical waters of the western

Bermuda Islands, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico.^[1]

Ecology

This wrasse lives in groups, aggregating on

tunicates, and invertebrate larvae.^[4]

The creole wrasse is active by day, and at night it retreats alone to a rocky crevice in the reef to sleep.

Reproduction

The creole wrasse is a

leks

to breed, at which they display and are approached by females before mating with them.

Taxonomy

The creole wrasse was first formally

Johann Gottlob Schneider. In 1829 Georges Cuvier described a species and a new genus which he named Clepticus genizara, this name was later regarded as a synonym of Bloch and Schneider's earlier name and this species is the type species of the genus Clepticus.^[5]^[6]