If ever a fish deserved its common name then the Slingjaw Wrasse (Epibulus insidiator) is it. The name slingjaw refers to the fish's ability to really extend its mouth to capture food. The slingjaw wrasse in these pictures is mostly black but others will have a grey head, or light grey head with orange shoulders or sometimes even a solid yellow fish!
Slingjaw wrasses are pecular fish and not only because of the slingjaw. The fish will not only switch colors once in its life but also its sex. Thats right when the fish changes color it also changes sex. This will only happen once in a fishes life. The males will have a grey head.
Slingjaw wrasse range from the Hawaii to Japan and Australia and westward throughout Southeast Asia all the way to the Red Sea. They feed on crabs, shrimps and small fishes.
The young of the species are basically brown with a few white stripes running vertically up and down the fishes body.
Another interesting fact about slingjaw wrasses is that they are almost always found around corals of the genus Acropora. If these corals are not found then the slingjaw wrasse will be extremely rare there or noexistant.