Base colour varies, but always with five pale/yellow patches along the back which usually extend onto the dorsal fin. Sometimes additional light patch on shoulder behind head and on upper tail base, and 2-3 light streaks on the anal fin. Juveniles highly variable in colour and extremely similar to juvenile N. tetricus (blue-throat wrasse), but lacking any dark vertical bars, and usually with red to orange outer eye.

• Max Size: 38 cm
• Sea Temperature Range: 10.4-21.4°C
• Depth: 1 - 90 m
• Habitat: Rocky Reef
• Habitat Generalisation Index: 27.1
  Also referred to as the SGI (Species generalisation index), this describes the habitat niche breadth of the species. Species with values less than 15 are found in a relatively narrow range of reef habitat types (specialists), while those over 25 may be found on most hard substrates within their range (generalists). Learn more here

• Threats: Exploitation
• IUCN Threat Status: Least Concern
• Occurrence: Widespread (50% of sites)
  Occurrence describes how often the species is found on surveys within its distribution. It is calculated as the % of reef sites surveyed by RLS divers across all the ecoregions in which the species has been observed
• Abundance: Few (4 per transect)
  Abundance is calculated as the average number of individuals recorded per RLS transect, where present.