Melanurus Wrasses eating inverts

waterkat · Jul 30, 2025

My Melanurus Wrasses decided to eat all my snails, crabs and starfish. Could that be the reason why my phosphates are high?

Rocks reef · Jul 30, 2025

It can be a reason yes. Are you able to take out the shells? Reason being, is if there are remnants of the snails and crabs in the shells, the decaying process is raising your nutrients.

waterkat · Jul 30, 2025

Rocks reef said:
It can be a reason yes. Are you able to take out the shells? Reason being, is if there are remnants of the snails and crabs in the shells, the decaying process is raising your nutrients.

No, but I will. Thanks!

HeyJay · Jul 30, 2025

I have PTSD from this post. My absolute favorite fish but I had to re-home mine for the same reason. He was fat and extremely well fed but any inverts were toast.

Featherweight · Jul 30, 2025

Crap, time to get mine out I guess.

waterkat · Jul 30, 2025

HeyJay said:
I have PTSD from this post. My absolute favorite fish but I had to re-home mine for the same reason. He was fat and extremely well fed but any inverts were toast.

It is mine favorite as well but he has to go! It even ate my big starfish.

Ziggy17 · Jul 30, 2025

Just to cover all variables. Is it possible all the inverts were dead from something else and the wrasse is cleaning up the spoils? The increase in phosphates could be from a mass die off of the inverts. More likely than a wrasse killing them one by one and eating them causing an increase. Perhaps there was a change in the water parameters that the inverts didn’t like. Or they were starving from too much CUC with not enough algae?