Thalassoma Quinquevittatum

Australasia Pavilion

I really like the lighting on the fish. It certainly helps make them glow. I just wish that area was much bigger and there were way more fish species.

Oh I dont know if you watch Animal Planet but theres a show on there about these guys who build amazing aquariums. Anyway they build aquariums for AZA institutions (found out in my latest issue of the AZA magazine), they should have done the reef for the zoo. It would have looked a billion times better.

This is not a Thalassoma, it's not even a Labrid, but a Scarid. Most likely Scarus festivus.

I don't want to start an argument, but the zoo's signage said this was a Thalassoma. Also I searched up Scarus festivus and it looked nothing like this fish.

You can only go by the signs. I googled both and it definitely doesnt look like a Scarus Festivus but it only kind of looks like a Thalassoma but that could be the angle the fish was at. Its not a perfect side shot like a lot of the google images.

Now Hix I dont know if you have been to the zoo but it doesnt have a ton of different species in the exhibit. The species it does have all look pretty different. I think it would be hard for Arcticwolf to mistake one fish for another. The zoos sign could be wrong but I'd guess at some point someone would have noticed the mistake on the sign. However it could be possible that its not been noticed.

I actually took a picture of the sign with all of the fish species in the Great Barrier Reef tank and this is what the zoo said this fish was. According to the sign, this species English name is the Lightning Wrasse, but when I searched it up, the lightning wrasse is a Caribbean fish that looks nothing like this.

Scarus vetula

That looks a little more like the species in the picture, but it's still not the same. Also, remember that this fish is in a Great Barrier Reef aquarium and Queen Parrotfish are from the Caribbean.

I would like to thank everyone for trying to help me find out what this species is.

I have seen and photographed Thalassoma quinquevittatum in the wild, and I think you'll find this is a Parrotfish, not a Wrasse. The body shape and beak confirm that (for me, at least). However, Parrotfish are notorious for their colour variation and I have a hard time telling some of them apart, so this may not be festivus, although it in my books it appeared closest to the image above.

Signs can also be wrong.



Hix

I agree with you that this species does look like a parrotfish and I know that the zoo's signs can be wrong. I just can't find a parrotfish species that looks like the one in the picture. Also, I don't know why the zoo would go through the effort to make a sign for this species if it has the wrong scientific name.