Blue-banded wrasse


The blue-banded wrasse is a species of wrasse native to the easternmost Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean. It is an inhabitant of reefs, preferring substrates of flat sand or rubble at depths of from. This species grows to in standard length. It is of minor importance to local commercial fisheries.

Taxonomy

It was previously thought to be the only species of the genus Xiphocheilus, but this was refuted when molecular phylogenetics showed that it nests deep within the genus Choerodon.