Lemon meringue wrasse

About

The canarytop wrasse (Halichoeres leucoxanthus) is one of those fish that looks almost too neat, like someone drew a straight line down its side and painted the top half yellow and the bottom half white. That crisp contrast is what earns it nicknames like lemon meringue wrasse and whitebelly wrasse, and it makes identification pretty straightforward even among the notoriously confusing Halichoeres genus. In the wild this species inhabits Indo-Pacific reef environments, where it spends most of its time picking through sandy substrate and rubble areas hunting small invertebrates, crustaceans, and worms. That foraging behavior translates well to aquarium life. Give it a sand bed to sift through and it will stay busy and active throughout the day. Like most wrasses in this genus, it appreciates a deep enough sand layer to dive into when startled or when the lights go out, since burying itself to sleep is completely natural behavior you should expect and accommodate. It gets along reasonably well with other community reef fish but may pick at small ornamental shrimp and tiny invertebrates, so plan your tankmates accordingly. This is a rewarding fish for intermediate keepers who have a little wrasse experience under their belt.