Is this normal for a Red Corris Wrasse?

SDudge

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I have had a red corris wrasse for almost a year. I bought it really small, about 1inch. When I added it to the tank there was quite a lot of aggression towards it, so it stayed in the sand almost constantly for 2 weeks.

While I moved some of the aggressors on and the wrasse started to come out more I noticed it had changed from its normal orange/red colour's to almost black. I thought it was just a result of the stress and would correct itself.

Fast forward almost a year, wrasse has almost tripled in size and has a really beautiful blue stripe on its belly which I assume is it starting to transition. However, it is still almost jet black.

Just interested why that may be, is that normal for this fish?

Pictures show fish under whites as well as blues.

20260218_134014.jpg 20260218_133548.jpg 20260218_134052.jpg
 

Gumbies R Us

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Zach136378

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That’s not a red coris wrasse it’s a Formosa wrasse. Red coris wrasse have a whole orange body and the Formosa have. A brownish orange which eventually turns into a blackish brown color as seen in the photo
 
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SDudge

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That’s not a red coris wrasse it’s a Formosa wrasse. Red coris wrasse have a whole orange body and the Formosa have. A brownish orange which eventually turns into a blackish brown color as seen in the photo
Dang. Never heard of that before. Definetely looks like what I have. Cant imagine it being happy for too much longer in my 100G..
 

Zach136378

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they do get huge in the wild about 18 inches in aquariums i have never really heard of one over 11 inches I would say your fine untill about 7 inches
 

Waters

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Yeah, he will very quickly outgrow a 100 gallon unfortunately....not to mention how destructive they can become lol. My red coris is like a tornado knocking over rocks and throwing sand everywhere all day long.
 

Zach136378

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Yh I returned my Formosa wrasse for that reason just kept tipping over decently large rocks
 

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I have an adult Formosa wrasse. This beauty should come with a warning label. As adults, they are not reef-safe. They will not eat the corals, but they will destroy them by tossing them around. They move rocks 20 times their weight and rearrange the entire sandbed. The display will always look milky. It's a nightmare. I just ordered a fishtrap to remove mine.
 

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SDudge

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I will never own another red corris wrasse, they are very disruptive to the sand dwelling corals. Killed two very expensive corals and cost me $200 to have removed, since I couldn't get a fish trap to work.
Yeah, not a mistake I fancy making again. How did you get it removed in the end? I have a feeling that I'll need to take everything out of the tank and then net him.
 
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SDudge

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I have an adult Formosa wrasse. This beauty should come with a warning label. As adults, they are not reef-safe. They will not eat the corals, but they will destroy them by tossing them around. They move rocks 20 times their weight and rearrange the entire sandbed. The display will always look milky. It's a nightmare. I just ordered a fishtrap to remove mine.
Fingers crossed the fish trap works. I think I need to act fast. The white body and black spots are starting to show on mine so not long before he's flipping rocks around my tank!
 

BryanM

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Yeah, not a mistake I fancy making again. How did you get it removed in the end? I have a feeling that I'll need to take everything out of the tank and then net him.
I tried lots of things, in the end I paid a company $200, they removed about 1/2 my rock, and used a plastic stick to find him in the sand, took 3 times to finally catch him, took about an hour.
 

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