My Diamond Tail Flasher, P. attenuatus

OrionN · May 31, 2020

My Diamond Tail Flasher wrasse growing very fast. The Male is 2.5 inches and the female is 2 inches now. I think they are spawning. I have not seen it but the stomach of the female often become huge then back to normal the next day. He is courting her from light on to light off. Displaying and swimming around and around her. I had them since early Feb, 2020. At the time they were only around 1 inch. I hope this species is not like a flash of brilliance and then gone.

TheShrimpNibbler · May 31, 2020

OrionN said:
@TheShrimpNibbler
How is your Diamond Tail Flasher?

It unfortunately ended up dying a day or two after I got it. I’ve been looking for another one, but so far I haven’t been able to find one.

OrionN · May 31, 2020

TheShrimpNibbler said:
It unfortunately ended up dying a day or two after I got it. I’ve been looking for another one, but so far I haven’t been able to find one.

I am sorry.

TheShrimpNibbler · May 31, 2020

OrionN said:
My Diamond Tail Flasher wrasse growing very fast. The Male is 2.5 inches and the female is 2 inches now. I think they are spawning. I have not seen it but the stomach of the female often become huge then back to normal the next day. He is courting her from light on to light off. Displaying and swimming around and around her. I had them since early Feb, 2020. At the time they were only around 1 inch. I hope this species is not like a flash of brilliance and then gone.

WOW! That is amazing! Would it be possible to catch eggs right after they spawned and raise the babies? Hopefully they will live a long life with you.

OrionN · Jun 14, 2020

Update on my Diamond Tail pair. Both was just over and under 1 inch in Feb of this year. Now the male is about 2.5 inches and the female pushing 2 inches. They spawned regularly. The male in full display, full of colors and fins, swimming around and around her. Both dart up the water about 6-10 inches then dive down. I have not see them release eggs and sperms yet, but that activity cannot be anything but spawn ritual.
The male started to change sex as soon as a larger male was removed from QT (went to a friend of mine). The dorsal ray elongated within a few days of removal of the larger male. He was only about 1.25 inch at the time. He is able to suppressed sex change of the female in my aquarium of 320 gal since 2/2020.
Here are a few pictures today. They swim very fast and it is hard to take good pictures.

OrionN · Jun 20, 2020

A series of pictures seconds apart, 2-3 seconds at the most. He is courting her in a sand storm in my tank.

TheShrimpNibbler · Jun 20, 2020

Beautiful photos! The fish look amazing!

OrionN · Jul 27, 2020

It have been 6 months. Both were juveniles when I first got them, even small in size, barely over 1 inch, the larger turn male in a few days with elongation of the 10tp dorsal ray, and the color start to change shortly after that.
I assume both reach their adult size now with female at shy of 2 inches and the male at 2.5 inches.They spawned regularly, and the male is very active at courting the female. So far he have been able to suppressed her sex change. Every few days, she would be seen with a huge stomach and after spawn, her stomach is much smaller. Both are fat and eating very well. They absolutely eat everything I feed the tank.
They are in my 320 gal DT with about 30 other fishes, quite a few wrasses. I had good pictures of this species so I have not spend the times trying to take pictures of them lately.

Many people have Fairy and Flasher wrasse that cannot be keep as pairs, stated that female will always turn male, even after several months of spawning. I will keep update regarding this and will post here if and when she change sex.

I also have a pair of Eightline Flasher. They were doing great and spawning also then one day the female disappeared. A victim of one of my carpets. Bones were not found. My tank is escape-proof so I know she did not jump out. I am looking for another smaller Eightline Flasher.

alton · Jul 27, 2020

Glad your Diamond Tails are doing well

OrionN · Aug 11, 2020

I finally view the pair spawn with eggs and sperms visible. The funny thing is that my Eightline Flasher want to joint and do a three-some. It is kinda funny. Next time when I have time and clean up the tank glass I will try to video it.

OrionN · Aug 26, 2020

My Female Diamond Tail Flasher. She have been in my tank for 6.5 months or so. The larger one turned male within weeks. This one was suppressed from sex change by the male and remain as a mature female. They spawned regularly, I observed eggs sometime. My Male Eightline jointed them sometime and result in a threesome spawn. I got to video this sometime.
Here is a bad picture of my Diamond tail Female taken just a few minutes ago (7:30 AM on 8/26/2020). I choose this picture to show that there is minimal elongation of the 10th dorsal ray. She have been like this for the last 4 months with NO CHANGE.

TheShrimpNibbler · Aug 26, 2020

OrionN said:
My Female Diamond Tail Flasher. She have been in my tank for 6.5 months or so. The larger one turned male within weeks. This one was suppressed from sex change by the male and remain as a mature female. They spawned regularly, I observed eggs sometime. My Male Eightline jointed them sometime and result in a threesome spawn. I got to video this sometime.
Here is a bad picture of my Diamond tail Female taken just a few minutes ago (7:30 AM on 8/26/2020). I choose this picture to show that there is minimal elongation of the 10th dorsal ray. She have been like this for the last 4 months with NO CHANGE.

Hopefully it stays like this for many years! It’s a very pretty fish even as a female it seems.

OrionN · Sep 14, 2020

Sad news. Last week my Male Diamond tail disappeared. It was easy to tell over the weekend, when I can observe my tank all day long, becasue he was no where all during the day. He is one of the most active wrasse, always courting his female, so really easy missed. The tank is escape proof so jump out or jump to the sump is out of the question. He just cannot.
Will see how long it take for my female to change into male.
I think my carpet strike again. He often zip along courting the female, maybe he just zipped right into a carpet and his death.
These carpet are costly to me.

TheShrimpNibbler · Sep 14, 2020

OrionN said:
Sad news. Last week my Male Diamond tail disappeared. It was easy to tell over the weekend, when I can observe my tank all day long, becasue he was no where all during the day. He is one of the most active wrasse, always courting his female, so really easy missed. The tank is escape proof so jump out or jump to the sump is out of the question. He just cannot.
Will see how long it take for my female to change into male.
I think my carpet strike again. He often zip along courting the female, maybe he just zipped right into a carpet and his death.
These carpet are costly to me.

That’s really a shame

. He was such a beautiful fish and the paired behavior was always fun to hear about.

OrionN · Sep 15, 2020

no evidence of sex change yet. I estimate that the Male was lost 9/3/2020

OrionN · Sep 17, 2020

Two weeks after the male disappeared, the female start to change as seen below:
Same fish. The 10th Dorsal Ray is getting a little longer. I will keep taken picture every few days.
04/04/2020

06/202020

08/26/2020

09/15/2020

09/17/2020

OrionN · Sep 28, 2020

My Female is changing. Here he is today 9/28/2020. Color is more vivid and spots is coming in on the fins and the 10th dorsal ray is elongating.
The male was lost on 9/3/2020

OrionN · Oct 3, 2020

Saturday morning so I irritated my wife with camera shutter noise in the fish room. A little more change over the last month, since the death of my male. More colors on the body and fins (maybe I imagine this) and the elongate ray is about 1/3 extended above and beyond the dorsal fin membrane. Clearly an initial male, a fat one at that.
Please excuse the particles in the water and dirty glass. I try to provide natural environment to my fish and invertebrates. The natural reef I see is never crystal clear so I don't put sock filter or any particle filter in the circulation of my tank. Very high flow so everything is up in the water column sometime in sand storms.