Tripletail wrasse

About this species

The tripletail wrasse is a species of marine ray-finned fish from the family Labridae, the wrasses.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Tripletail wrasse”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 139 records
February: 229 records
March: 442 records
April: 684 records
May: 514 records
June: 346 records
July: 365 records
August: 379 records
September: 256 records
October: 398 records
November: 237 records
December: 118 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 4–19 m · Deepest record: 290 m

0–10 m: 1,640 records
10–20 m: 680 records
20–30 m: 235 records
30–40 m: 3 records
40–50 m: 3 records
50–60 m: 0 records
60–70 m: 0 records
70–80 m: 0 records
80–90 m: 0 records
90–100 m: 0 records
100–110 m: 0 records
110+ m: 2 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 24–30 °C

24–26 °C: 42 records
26–28 °C: 274 records
28–30 °C: 298 records

Photos

(c) Ewout Knoester, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Jan Ebr & Ivana Ebrová, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Jessica Utrup, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Debra Baker, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Georgina Jones, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Debra Baker, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Jan Ebr & Ivana Ebrová, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Tripletail wrasse, Maori Wrasse, Trilobed Maori Wrasse, Triple-tail Maori, Triple-tail Maori-wrasse, Triple-tail Maori Wrasse, Tripletail Maori Wrasse, tripletail wrasse, Triple-tail Wrasse, Trippletail Maori Wrasse, Wrasse

Names in 7 more languages

German: Dreilappen-Lippfisch
Spanish: Maorí chocolate
Filipino: Bankilan, Bunak, Bungat, Isdang bato, Mameng
French: Galame, Labre à triple queue, Labre à trois lobes, Labre Trilobé, Poisson napoléon, Vieille triple queue
Japanese: Mitsubamochinouo, ミツバモチノウオ
Thai: ปลานกขุนทองเกล็ดเขียว
Simplified Chinese: 三叶唇鱼, 三葉唇魚, 三葉鸚鯛, 三葉龍, 汕散仔, 石蚱仔

Other scientific names: Cheilinus fasciatopunctatus, Cheilinus fasciato-punctatus, Cheilinus festivus, Cheilinus maculosus, Cheilinus nebulosus, Cheilinus pulchellus, Cheilinus rivulatus, Cheilinus sinuosus, Cheilinus tetrazona, Cheilinus trilobus, Chelinus trilobatus

Similar species

Redbreasted wrasse
Cheilinus fasciatus
Floral wrasse
Cheilinus chlorourus
Snooty wrasse
Cheilinus oxycephalus
Humphead wrasse
Cheilinus undulatus
Blue Groper
Achoerodus gouldii
Blue Groper
Achoerodus viridis

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
4,496 open-data records from 1901 to 2023.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.