Clown Wrasse, Halichoeres maculipinna
Clown Wrasse, Halichoeres maculipinna, Initial Phase (IP), Female Transitioning to a Terminal Phase (TP) Male. Fish caught from coastal waters off Key West, Florida, June 2015. Length: 9.8 cm (3.9 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Dean Kimberly, Atlanta, Georgia.
Clown Wrasse, Halichoeres maculipinna, Terminal Phase (TP), Male. Fish caught from coastal waters off Key West, Florida, April 2017. Length: 10.2 cm (4.0 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Dean Kimberly, Atlanta, Georgia.
Clown Wrasse, Halichoeres maculipinna, Terminal Phase (TP), Male. Fish caught from coastal waters off Boca Raton, Florida, November 2023. Length: 13 cm (5.1 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Chris Moore, Peoria, Arizona.
The Clown Wrasse, Halichoeres maculipinna, is a member of the Wrasse or Labridae Family, and is known in Mexico as doncella payaso. Globally, there are seventy species in the genus Halichoeres, ninteen of which are found in Mexican waters, ten in the Atlantic and nine in the Pacific Ocean.
The Clown Wrasses has an elongated compressed body with a depth that is 23 to 27% of standard length. Juveniles have a dark brown stripe along the top of their back followed by a thin yellow line and a broad black stripe that runs from the top of their mouth through the eye to the top of their caudal fin base. They are white ventrally. Females (Initial Phase) have a yellowish-green head with red lines radiating from their eyes, a red stripe that runs through their mouth to the gill covers, a greenish to brown upper body that transitions to white ventrally, a wide black spot on their dorsal spines, and reddish fins with yellow bars. Males (Terminal Phase) have a head that is green on top and yellow below with red lines radiating from their eyes, several red stripes running from the mouth to the gill covers, a black to olive upper back with a broad yellow stripe underneath that transitions to white ventrally, a large black blotch mid-side above their anus, and an elongated black blotch on their dorsal spines. Their anal and dorsal fins are green with red stripes and their caudal fin has central red stripes with red upper and lower margins. They have small beady eyes and a protrusible mouth with thick lips that opens in the front with three pairs of canine teeth (one on top and two on the bottom). Their anal fin has 3 spines and 11 rays; their caudal fin is rounded; their dorsal fin has 9 spines and 11 rays; and, their pectoral fins have 14 rays. They have 13 to 15 gill rakers. They are covered with scales. Their lateral line is continuous and abruptly bent down under the dorsal fin.
The Clown Wrasses are coastal residents found within rocky shores and reefs adjacent to sandy bottoms at depths up to 24 m (80 feet). They reach a maximum of 15.0 cm (5.9 inches) in length. They are normally solitary and wary. They feed diurnally on small crustaceans, sea urchins, mollusks, and brittle stars. They feed and spawn in different locations. They are protogynous hermaphrodites with females being able to transform into fully functional males at mid-life. This transition occurs when the fish reach about 10.9 cm (4.3 inches) in length. Males are highly territorial and maintain harems that consist of several females with fertilization occurring externally and pelagic eggs developing rapidly. The Clown Wrasse is poorly studied with very limited information available about their lifestyle and behavioral patterns including specific details on age, growth, longevity, movement patterns, diet, habitat use, and reproduction.
The Clown Wrasse is a resident of all Mexican waters of the Atlantic Ocean including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.
The Clown Wrasse is fairly easy to identify due to its coloration and band pattern along its back. It is fairly similar in body structure to the Bluehead, Thalassoma bifasciatum (2 wide blue bars just behind the gill covers) and the Wrasse Blenny, Hemiemblemaria simula (broad black stripe running through eye and extending to mid-body).
From a conservation perspective the Clown Wrasses is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. They are small in stature and of limited interest to most.