Experiences with Naoko's Wrasse - Cirrhilabrus naokoae

[OrionN]

About 1 month after the last picture, on 10/29/2019, my beautiful Naoko Fairy jumped out. That morning I was in a hurry, mixed up the tank morning food like always, removed the lid to hang the nori, and dump the food into the tank. I t really did not take more than 10-15 seconds. Close the lid and though nothing of it. I found him above the screen at the end of the day when I got home from work.

Last picture I have of him alive on 10/13/2019

 

[OrionN]

Near the end of 3/2020 I got my third Naoko Fairy. I hope he will have a long life in my tank and died of old age instead of meet an accidental death like the last one. For sure every time I open the lid, I open it from the top now and survey the entire surface of the led when I close it. The last Naoko's death was so senseless that it cause me to have this habit.
Pictures of him with mouth open and both pelvic fins in the same position are pictures in AM when he just stretching out. Picture with mouth close and pelvic fins stagger one in front of the other, more intense colors are picture of him flashing. This wrasse is soooo fasssst that it is extremely difficult to get good picture of him flashing.
When he is flashing, there is no black on the white and yellow part of his body. Hard to see but the colors are so vivid. The tail is silver-blue and black when he is flashing. Very striking. How beautiful this wrasse is, and how often he flash is the reason I tried so hard to keep one in my tank. I really hope that he will have a full life in my tank. Certainly I will not have him jump out.

Naoko are not aggressive in my tank. Please note that my tank is large, 320 DT, with a large number of wrasse. YMMV in smaller tanks with fewer wrasse. List of my fishes can be found on my build thread, posted on 4/4/2020.
In QT 3/31/2020

In DT 4/7/2020

4/13/2020

4/24/2020

5/3/2020

5/9/2020

 

[reef lover]

Beautiful! May he live a long and healthy life!

 

[OrionN]

My Naoko Fairy wrasse is doing really well. He is a joy to watch. Not too aggressive, small but hold his own. Here he is displaying with my Exquisite wrasse, another really nice wrasse IMO.

 

[JohnGP]

Glad your Naoko is doing well in your tank. I have a Solon in my 140 and would like to try an Equisite, Ruby Head and/or a Naoko but afraid I might run into trouble. I love my Solon but know they have a tendency to not get along with other Fairy Wrasse.

 

[fishlover1478]

do you think they would have an issue with a blue flasher wrasse and a possum wrasse?

 

[OrionN]

do you think they would have an issue with a blue flasher wrasse and a possum wrasse?

I think it have to do with the size of the tank. They should not bother the possum. Blue flasher should not cause problem either unless it is a small tank. WA guess less than 120

 

[fishlover1478]

I think it have to do with the size of the tank. They should not bother the possum. Blue flasher should not cause problem either unless it is a small tank. WA guess less than 120

the tank is a 75

 

[OrionN]

I think you don't want to have a Naoko fairy in a 75 gal tank. They can be aggressive in small tank like that. If you do decide to get one, please post your experiences.
Good luck.

 

[ReeferBean]

I used to have one, it was rather aggressive.

 

[Aliciahawkins1]

Gorgeous fish, love the china wrasse too

Mine is a big scared baby

 

[salmonte2]

My LFS had the Naoko's Fairy Wrasse a while ago. Searching on the temperament of this wrasse, there were not a lot of information out there. Certainly not a lot of first hand experience, but many people seem to think that this is a fairly aggressive, but small fairy wrasse. I have a large tank and most of my fishes are not on the timid side so I decided to give it a go.
He is a very beautiful wrasse, very fast and difficult to take pictures of. I have to empty my bag of tricks before I got a good picture of him.
So far, after 4 weeks, I have not find him to be as aggressive as indicated by my research. I have him in my temp QT reef, a 40 gal breeder, with a pair of WC A. percula, an Eightline Flasher juvenile (1.5 inches) and a China (A. neoguinaicus) wrasse (2 inches). The five fish get along great, there is no problem. The Eightline was in the system for about 6 weeks and the China Wrasse for the last 10 days.
My plan is to fatten up all the three wrasses and release them to the DT sometime in the near future.
I am not certain I will release the Eightline to my DT since I already have a terminal Eightline flasher in there. My DT is a 320 gal tank, about 100 gal (75 gal in the sump) sump. My plan is to fatten them up before release. All five fishes are eating frozen Mysis, flakes and Otohime pellets well. No problem They getting feed 5-6 times a day. Frozen and flakes in AM, 4 autofeed and sometime frozen and flakes in evening. All are getting fatter. The China Wrasse still have some weight gain to go but I think I will release them in 2 weeks.

