[2] The species is found throughout the tropical waters of the western Atlantic Ocean from Florida to Brazil, including Bermuda Islands, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico.

[1] This wrasse lives in groups, aggregating on coral reef slopes, down to around 100 m (330 ft) in depth.

These groups feed on plankton, including small jellyfish, pteropods,[3] pelagic tunicates, and invertebrate larvae.

[4] The creole wrasse is active by day, and at night it retreats alone to a rocky crevice in the reef to sleep.

The creole wrasse was first formally described in 1801 as Brama parrae by Marcus Elieser Bloch & Johann Gottlob Schneider.