Slippery Dick

The slippery dick is a common Caribbean wrasse, reaching a maximum length of 35 cm. It changes both colour and sex over its life, so the same species can look strikingly different from one fish to the next.

It can be confused with other Halichoeres wrasses sharing similar stripes. The small green-and-yellow spot at the edge of the gill cover, present at every life stage, is the mark to check.

This wrasse has a thin, slender body with a mouth at the tip of its snout. Young fish and females are pale, often with a pink shade, and carry two dark stripes running along the side. The upper stripe includes a small green-and-yellow spot at the edge of the gill cover. Mature males turn green with pink lines across the head and tail, keeping the same dark stripes and gill-cover spot.

Lives on reefs and rocky bottoms in shallow water, from 1 to 15 m deep, across the tropical and subtropical western Atlantic. It is less commonly seen over seagrass.

This fish starts life able to be born male or female, and some females later change into males. Fish born male keep a duller colour pattern like females until they mature, while those that change sex take on the bright green terminal colouring of large males.

Breeding fish gather in leks, temporary group breeding sites. Bright, mature males usually pair off with a female inside a defended territory, while duller males often spawn together in larger groups and sometimes try to join a pair's spawning.

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  Bird wrasse

  Gomphosus varius

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  Blackeye thicklip

  Hemigymnus melapterus

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  Bluestreak cleaner wrasse

  Labroides dimidiatus

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  Caribbean Bluehead Wrasse

  Thalassoma bifasciatum

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  Checkerboard wrasse

  Halichoeres hortulanus

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  Green Wrasse

  Labrus viridis