This is such a beautiful fish, hopefully he will live long in my DT. Update regularly just to let everybody know how aggressive, or timid he is in my tank.

Now for the pictures:
All 5 fishes in QT

And here is the beautiful Naoko Fairy Wrasse

they are very peaceful and not afraid of you at all, you can even touch it

 

[salmonte2]

My LFS had the Naoko's Fairy Wrasse a while ago. Searching on the temperament of this wrasse, there were not a lot of information out there. Certainly not a lot of first hand experience, but many people seem to think that this is a fairly aggressive, but small fairy wrasse. I have a large tank and most of my fishes are not on the timid side so I decided to give it a go.
He is a very beautiful wrasse, very fast and difficult to take pictures of. I have to empty my bag of tricks before I got a good picture of him.
So far, after 4 weeks, I have not find him to be as aggressive as indicated by my research. I have him in my temp QT reef, a 40 gal breeder, with a pair of WC A. percula, an Eightline Flasher juvenile (1.5 inches) and a China (A. neoguinaicus) wrasse (2 inches). The five fish get along great, there is no problem. The Eightline was in the system for about 6 weeks and the China Wrasse for the last 10 days.
My plan is to fatten up all the three wrasses and release them to the DT sometime in the near future.
I am not certain I will release the Eightline to my DT since I already have a terminal Eightline flasher in there. My DT is a 320 gal tank, about 100 gal (75 gal in the sump) sump. My plan is to fatten them up before release. All five fishes are eating frozen Mysis, flakes and Otohime pellets well. No problem They getting feed 5-6 times a day. Frozen and flakes in AM, 4 autofeed and sometime frozen and flakes in evening. All are getting fatter. The China Wrasse still have some weight gain to go but I think I will release them in 2 weeks.

This is such a beautiful fish, hopefully he will live long in my DT. Update regularly just to let everybody know how aggressive, or timid he is in my tank.

Now for the pictures:
All 5 fishes in QT

And here is the beautiful Naoko Fairy Wrasse

 

[Zionas]

Any updates?

 

[OrionN]

Mine is doing great. No problem at all.

 

[martinelias1983]

Just got one of these today, together with a katherines fairy wrasse. I thought my bluehead wrasse was going to be an issue since he is kind of the top dog in the tank currently but when he investigated them both they quickly drove him off. That in mind the naoko was quick to charge at the katherines for a while before retrieving into a rock. Hope that aggression doesnt last long.

 

[Smite]

Just got one of these today, together with a katherines fairy wrasse. I thought my bluehead wrasse was going to be an issue since he is kind of the top dog in the tank currently but when he investigated them both they quickly drove him off. That in mind the naoko was quick to charge at the katherines for a while before retrieving into a rock. Hope that aggression doesnt last long.

How are they doing? I'm about the QT both of these fish. I'm digging through all of my old PVC hoarding fittings to give plenty of hiding places incase there is aggression.

 

[i cant think]

I have owned two naoko fairy wrasses, my first one jumped into the old lid and it was a stiff mesh lid and gave him a spinal injury, now I have another in my nano (Grow-Out) with a blue star leopard and a cryptic sixline, with the old scape on the tank he did flash at the cryptic sixline but it never affected them. Now he just chills on the top of the tank and round the rocks. My favourite fish by far, he did try make it into the sump (He managed it and I eventually got him out). He’s about 1.5” and probably won’t go into my 4’ DT until he’s Atleast 2.5” depending on if he starts to panick in that tank before he gets 2.5”. The blue star will hopefully go into the DT with him, neither of them are aggressive but the wrasse in my DT are supposed to be aggressive (C. melanomarginatus & H. chloropterus) the jade will be gone before they go in though, I would love an Australian Scott’s but fear it would ruin my lovely “pair” of Lubbock’s (Both male variants).

 

[Zionas]

Many fairy wrasses are pretty, but they just don’t live long enough for me, are too skittish, and also most are sold when they’re already adults. Which further reduces the amount of time you have with them.

 

[i cant think]

Many fairy wrasses are pretty, but they just don’t live long enough for me, are too skittish, and also most are sold when they’re already adults. Which further reduces the amount of time you have with them.

If I could find female naokoae that would be one of the things Id go for, I found mine as a transitioning male but if I could find two females and a 7’ tank in 1-2 years, I would gladly get two females, this aggressive behaviour they get given isn’t true most of the time, I’ve owned two and both were peaceful but the first was one for swimming.