Picture of the Day: This Fish’s Face is Priceless
The star of the photo is a Humphead wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus), a species of wrasse that is mainly found in coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific region. Males can reach 6 feet (2 m) in length while females rarely exceed 3 feet (1 m). The hump that forms on its head above the eyes becomes more prominent as the fish ages, hence the name ‘humphead’.
Another reddit user, lucilletwo, also provided some fascinating information about the humphead, which I have pasted below:
“Humpheads are protogynous hermaphrodites. This means they are all born as females and some of them transition to becoming male later in their life cycle… not only are they large and beautiful, but they’re curious and over time become not only desensitized to divers but incredibly friendly towards them. They can live for 25-30 years, and many dive sites in the great barrier reef have one or two ‘regulars’ which love divers and immediately rush out to greet them, so much so that it’s become a bit of an attraction. I encountered a particularly friendly one last year on a day dive out of Cairns who would forcefully nuzzle your palm with his big fleshy lips if you held it open. He’d swim circles around you for a minute or so, then get bored and go find another playmate.”
