Gomphosus
Green Bird Wrasse ( Gomphosus varius)
The bird wrasse ( Gomphosus ) also billed wrasse or simply bird fish stand out with their long extended snouts. This allows them to capture their food among the branches of corals. They feed on hard-shelled invertebrates such as crabs, molluscs and echinoderms. The long snout only grows from a length of ten inches. The females have a lighter color. Bird wrasse are 30 inches long.
Fins formula: Dorsal VIII/13, Anal III/11
System
There are three species or sub-species:
- The Blue Bird Wrasse ( Gomphosus caeruleus caeruleus ) lives in the western Indian Ocean.
- Gomphosus caeruleus klunzingeri lives only in the Red Sea
- The Green bird wrasse ( Gomphosus varius ) lives in the eastern Indian Ocean and the Pacific to Hawaii.
From a phylogenetic perspective, the bird wrasse belong to the genus Thalassoma. Thalassoma can be divided into eight clearly distinct clades in which species from certain maritime regions such as the Indo-Pacific, western or eastern Atlantic are summarized. Gomphosus is available as a sister group of the Indo-Pacific clade within Thalassoma. The two genera are morphologically so similar that the juveniles of Gomphosus varius were described in 1959 as " Thalassoma stuckiae ". The characteristic Gomphosus beak shaped elongated snout develops only in the adult fish.
Swell
- Hans A. Baensch / Robert A. Patzner: Mergus seawater Atlas Volume 1, Mergus Verlag, Melle, ISBN 3-88244-110-0