Symphodus caeruleus is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a wrasse from the family Labridae.

Symphodus caeruleus is a larger species of wrasse than any of its sympatric congeners in the Azores and it has differing meristic counts.

[2] The females are an overall brownish colour, fading ventrally, with a chequered pattern of dark brown spotting on the body.

The terminal phase males are dark greenish=blue, becoming bluer in the breeding season, with paler fins and a pattern of darker spots similar to that of the females.

Later studies showed that this species was not as closely related to the rock cook as thought and it was placed in the genus Symphodus.