Bananafish

About this species

The comb wrasse or combfish is a species of wrasse of the genus Coris, native to the western Pacific Ocean off eastern Australia and around offshore islands off north eastern New Zealand. This species can be found in areas with sandy substrates around rock reefs at depths from 3 to 25 m. It can reach 25 cm (9.8 in) in total length. This species can also be found in the aquarium trade.

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

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

Loading the map

Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 64 records
February: 67 records
March: 86 records
April: 97 records
May: 73 records
June: 48 records
July: 35 records
August: 42 records
September: 40 records
October: 32 records
November: 57 records
December: 53 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 9–66 m · Deepest record: 132 m

0–10 m: 3 records
10–20 m: 2 records
20–30 m: 7 records
30–40 m: 4 records
40–50 m: 5 records
50–60 m: 5 records
60–70 m: 1 records
70–80 m: 0 records
80–90 m: 1 records
90–100 m: 0 records
100–110 m: 0 records
110+ m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 18–26 °C

16–18 °C: 8 records
18–20 °C: 5 records
20–22 °C: 52 records
22–24 °C: 21 records
24–26 °C: 8 records
26–28 °C: 1 records

Photos

(c) Kai Squires, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Lawrence Hylton, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Valentin Moser, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) jeyre, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) jeyre, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Susan Prior, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Valentin Moser, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Bananafish, Banana Wrasse, Combfish, Comb Wrasse

Names in 1 more languages

Japanese: ムスメベラ

Other scientific names: Coris pictus, Coris semicincta, Labrus pictus

Similar species

Blushing Wrasse
Coris auricularis
Clown wrasse
Coris aygula
African Clown Wrasse
Coris gaimard
Elegant Coris
Coris venusta
Batu Coris
Coris batuensis
Doubleheader
Coris bulbifrons

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).
931 open-data records from 1929 to 2022.
Species data updated November 1, 2026.