banded parrotfish

About this species

Notolabrus fucicola, the banded parrotfish, blue wrasse, kelpie, New Zealand banded wrasse, purple parrotfish, saddled wrasse, Southern purple wrasse, Southern wrasse, winter bream or yellow-saddled wrasse, is a species of wrasse native to the eastern Indian Ocean, off eastern Australia and all around New Zealand on rocky, weedy reef areas. Aging work in New Zealand suggested these wrasses can live at least 35 years.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Notolabrus fucicola”, 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: 305 records
February: 272 records
March: 675 records
April: 491 records
May: 432 records
June: 502 records
July: 103 records
August: 111 records
September: 153 records
October: 329 records
November: 405 records
December: 308 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 5–17 m · Deepest record: 150.5 m

0–10 m: 1,777 records
10–20 m: 766 records
20–30 m: 168 records
30–40 m: 44 records
40–50 m: 0 records
50–60 m: 0 records
60–70 m: 1 records
70–80 m: 0 records
80–90 m: 0 records
90–100 m: 1 records
100–110 m: 1 records
110+ m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 12–18 °C

10–12 °C: 6 records
12–14 °C: 122 records
14–16 °C: 556 records
16–18 °C: 120 records
18–20 °C: 5 records

Photos

(c) Luca Davenport-Thomas, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Jenny Saito, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Kelvin Perrie, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Bruce Deagle, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Debra Baker, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Bruce Deagle, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Jenny Saito, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: banded parrotfish, Banded Wrasse, Blue Wrasse, Kelpie, Purple Parrotfish, Purple Wrasse, Saddled Wrasse, Southern Purple Wrasse, Southern Wrasse, Winter Bream, Yellow-saddled Wrasse

Names in 1 more languages

German: Schornsteinfeger-Lippfisch

Other scientific names: Labrichthys fucicola, Labrus fucicola, Pseudolabrus fucicola, Pseudolabrus pittensis

Similar species

Bluehead
Notolabrus tetricus
spotty
Notolabrus celidotus
Crimson-banded Parrot-fish
Notolabrus gymnogenis
Green Wrasse
Notolabrus inscriptus
Brown-spotted Parrotfish
Notolabrus parilus
Girdled Wrasse
Notolabrus cinctus

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).
5,042 open-data records from 1909 to 2023.
Species data updated November 5, 2026.