No photo available
Sling-jaw wrasse
Epibulus insidiator
Valid name (FishBase; confirmed in Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes and WoRMS, October 2026).
- English
- Sling-jaw wrasse
- Scientific
- Epibulus insidiator
- Dhivehi
- Hikaa
- Group
- Reef fish
- Family
- Labridae (wrasses)
- Maximum size
- Up to about 54 cm (standard length)
- Depth and habitat
- Coral reefs and reef-associated habitats, recorded from 0 to 50 m
- IUCN status
- LC · Least ConcernLeast Concern (LC), assessed 2008
Description
A wrasse with an extraordinary mouth: its jaws can shoot forward into a tube about half the length of its body in a fraction of a second, sucking in small fish and crustaceans. Colour varies: males are dark with a pale head and an orange-yellow back, females are often brown or bright yellow, and juveniles are brown with thin white bars. It lives alone in coral-rich lagoons and outer reefs.
In the Maldives
FishBase (Maldives) gives only the general name hikaa.
Sources
- fishbase.se /summary/Epibulus-insidiator.html
- fishbase.se /comnames/CommonNamesList.php?ID=5606&GenusName=Epibulus&SpeciesName=i
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Epibulus_insidiator.jpg
Dhivehi name source: FishBase common names (country: Maldives) give 'Hikaa' (Latin script). FLAG: single source. FLAG: generic name for the group, not species-specific.