Flame wrasses

[mredwin25]

Added a pair of flame wrasses to my tank today, pricey little guys. Tank had a rosey scale and a lubbock wrasse. The male flame went in a corner and stays on the sandbed. Female goes next to him and swims around him I guess trying to get his attention. He comes up, eats and swims fine for a couple of minutes and goes right back to the corner. Is this normal behavior?
Rosey was going in the corner and laying next to him, I found that strange and removed the rosey just in case he was trying to intimidate him.
Any opinions?

 

[Gareth elliott]

Added a pair of flame wrasses to my tank today, pricey little guys. Tank had a rosey scale and a lubbock wrasse. The male flame went in a corner and stays on the sandbed. Female goes next to him and swims around him I guess trying to get his attention. He comes up, eats and swims fine for a couple of minutes and goes right back to the corner. Is this normal behavior?
Rosey was going in the corner and laying next to him, I found that strange and removed the rosey just in case he was trying to intimidate him.
Any opinions?

Wrasses are not really pair forming fish, like clowns, cardinals or butterflies. The female will eventually become a male and fight the other male for dominance. In a home aquaria there is not really enough space to keep a harem successfully where the loser of these battles can roam away.

 

[mredwin25]

Wrasses are not really pair forming fish, like clowns, cardinals or butterflies. The female will eventually become a male and fight the other male for dominance. In a home aquaria there is not really enough space to keep a harem successfully where the loser of these battles can roam away.

understood but right now they are a male and a female. Do you know if the behavior I mentioned above is normal?

 

[Tom Blevins]

Nice, we have a pair and neither one wants to be the male and all fish matter;), can I ask where did you find them I have been after
a Super Male forever!

 

[Gareth elliott]

understood but right now they are a male and a female. Do you know if the behavior I mentioned above is normal?

Wrasses are not coy about their displeasure of another ime. If this was aggression you would see one of two things.
One wrasse relentlessly chasing the other, fin damage likely.
Both stand their ground at first, mouth or head damage, then fin damage to the loser.

I honestly am not sure how the mating occurs tbh, i think they water column spawners, female releases eggs male fertilizes as they float away, it could be how the female alerts the male she wants to release? But thats guess work.

 

[ngoodermuth]

It’s normal for a new fairy wrasse to act that way, they will get more outgoing as they settle in. Males are generally a little more sensitive to shipping and handling stress than females.

I’d give him time, offer small amounts of food frequently.

And I’ll +1 to the pair likely not staying a pair for long. I had a trio of female flame wrasses, and ended with one super male and two transitioning males before I started selling them.

'Pairing' Wrasses: That's Not How Any of this Works!
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?sh...t-How-Any-of-this-Works!.258310/&share_type=t

 

[mredwin25]

got them locally in so. florida, lfs owner had them for his tank but ended up selling to me

 

[mredwin25]

Gonna wait and monitor closely, will report back

 

[eatbreakfast]

Laying down for a day or 2 is normal, but anything beyond speaks to a bigger problem.

Also going to echo that the male and female will not work out longterm.

 

[mredwin25]

update: happy to report he’s out and eating normal, still a bit shy but I’m so happy.