Steve\'o - 2010-12-06 Have read your article on blue head wrasse, I have a question the past week I have noticed my wrasses head area has faded from blue to very pale with slight markings on head could you tell me is this some bacterial infection or is this some other disease? There are no other markings on body fins all look good fish still active and eating. Could this also be a form of lateral head disease? If so what is best treatment? Thanks for any help.
Click For Replies (1)
Clarice Brough - 2012-05-08 Wrasses can be quite variable in color. Males can be so deeply blue on the head that they almost look black, all the way to a pale gray. These wrasses will actually change color if there is more than one in the tank... with the less dominant fish turning female, and female coloration. But of course, do keep an eye on it and make sure your fish is eating and acting normally, and doesn't show any other sign of illness. As long as color is the only change you see, it is probably fine.
Anonymous - 2008-09-19 In response to previous comment: This is definitely a bluehead and not a lunar wrasse. Lunar wrasse bodies are predominately green with red or purple lines on the face and the tail is many times yellow. A note about bluehead: they will bury themselves in the sand when frightened, and this is where they like to sleep. Editor's Note: To see what a Lunar Wrasse (also known as the Moon Wrasse) looks like, visit the "Moon Wrasse" page.
Once the male Bluehead Wrasse attains its adult coloration it is one colorful fish, and either sex does well in a marine aquarium.
Hi, it is a lunar wrasse, when they get older they lose their black dot and become green and bright blue in colour
I have had both, and the picture shows a bluehead, not a lunar wrasse
Have read your article on blue head wrasse, I have a question the past
week I have noticed my wrasses head area has faded from blue to very pale
with slight markings on head could you tell me is this some bacterial infection
or is this some other disease? There are no other markings on body fins all
look good fish still active and eating. Could this also be a form of lateral head disease? If so what is best treatment? Thanks for any help.
Wrasses can be quite variable in color. Males can be so deeply blue on the head that they almost look black, all the way to a pale gray. These wrasses will actually change color if there is more than one in the tank... with the less dominant fish turning female, and female coloration. But of course, do keep an eye on it and make sure your fish is eating and acting normally, and doesn't show any other sign of illness. As long as color is the only change you see, it is probably fine.
In response to previous comment: This is definitely a bluehead and not a lunar wrasse. Lunar wrasse bodies are predominately green with red or purple lines on the face and the tail is many times yellow.
A note about bluehead: they will bury themselves in the sand when frightened, and this is where they like to sleep.
Editor's Note: To see what a Lunar Wrasse (also known as the Moon Wrasse) looks like, visit the "Moon Wrasse" page.
I believe that is a lunar wrasse and not a bluehead wrasse.