How to Identify a Slippery Dick Fish

Video Transcript

"The marine organism we're going to identify now is the slippery dick wrasse. The slippery dick is a member of the wrasse family of fishes. As is typical of most wrasses, the slippery dick is numerous color phases, which often make it a challenge to identify. The only thing the various color phases have in common is that the fish is always cigar shaped and spends most of the time searching for food near the bottom. Juvenile slippery dicks start out as a white fish with a dark horizontal mid-body stripe that runs from the nose, through the eye, all the way to the tail. Some may have a second stripe near their belly but this is often absent. Intermediate phase slippery dicks can have a wide variety of color schemes ranging from green to medium brown. The distinguishing characteristics of all, however, are the presence of the dark mid-body stripe running from the nose to the base of the tail and a second stripe that may be much fainter, to almost absent, running from below the mouth toward the tail. The also have a small bi-colored spot just above the pectoral fin and just behind the gill cover but good luck in spotting that distinguishing mark, as the fish swims quickly just over the sand and coral. The terminal phase slippery dick also has this tiny marking as well as the dark mid-body stripe. They are generally some shade of green with yellow, brown or pink markings. The terminal phase slippery dick also has dark triangular corners on their tails. Slippery dicks are usually found in the sandy areas around coral reefs at depth ranging from a few feet to a maximum of about forty to fifty feet. They are constantly moving and usually moving rather quickly. Juveniles and intermediate phase animals may be seen in small groups, while the terminal phase males are most often seen as solitary animals. They range in size from five to seven inches with a maximum size of nine inches. Slippery dicks are carnivores, they feed primarily on small fish and various gastropods, such as snails, as well as brittle stars, various types of sea worms, and small crabs. They can often be seen following bottom feeding fish, such as goat fish, waiting for the other fish to scare up a tasty morsel of food for them. Slippery dicks, like all wrasses, are protogynous hermaphrodites, this means that all the fish begin life as females and as they mature, they change to males. Terminal phase males usually gather in a specific area, before spawning, forming what are called glex. They do this to demonstrate their male prowess and to attract females for spawning. They are pelagic or open water spawner's, which means the males and the females swim above the reef together and release their gametes simultaneously. The fertilized eggs then drift through the currents until they hatch. That's the slippery dick wrasse."