Dragon Wrasse

The Dragon Wrasse is one of the most fascinating and dramatic wrasses available in the marine aquarium hobby, renowned for its extraordinary juvenile form and its remarkable rock-moving behavior. Juveniles are truly spectacular, sporting elongated, ornate dorsal fin filaments and a mottled reddish-brown and white coloration that perfectly mimics a drifting piece of algae or seaweed. As they mature, adults transition to a much more subdued olive-green to brown body covered with fine white scribbled lines, losing the dramatic finnage but gaining impressive size and strength.

In the wild, Novaculichthys taeniourus has a vast distribution across the Indo-Pacific, from the Red Sea and East Africa to Hawaii. Adults inhabit sandy and rubble-strewn areas near coral reefs, where they exhibit their namesake behavior of physically flipping over rocks, rubble, and coral fragments to expose hidden prey items beneath. This remarkable foraging strategy is both impressive and destructive, as the wrasse can move surprisingly large pieces of substrate.

In the aquarium, the Dragon Wrasse is a hardy and disease-resistant species that is easy to feed and maintain. However, its rock-moving behavior makes it one of the most destructive fish for a reef aquarium. It will rearrange rockwork, topple coral frags, uproot organisms, and consume virtually any invertebrate it can catch, including ornamental shrimp, crabs, snails, sea urchins, and small clams. For this reason, it is best suited to fish-only aquariums or extremely robust reef setups where the aquarist accepts ongoing aquascaping disruption.