Emerald wrasse
Fish · Last reviewed 2026-08-25
A small Macaronesian wrasse of the Azores, Madeira and the Canaries — and half of a species pair whose boundary moved after most field guides were printed.
*Symphodus trutta* is a compact little wrasse of Macaronesian rock, recorded by FishBase from the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands over a narrow depth band of 5 to 15 m, reaching 18 cm. The Azores checklist gives it `bodião verde` and `maracoto`.
It is worth reading alongside its own record and its neighbour's, because the two together are an honest example of a boundary that is still moving. The 1997 Azores checklist knows this species as *Centrolabrus trutta* and has no account for *Symphodus caeruleus*, which was separated later; FishBase now lists both from all three archipelagos. An angler working São Miguel in 2022 recorded catching an `emerald wrasse` and a `blue wrasse` on the same trip, and there is no safe way to map those two common names onto the two species from the report alone.
So both fish are described here, separately, and neither is claimed for any particular Azorean harbour — because a source naming a colour is not naming a species.
In the water it behaves as the small *Symphodus* do: it holds tight to rock and weed in shallow water, picks small invertebrates off the substrate, and takes a tiny bait or soft plastic dropped near cover. It is a species-hunter's fish and a beginner's fish and nothing else, which is a perfectly good reason to be able to name it.
Identification
No photograph of Emerald 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 trutta
- Family
- Labridae
- Water
- Saltwater
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Regions
- Western Europe, Mediterranean
- A small, compact Symphodus of Macaronesian rock, reaching a FishBase maximum of 18 cm.
- Greenish to olive-brown, the males brighter, with darker mottling and a pale belly.
- A narrow depth band: FishBase records it from 5 to 15 m, which is shallower and tighter than most of the wrasses it shares ground with.
- Separating it in the field from Symphodus caeruleus is genuinely unsettled — the two were treated as one species until recently and most printed guides predate the split.
- Distinguished from the ornate wrasse and the rainbow wrasse by shape rather than colour: it is short and deep-bodied where both of those are slim and cigar-shaped.
Size
- Typical
- 8–14 cm
- Large
- 16 cm and over
Exceptional: FishBase records a maximum of 18 cm
Lifecycle and reproduction
Reef-associated over a narrow depth range of 5 to 15 m across the Macaronesian archipelagos and the Mediterranean. High resilience. Its shallow band puts the whole of it within reach of a shore rod and a snorkel.
Not documented on the FishBase record for this species. Symphodus wrasses generally build and guard algal nests, and that is a genus-level statement rather than something established here — which matters more than usual for a fish whose species boundary was redrawn recently.
Feeding and senses
Picks small crustaceans, molluscs and worms from rock, weed and encrusting growth at close quarters, working over a small area rather than ranging. It takes a tiny bait or soft plastic dropped beside cover.
Close-range daylight sight over shallow rock. It works within a few metres of the same cover, so finding it is a matter of covering ground rather than of casting distance.
Through the year
Resident year-round on the same shallow rock. Access is decided by swell rather than season across all three archipelagos it occupies.
Distribution
Eastern Central Atlantic: known only from Azores, Madeira, and the Canary Islands. Mediterranean
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 light-rock-fishing and species-hunting capture on Macaronesian shallow rock, taken on the smallest baits and soft plastics on hooks of size 10 to 14. It has no value as food and is not fished for by anybody targeting size. Its real interest is that naming it correctly is currently harder than catching it.
Handling and returning
Small, soft and easily damaged, with nothing on it that will hurt a hand. Wet hands or none, crushed barbs on the smallest hooks, unhook in the water where it can be done, and return it at once — a wrasse of this size out of water on hot rock has minutes rather than hours.
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 trutta.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 trutta, assessed 17 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.
Blue 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 reef-associated over a depth range of 5 to 15 m and known only from the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands together with the Mediterranean.
- 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 trutta.States this directlyPassage read and verified
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