Keeping weight on hyperactive wrasse

Fishfreak2009 · Feb 27, 2020

Any suggestions to help keep weight on a hyperactive wrasse?

Wrasse in question is a 5" male Stethojulis balteata. Initially lost a little weight when added to my 110 (4'x18"x23") tank, but after I upped the feedings to 4-5x daily has not lost any more but is also not gaining any back. Hyperactive fish that never stops moving but doesnt bother any other inhabitants (not even the sexy shrimp or anemone shrimp). Scoops mouthfulls of sand pretty regularly, and voraciously eats formula 1 flake, NLS pellets, and a variety of frozen (fish eggs, shredded octopus and clam meat, rods food breeder blend, PE mysis, etc) as well as regular additions of homegrown Tigriopus, Apocyclops, and Tisbe copepods.

Edit: I will add that this fish was freshwater dipped and I treated the display with 2 rounds of prazi pro as I did not want him banging around in a bare bottom 40 breeder quarantine.

Lasse · Feb 28, 2020

It looks like a pretty good feed wrasse to me. Why do you want it to gain more weight?

Sincerely Lasse

evolved · Feb 28, 2020

Unfortunately, the whole Stethojulis genus isn't really suited for aquaria, and why you rarely see them in tanks. It's for this very reason you're asking - in order to offer them enough food, you'd need to constantly flog the water column with food to the point of polluting the tank.

I'm yet to see someone couple large continuous water changes with the heavy feedings a fish like this needs - and that could hold promise for someone committed. Otherwise I'm afraid the outlook is bleak.

Fishfreak2009 · Mar 1, 2020

evolved said:
Unfortunately, the whole Stethojulis genus isn't really suited for aquaria, and why you rarely see them in tanks. It's for this very reason your asking - in order to offer them enough food, you'd need to constantly flog the water column with food to the point of polluting the tank.

I'm yet to see someone couple large continuous water changes with the heavy feedings a fish like this needs - and that could hold promise for someone committed. Otherwise I'm afraid the outlook is bleak.

Realizing that now... unfortunarely he has steadily lost weight over the past week, even with me bumping feedings up to 6x daily (2 feedings of flake/nls pellets which he eats quite well and 4 feedings of various frozen foods which he also eats very well). Have done 2 40 gallon water changes this week to keep nitrates down but still continues to lose weight. Has also started taking mouth fulls of substrate and spitting them all over the rockwork and corals as he zooms around the tank. Still hasn't touched the sexy shrimp or any of the other inverts though.

OrionN · Mar 1, 2020

I would use automatic feeders (I use 2 feeders) and feed pellets 8 times a day. I essentially feed my tank pellets, small amount every hour. Frozen and flakes AM and PM. Automatic pellets every hr during the day. I also drop a frozen oyster split in 1/2 into the tank every morning, and one 10X10 sheet of Nori on clips.
Dry food, pellets and flakes are most concentrate in term of energy content. I would concentrate on feeding a good pellets if he can eat pellets well.
My most active wrasse is my Anampses neoguinaicus. I am sure this wrasse is not as active as your S. balteata, but he is always full during the day.

I don't have a Stethojulis balteata but none of my fish are thin. In fact I think my PBT will have cardiac arrest anytime now. I do change 50 gal of my ~400 gal system every week.

eatbreakfast · Mar 2, 2020

The only time I've seen Stethojulis do well is in very large, established tanks. They eat detritus that settles on the rockwork.

Fishfreak2009 · Mar 2, 2020

I'm going to add the autofeeders later this week, but in the meantime I will bump feedings up. My wife and I work opposite shifts so we can feed pretty frequently through the day, but even so he is getting pretty thin now. All the other fish are what I would consider very overweight, including the leopard wrasses, the sixline wrasse, the anthias, and all of the dwarf angels.