Yellowtail Coris Wrasse

Adult

Juvenile
Photos courtesy of Hawai'i Coral Reef Network
Common Names:   Yellowtail Coris Wrasse
                                Gaimard's Wrasse
                                Clown Wrasse
Hawaiian Name:    Hi-na-le-a 'a-ki-lo-lo
Scientific Name:   Coris gaimardi
                                (Quoy and Gaimard, 1824)
Source Info:           Fishes of Hawaii by Spencer W. Tinker

This colorful wrasse is, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful fish in the Hawaiian waters.  In the wild, they are always "busy", picking up small stones and coral rubble, looking for something (usually small crabs and other inverts) to eat.  Sort of reminds you of a small child on an Easter Egg hunt.

As with most wrasses in the Wrasse Fish Family, the Yellowtail Coris "hides" in the sand at the bottom of the ocean, or in your aquarium at night or when feeling threatened.  For this reason, you may not want to hold the larger wrasses in your tank.  From experience, we have found that they can "rearrange" your aquarium in a very short period of time.  There is nothing more aggravating than having your tank set up, with all the stones and corals positioned just right, then introducing a large wrasse to the tank, only to watch it burrow into the sand, slither the length of the tank, knocking your little bubbling treasure chest over and causing that perfectly poised piece of coral that you "smuggled" through Customs after your trip to Palmyra, to topple over onto the sunken pirate ship.

Even after the wrasse has settled in to your envioronment and spends most of its time just "cruising", it can still decide that it wants a little privacy and "poof", there goes the treasure chest again.  Accept it...  It's gonna happen.

Other than this little oddity, the Yellowtail Coris makes an excellent tank mate.  We have passed a number of them through our system on their way to the Mainland and have found that they will readily eat dried shrimp and other prepared foods for carnivores.  If you have any urchins in your tank however, you can kiss them goodbye.  Eventually the Coris will roll it over, chew a hole in the unprotected belly and dine on the innards, leaving only the outer shell and spines.  The Coris also dines on coral polyps, so wouldn't be considered to be a good addition to a reef system.

We have observed the Yellowtail Coris from the shallow waters inside the reef to depths of 100+ feet.  The larger specimens do not decompress well, so will not normally take them at depths beyond 30 feet, unless we plan on spending the afternoon (2-5 hours) "hanging on the hook", slowly bringing the fish up and enjoying the view of the Hawaiian Islands from our vantage point on the boat.

The Yellowtail Coris can be found from the Hawaiian Islands, south into Polynesia and west to Africa.
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