Moon wrasse
Amazing fact
In large adult moon wrasses, the upper and lower tips of the tail fin extend like threads.
国立科学博物館
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
In large adult moon wrasses, the upper and lower tips of the tail fin extend like threads.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Moon wrasse
- Scientific name
- Thalassoma lunare
- Japanese name
- オトメベラ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Order
- Labriformes
- Family
- Labridae
- Genus
- Thalassoma
It lives from the Pacific coast of Japan between Chiba and Kagoshima and southern islands to Taiwan and across the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
It lives alone or in groups in lagoons and on the upper parts of coastal rocky reefs.
How the Moon wrasse lives
When young, it has a blue lower half to its body. In the initial phase, its green scales have vertical red lines. Terminal-phase males are bluer overall.
Australian Museum国立科学博物館Basic data
- Diet
- Small benthic invertebrates and fish eggs
- Range
- Izu Islands, Ogasawara Islands, Ryukyu Islands, Jeju Island, Taiwan, Indo-Pacific, and elsewhere
Where the Moon wrasse has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- オトメベラ
- 简体中文
- 新月锦鱼
- 繁體中文
- 新月錦魚
- 한국어
- 녹색물결놀래기
- Español
- Lábrido lunar
- Français
- Girelle paon
- Deutsch
- Mondsichel-Junker
- Português (Brasil)
- Bodião-lunar
- Italiano
- Labride verde e blu
- العربية
- كيدمية هلالية
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Bayaman hijau
- Tiếng Việt
- Bàng chài mặt trăng
- Русский
- Талассома лунная
- Türkçe
- Akkuyruklu Lapin Balığı
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — オトメベラChecked: 2026-11-04
- 国立科学博物館 — Thalassoma lunare — Moon WrasseChecked: 2026-11-07
- Australian Museum — Moon Wrasse, Thalassoma lunare (Linnaeus, 1758)Checked: 2026-11-07
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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