I have a 340 gallon display tank and made a mistake of adding a six line wrasse as one of the first fishes 10 years ago in the current display tank. I am writing this so that it might help anyone else who is trying to decide what wrasse to add in their display tank.
Liveaquaria and other sites quote six line as semi aggressive. That is true if you average out their aggression with other families of fishes but they are SUPER aggressive with any other wrasses. They are also super hardy and very difficult to catch in a full blown reef tank.
If you are looking for wrasses to control any pests in your tank(I am reef guy, fishes are added for their function), options that have worked for me in the past - Melanarus wrasses(one caution - they will eat any shrimps when they are big), yellow cross wrasse, leopard wrasse (once the tank is mature) and radiant wrasse. I am sure there are others but I have hand on experience with these.
There is a place for six line in reef tanks. They are a good choice for small tanks and tanks without sand bed or shallow tanks that have open top. Six line do not need sand bed and they are not jumpers.
Summary - six line is a poor choice for a large display tank no matter how big they are. They will be aggressive towards any new additions and they never get used to new wrasse additions. Will be beating them till they are dead from harassment.
Would love to hear from others what other reef safe wrasses have you kept.
Sam
Liveaquaria and other sites quote six line as semi aggressive. That is true if you average out their aggression with other families of fishes but they are SUPER aggressive with any other wrasses. They are also super hardy and very difficult to catch in a full blown reef tank.
If you are looking for wrasses to control any pests in your tank(I am reef guy, fishes are added for their function), options that have worked for me in the past - Melanarus wrasses(one caution - they will eat any shrimps when they are big), yellow cross wrasse, leopard wrasse (once the tank is mature) and radiant wrasse. I am sure there are others but I have hand on experience with these.
There is a place for six line in reef tanks. They are a good choice for small tanks and tanks without sand bed or shallow tanks that have open top. Six line do not need sand bed and they are not jumpers.
Summary - six line is a poor choice for a large display tank no matter how big they are. They will be aggressive towards any new additions and they never get used to new wrasse additions. Will be beating them till they are dead from harassment.
Would love to hear from others what other reef safe wrasses have you kept.
Sam
