Pastel Ring Wrasse

Hologymnosus doliatus has a long, slender body covered with small scales, although it has a naked head. The males are bluish-green to pale reddish marked with lavender bars, they have a pale band to the rear of the pectoral fin and orange lines mark the head. Females are bluish, greenish or greyish and have 20-23 orange bars along their flanks with a bluish-black spot on the posterior edge of the gill cover. The juveniles are whitish in colour and have three thin orange-red stripes. The dorsal fin has 9 spines and 12 soft rays while the anal fin has 3 spines and 12 soft rays. They can grow to a length of 50 centimetres (20 in).

Hologymnosus doliatus is found in the Indian and Pacific Oceans from East Africa to South Africa east to Samoa and the Line Islands, north to Japan and south to the Great Barrier Reef, Lord Howe Island and New Caledonia. In Western Australia it reaches as far south as Ningaloo Reef.