Blue wrasse
Fish · Last reviewed 2026-08-25
The other half of the Macaronesian Symphodus pair — split from the emerald wrasse after most field guides were printed, and not reliably separable in a photograph.
*Symphodus caeruleus* is the second small Macaronesian wrasse, recorded by FishBase from Madeira, the Canary Islands and the Azores over a depth range of 1 to 30 m and usually 5 to 15, reaching 21.5 cm.
It exists as a separate record because the taxonomy says so and because pretending otherwise would hide a real difficulty. The 1997 Azores annotated checklist — the most thorough regional work on those fish — has no account for it at all; it knows only *Centrolabrus trutta*, because the two were treated as one species when it was written. Anything printed before the split, and a good deal printed since, describes one fish where there are now two.
The practical consequence for an angler is unusual and worth stating plainly: this is a fish that can be caught, photographed and still not confidently named. An angler on São Miguel recorded both a `blue wrasse` and a `female emerald wrasse` in one trip, which is exactly what somebody working from a modern guide and a pre-split field impression would report, and there is no way to tell from that account which fish was which.
So neither species is attached to any Azorean mark here. What is recorded instead is that both occur, that they are hard to separate, and that a source naming a colour is not naming a species.
In other respects it behaves as the small *Symphodus* do — shallow rock and weed, small invertebrates picked at close quarters, and a readiness to take a tiny bait that makes it a routine light-tackle capture.
Identification
No photograph of Blue wrasse has passed identity review yet, so none is shown. FishingHQ publishes a species photograph only once somebody has confirmed the animal in it against the species record’s own diagnostic features.
- Scientific name
- Symphodus caeruleus
- Family
- Labridae
- Water
- Saltwater
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Regions
- Western Europe
- A small, deep-bodied Symphodus of Macaronesian rock, reaching a FishBase maximum of 21.5 cm — slightly larger than the emerald wrasse.
- Blue-green to olive with darker mottling, the blue strongest on breeding males, from which the name comes.
- FishBase records it over 1 to 30 m and usually 5 to 15 m, a slightly wider band than the emerald wrasse's 5 to 15 m.
- Separating the two in the field is currently unreliable. Guides printed before the species were split describe one fish, and the split is recent enough that most photographs in circulation are not attributable.
- Both are short and deep-bodied, which separates them from the slim ornate and rainbow wrasses on the same ground.
Size
- Typical
- 9–16 cm
- Large
- 19 cm and over
Exceptional: FishBase records a maximum of 21.5 cm
Lifecycle and reproduction
Demersal and non-migratory over a depth range of 1 to 30 m and usually 5 to 15 m, recorded from Madeira, the Canary Islands and the Azores. Medium resilience.
Not documented on the FishBase record. Nest-building and guarding is general in Symphodus and is not asserted here about this species — which is the right caution for a fish separated from a congener recently enough that most of the published behaviour under the old name could belong to either.
Feeding and senses
Picks small crustaceans, molluscs and worms from rock and weed at close range over a small home area, and takes a small bait or soft plastic dropped beside cover readily.
Close-range daylight vision over shallow rock, working the same few metres of ground. Presentation into cover matters far more than distance.
Through the year
Resident year-round on shallow Macaronesian rock. Swell rather than season decides when the ground can be fished at all, which is the practical planning fact on every one of the three archipelagos it occupies: the calendar says nothing and the forecast says everything.
Distribution
Northeast Atlantic: Madeira, Canary Islands and the Azores Islands
This is a biological range — where the species occurs, not a prediction that you will catch one. To browse the fishing geography FishingHQ holds, start at fishing places.
Why anglers care
A routine light-rock-fishing capture on Macaronesian shallow rock, taken on tiny baits and soft plastics on small hooks. Its significance to a catalogue is methodological rather than sporting: it is the clearest case here of a fish that can be caught and photographed and still not confidently named, and of why a report naming a colour cannot be treated as naming a species.
Handling and returning
Small, soft and easily damaged, and carrying nothing that will injure a hand. Wet hands, crushed barbs on the smallest hooks, unhook in the water where possible, and return it immediately rather than holding it for a photograph on warm rock.
Where to go next
Similar and related fish
Where it lives
More fish
Not related to this page — just the rest of the section. There is little else joined to this subject yet, and a short page should still lead somewhere.
Sources and evidence
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Family, maximum size, depth range, environment, distribution and the IUCN assessment for Symphodus caeruleus.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature (Conservation authority)Relied on for: The Least Concern assessment for Symphodus caeruleus, assessed 15 March 2015.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Marine fishes of the Azores: an annotated checklist and bibliography — Santos, Porteiro & Barreiros — Arquipélago, Life and Marine Sciences, Supplement 1, University of the Azores, 1997 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: That this species is recorded from the Azores, and the Portuguese and Azorean vernacular names the checklist gives it.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Why the 2 connections on this page are here, and the sources
Similar and related fish
Backed by research — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Emerald wrasse
Symphodus trutta and Symphodus caeruleus are both listed by FishBase from Madeira, the Canaries and the Azores, over overlapping depth bands of 5 to 15 m and 1 to 30 m. The 1997 Azores annotated checklist has an account for Centrolabrus trutta and none for caeruleus, because the split came later — so guides printed before it describe one fish where there are now two.
- Marine fishes of the Azores: an annotated checklist and bibliography — Santos, Porteiro & Barreiros — Arquipélago, Life and Marine Sciences, Supplement 1, University of the Azores, 1997 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: Which species are recorded from the Azores, their Portuguese and Azorean vernacular names, and the published synonyms and misidentifications for each.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: The morphology, size, depth range and distribution that separate these species from one another.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Where it lives
Backed by research — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Rocky shores and reefs
Recorded as demersal and non-migratory over a depth range of 1 to 30 m and usually 5 to 15 m, from Madeira, the Canary Islands and the Azores.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Environment, depth range, habitat association and distribution for Symphodus caeruleus.States this directlyPassage read and verified
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