Saturday, December 08, 2007

Napolean Wrasse (Humphead Wrasse, 鬚眉)

The Napolean Wrasse is a really beautiful creature. For a fish, it looks thoughtful. These ones are about 2 feet long, still only juveniles. Their colour will deepen and the humps above their eyes will become much more pronounced as they get older. The largest will grow up to seven feet. These will not get the chance.

They normally live in the waters around the reefs in the south Pacific, such as around Indonesia. But they are relatively common in the tanks of sea food shops in Hong Kong, because they are very tasty. For this reason they are now endangered in many areas due to over-fishing.




2 comments:

tabbycat said...

The ones that we fed had a head and body shape exactly like that, but they were iridescent orangey and bluey. So probably a wrasse but a different kind.

StephenC said...

You lucky gal. I wish I can see it for myself. I probably won't be able to bring myself to spear it for food - as tasty as it is! I would love to take a picture of it though.