Do possum Wrasse play possum?

[exnisstech]

I've had this yellow banded possum wrasse for over 1.5 yrs. I had him in a smaller tank 24x20x20 the entire time. I never really saw the fish much. It just sort of hung out in the rocks and only came out to eat. @i cant think stated he thought maybe I wasn't watching the tank enough to see the fishes true personality. That got me to think about things and I decided maybe the tank wasn't really laid out for the fish. Rock work was limited and a large blue haddoni occupies a large amount of space. I decided to move the wrasse out to my 7ft tank half expecting to never see it again. The video shows him the day after being added. I thought he was dying but noticed small movements backhand forth. It made me think of a possum when they play dead. My dog caught one a week ago and they do in fact play dead. The dog was no longer interested and the possum walked off later. So I guess this is my long winded way of asking are they called possum wrasse because they play possum? Is this normal behavior? The next day I found the rock he has chosen to hang out under and the fish looks fine.

 

[i cant think]

I've had this yellow banded possum wrasse for over 1.5 yrs. I had him in a smaller tank 24x20x20 the entire time. I never really saw the fish much. It just sort of hung out in the rocks and only came out to eat. @i cant think stated he thought maybe I wasn't watching the tank enough to see the fishes true personality. That got me to think about things and I decided maybe the tank wasn't really laid out for the fish. Rock work was limited and a large blue haddoni occupies a large amount of space. I decided to move the wrasse out to my 7ft tank half expecting to never see it again. The video shows him the day after being added. I thought he was dying but noticed small movements backhand forth. It made me think of a possum when they play dead. My dog caught one a week ago and they do in fact play dead. The dog was no longer interested and the possum walked off later. So I guess this is my long winded way of asking are they called possum wrasse because they play possum? Is this normal behavior? The next day I found the rock he has chosen to hang out under and the fish looks fine.

Yep! All wrasses love to play dead - it’s quite interesting to watch how different species do this though.

 

[exnisstech]

Yep! All wrasses love to play dead - it’s quite interesting to watch how different species do this though.

Thanks. I thought it may be normal but wanted to be sure. I think the fish will be much better in the larger tank.

 

[i cant think]

Thanks. I thought it may be normal but wanted to be sure. I think the fish will be much better in the larger tank.

He absolutely will - you may even find you’ll see him a bit more frequently.

 

[ladz]

While performing a tank move I couldn’t find my possum wrasse for 5 minutes after removing everything. There it was perfectly still laying vertically next to the flipper magnet.

 

[BPCGuy]

My Yellow Banded Possum Wrasse, Zippy, plays dead when he is caught in a net. Only seen it twice. He also jumped into the overflow once and seemed to be playing dead. He is perfectly fine now, going on 4 years old which I understand is quite old.