All About Reef Safe Wrasses in Aquaria

[OrionN]

What do you think about q Labout fairy with smaller and docile Fairies and Flashers? Lately my Labouti have been a PITA. Yesterday PM as I was leaving for the weekend he terrorized all the wrasses and chased them all into the rock. The only grace here is there were to many other wrasses and he did not concentrate of any one of them, but chase all of them.
If this keep up, I will have to take him out and stir fry him

 

[Tanggy]

What is the best auto feeder to use with tiny pellets? I have been training my fish to eat pellets and able to do with with good success. I never use feeder in my 30 years of marine fish keeping.
I am sure some of the veterans wrasse keeper use feeder. What is it that some of you use?

Orion, How are you training your wrasse to eat pellets? Thanks. I've been trying to give them flakes/small pellets with no luck. Thanks...

 

[OrionN]

I just mixed all the food together and gradually increase the portion that I want them to eat from small at first to equal portions. Once they start to eat but still prefer frozen, at the end of the day when they are hungry, first feeding when I get home I just feed pellets. Being hungry they will go after and eat the pellets.

To get them to eat pellets, once one eat, it is a case of monkey see monkey do, they all start to eat in a few days

 

[OrionN]

My Ehime auto feeder will come next week. They will get pellets through out the day then.

 

[evolved]

What do you think about q Labout fairy with smaller and docile Fairies and Flashers? Lately my Labouti have been a PITA. Yesterday PM as I was leaving for the weekend he terrorized all the wrasses and chased them all into the rock. The only grace here is there were to many other wrasses and he did not concentrate of any one of them, but chase all of them.
If this keep up, I will have to take him out and stir fry him

Yes, sometimes the species can turn into a bully. It sounds like yours has I'm afraid. It might be too much for new additions.

Orion, How are you training your wrasse to eat pellets? Thanks. I've been trying to give them flakes/small pellets with no luck. Thanks...

NLS pellets work great on them.

 

[OrionN]

I got this little McCoskeri from the LFS at the end of last week. He is very small, only slightly longer than 1 inch, but already clearly show that he is a male. Do they change that early? I have not keep these wrasse for a long time, and have never seen them in the wild so I don't know. He is doing very well in my 40 gal QT, by himself. I have added all the fish I QT in DT.
Cruising in the first picture and eating in the second picture.

 

[eatbreakfast]

I got this little McCoskeri from the LFS at the end of last week. He is very small, only slightly longer than 1 inch, but already clearly show that he is a male. Do they change that early? I have not keep these wrasse for a long time, and have never seen them in the wild so I don't know. He is doing very well in my 40 gal QT, by himself. I have added all the fish I QT in DT.
Cruising in the first picture and eating in the second picture.

They can change quite early, depending on the social circumstances.

 

[paphater]

I won an auction of a trio of female flame wrasses. My tank is an 8' 200 gallon, should I keep all three or keep 1 and sell the other two locally? I know it has been said trios rarely ever work out.

 

[HairyGary]

I won an auction of a trio of female flame wrasses. My tank is an 8' 200 gallon, should I keep all three or keep 1 and sell the other two locally? I know it has been said trios rarely ever work out.

Congrats on the win! Tank might be big enough and they will probably get along as females until the hierarchy forms. My LFS has a 220 cubish tank with two in it but as the smaller female turned submale, He has now dominated the terminal male to the point the terminal male hides (buts eats) and is almost all white. So I suspect I would expect the same. If I were you I would sell two or trade for a couple of other wrasse. Great fish an better when they are added young. I would just keep one for the sake of less headaches and removal down the road.

 

[eatbreakfast]

I won an auction of a trio of female flame wrasses. My tank is an 8' 200 gallon, should I keep all three or keep 1 and sell the other two locally? I know it has been said trios rarely ever work out.

Keep 1 and sell 2, then get more wrasses.

 

[evolved]

^ I concur with both of them.

 

[Makers Marc]

Wrasse-perts:

I'm in the final wave of my stocking which will focus on wrasses. Please advise on order of introduction, dynamics, etc.

Tank = 180g
Current stock list = 12 fish
Current wrasse = Female Bipartitus only

My 20g QT is empty and available, ideally would like to QT them all together if possible.

Wrasses I want:
- Radiant Wrasse
- Melanurus (male)
- Potters Leopard Wrasse
- Yellow Tail Tamarin
- flame/isoceles fairy wrasse (last one jumped out when I removed the cover cor cleaning

Things to know:

1. I read almost every page on the tamarin and leopard wrasse primer

2. IF all fish were available, I would QT the Tamarin and Potters by itself first.

 

[Makers Marc]

Wrasse-perts:

I'm in the final wave of my stocking which will focus on wrasses. Please advise on order of introduction, dynamics, etc.

Tank = 180g
Current stock list = 12 fish
Current wrasse = Female Bipartitus only

My 20g QT is empty and available, ideally would like to QT them all together if possible.

Wrasses I want:
- Radiant Wrasse
- Melanurus (male)
- Potters Leopard Wrasse
- Yellow Tail Tamarin
- flame/isoceles fairy wrasse (last one jumped out when I removed the cover cor cleaning

Things to know:

1. I read almost every page on the tamarin and leopard wrasse primer

2. IF all fish were available, I would QT the Tamarin and Potters by itself first.

Forgot to add. Since I've been waiting for a Potters for 6 months with no luck, the quickest stocking route is to just buy a large male Melanurus and radiant since they are avaialble.

But would I be able to intro the potters or tamarin after? My reading says most likely the male Melanurus wont let them.

Btw, the only Melanurus I want is a large Male. I have enough small fish on my tank.

 

[paphater]

I saw a potters on DD the other day. Spendy guy though but you may want to watch to see if anymore pop up.

 

[Makers Marc]

I saw that it popped up at 5pm cst. It was gone by 505pm. That was the one day I didn't read the teaser email SMH

I saw a potters on DD the other day. Spendy guy though but you may want to watch to see if anymore pop up.

 

[paphater]

Yeah I was ready to pounce on it but not for $200.

 

[Jeremy K.A.]

Are there any reef safe wrasses that would be okay in a 10 gallon tank with a reef lobster? Probably rhetorical, but want to check

 

[saltyhog]

I don't think even a Wetmorella would be appropriate for a 10 gallon.

 

[Sashaka]

Would be cool to get pictures of the wrasse next to their section at the end.

Great write up on wrasses, evolved. I agree about the pictures adding a visual clarification.

Thank you for providing this great resource.

 

[eatbreakfast]

Wrasse-perts:

I'm in the final wave of my stocking which will focus on wrasses. Please advise on order of introduction, dynamics, etc.

Tank = 180g
Current stock list = 12 fish
Current wrasse = Female Bipartitus only

My 20g QT is empty and available, ideally would like to QT them all together if possible.

Wrasses I want:
- Radiant Wrasse
- Melanurus (male)
- Potters Leopard Wrasse
- Yellow Tail Tamarin
- flame/isoceles fairy wrasse (last one jumped out when I removed the cover cor cleaning

Things to know:

1. I read almost every page on the tamarin and leopard wrasse primer

2. IF all fish were available, I would QT the Tamarin and Potters by itself first.

Melanurus last. Beyond that the order doesn't matter much.

Are there any reef safe wrasses that would be okay in a 10 gallon tank with a reef lobster? Probably rhetorical, but want to check

10g is borderline for a Wetmorella or pink streak wrasse. But I wouldn't trust a reef lobster with any fish in that small of a tank.