Thoughts on Banana Wrasse?

[Troylee]

The confusion by hobbyists and even fish stores between female banana wrasse & yellow coris wrasse is more common than I thought. The following is just a quick research from the internet and there are already quite a few places that prominently display yellow coris as female banana wrasse yet have the right scientific name, Thalassoma lutescens.

The pic from liveaquaria is the right one. The one from tankfacts.com is not factual as the dots on the dorsal fins are clear indication of yellow coris. MarineFishEz gives two pix where one is right and the other is wrong.

So @i cant think picture that reef2reef used on Facebook is indeed a yellow corris and not a banana?

 

[fishguy242]

soo the yellow coris is fine for the reef ? @SaltyT ... :)
@CH3RRY what are you going to do with banana once caught?
willing to trade for coral ?...;)

 

[Troylee]

soo the yellow coris is fine for the reef ? @SaltyT ... :)
@CH3RRY what are you going to do with banana once caught?
willing to trade for coral ?...;)

Yellow corris is def okay for a reef.. the debate the last 20 years is confusion of pictures vendors use and now reef2reef posting a yellow corris and talking about banana's haha! I have always kept what I believe are yellow corris and currently do… I have what ever is in the picture r2r posted on fb and he’s a super chill fish.

 

[SaltyT]

soo the yellow coris is fine for the reef ? @SaltyT ... :)
@CH3RRY what are you going to do with banana once caught?
willing to trade for coral ?...;)

Yep, the yellow 'coris' is reef safe... but it's not even a Coris wrasse it's Halichoeres chrysus.
Lot's of confusion around this little yellow wrasse.

 

[SCH14]

soo the yellow coris is fine for the reef ? @SaltyT ... :)
@CH3RRY what are you going to do with banana once caught?
willing to trade for coral ?...;)

id trade. Dont think Ill ever catch this guy. Been 3 days of standing with the fish trap for 2-3 hours each day.

 

[fishguy242]

can you see where he's buried at night ? double net him ?

 

[SCH14]

can you see where he's buried at night ? double net him ?

Lodged in between 2 rocks every night, id have to take rocks apart.

 

[Jesterrace]

Glad to see I wasn't the only one who wondered why on earth they have the Halichoeres Wrasse pictured when this thread is talking about a Thalassoma. I have given up on common names for Wrasses. The only way to get it even close to right is to go latin for wrasse names.

 

[i cant think]

I have given up on common names for Wrasses. The only way to get it even close to right is to go latin for wrasse names.

Thankyou!! This is what I do, although it’s now at a point I don’t know many common names but know many scientifics.

 

[Autonomy]

Simply stating the word 'hali' inbetween the words 'yellow' and 'coris' would definitely make life so much easier for both the reefer and the seller. Shopping for fish would be less confusing if people watched their language, stopped hacking and shortening words to suit!!! :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:

It's really interesting how omitting 'hali' from the equation can cause so much confusion and even change the species of the wrasse in question.

It's so much simplier for all if we started referring to this little yellow wrasse as 'yellow hali-coris (choeres) wrasse.

Yellow Halichoeres chrysus wrasse is also known as the Yellow Wrasse or Canary Wrasse and are identified by the black dots on its dorsal. They are a non-aggressive, reef safe wrasse. The confusion arises when they are referred to as either a 'banana wrasse' or a 'coris wrasse', which they aren't.

Banana wrasse are from the Thalassoma genus and are bright yellow (with no dots or markings) when they are juveniles. Generally, wrasses from the Thalassoma genus are down-right bullies, and some (not all) can be considered reef safe with caution.

This is a great presentation by The Wrasse Guy - Hunter Hammond, for all the wrasse lovers out there.