Yellow-Brown Wrasse Care Guide
Thalassoma lutescens is an Indo-Pacific reef wrasse with yellow females and blue-headed terminal males, up to 30 cm.
Compiled by Aquairi from published sources · Published · Updated
Overview
Thalassoma lutescens is a marine wrasse of the family Labridae. According to FishBase and Wikipedia, it ranges across the Indo-Pacific from Sri Lanka to Ducie Island, north to southern Japan and the Hawaiian Islands and south to southeastern Australia. The initial phase has a yellow body with fine red lines, while terminal males show a pink-and-green head grading abruptly to blue-green behind.
Taxonomy
- Family: Labridae
- Genus: Thalassoma
- Scientific name: Thalassoma lutescens (Lay & Bennett, 1839)
Habitat
FishBase records the species from clear outer lagoons and seaward reefs, over open sand and rubble as well as dense coral growth, and notes it is common in shallow exposed areas at depths of 0-30 m. Wikipedia reports that it occurs in schools.
Tank requirements
- Minimum tank volume: 400 L (about 105 gal)
- Temperature: 24-26 °C (75-79 °F)
- pH: 8.1-8.4
- GH: 8-12 °dGH
- Maximum length: about 30 cm TL (FishBase)
- Lifespan: 8-15 years
Diet
FishBase classes the species as a benthic carnivore (trophic level 3.7) that feeds mainly on shelled benthic invertebrates such as crabs, shrimps, gastropods, bivalves, brittle stars and sea urchins, as well as polychaete worms and fish eggs.
Compatibility
The wrasse is semi-aggressive and active, swimming in the middle water column by day. It suits robust tank mates such as tangs, sturdy wrasses and cardinalfishes, while overly aggressive triggerfishes should be avoided.
Breeding
FishBase describes the species as a pelagic spawner that reproduces in groups, consistent with the protogynous biology of the genus. Captive breeding is regarded as an expert-level challenge.
Conservation status
IUCN Red List: Least Concern (assessed 2009).
Sunset Wrasse Breeding Guide (Thalassoma lutescens)
Overview
The sunset wrasse (Thalassoma lutescens) is a Labridae wrasse native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, ranging from Sri Lanka to the Hawaiian Islands and from southern Japan to Australia. It reaches 30 cm in total length and occurs in schools at depths of 1 to 30 m. It is of minor importance to local fisheries and enters the aquarium trade.
Sexing
The consulted source documents the genus Thalassoma as containing protogynous wrasses with phase-related colour change, and growth-series images of T. lutescens show clear differences across life stages, but Wikipedia does not give a confirmed external sexing key for this species. Reliable visual sexing is therefore not established from the available data.
Spawning Behavior & Trigger
Wikipedia records T. lutescens as a schooling reef wrasse. As an oviparous member of Thalassoma it is a pelagic broadcast spawner that releases gametes into the water column, after which fertilised eggs drift away as plankton, consistent with the well-documented spawning mode of the genus. No species-specific captive spawning trigger is documented.
Egg & Fry Care
Fertilised eggs are pelagic and hatch into planktonic larvae that disperse in open water. This dispersal-larvae phase is the central barrier to captive rearing, since the larvae are minute and need live planktonic food impractical to supply in a home tank. No home-aquarium fry-rearing data exist for the species.
Common Challenges
Its large adult size (30 cm), active schooling behaviour and pelagic larval ecology make a dedicated spawning system impractical at home. As with related Thalassoma wrasses it remains a wild-caught species in the trade, and there is no published account of captive reproduction.