The males in terminal phase have a body colour which is salmon-pink to orange towards the head, with 2 horizontal series of green rectangles with their long sides on the vertical with each fourth pair of the upper series extending to create a single green bar across the male's back.

[2] It is a carnivorous species which feeds on a variety of small invertebrates such as crabs, molluscs and brittle stars.

[1] They are oviparous and the male and female pair up to spawn,[2] once the eggs hatch the larval stage lasts from 60–99 days.

[1] The Christmas wrasse was first formally described as Labrus trilobatus in 1801 by the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède (1756–1825) with the type locality given as Mauritius.

[4] The Christmas wrasse is a commercially important species in the aquarium trade,[1] although it grows too large for most home aquaria.