The Wrasse Lover's Thread!

[Slocke]

Oh that’s easy!! You’re missing another 46+ ;)

It’s the fishbase list and I trust them over Wikipedia

 

[i cant think]

It’s the fish base list and I trust them over Wikipedia

Have you got the 5+ Cirrhilabrus sp. :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:

 

[Slocke]

Have you got the 5+ Cirrhilabrus sp. :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:

The whole quiz is to guess the species name so no

 

[i cant think]

Hi chat! I'm here hoping for some advice from wrasse lovers :upside-down-face:.
I'm soon upgrading my 30g display to a 60ish g, dimensions are 36x20x20. In the old tank I only keep a 2" sixline wrasse, what would be good options to add in the new tank in the future? I'm thinking about a flasher wrasse maybe, but I'm open to anything suitable. I'm no expert about wrasses, so pardon me if my questions are silly, but can I keep more than 1 species as long as they're different genus/"type", or how does it work:grinning-face-with-sweat:?

Throw out your sixline when you get the chance, that thing will murder flashers/fairies.
You can mix species from within the same genera too! I know, it’s so confusing with wrasses - the easy route is if we give you a starting list of wrasses to look at, and then you come back with a huge list (it will be giant, do not panic) that we can work through and end up with maybe 10 species to pick from :)
So… I would begin looking at;
Anampses
Macropharyngodon
Pseudojuloides
Cirrhilabrus
Paracheilinus
PseudocheilinOPS
Wetmorella
Halichoeres

And, for a starting list, some of my favourites that would suit that tank;
Cirrhilabrus lubbocki - INDO VAR.
Cirrhilabrus nahackyi (yes… I have expensive taste I know)
Cirrhilabrus efatensis/bathiphylus (The cheaper nahackyi)
Cirrhilabrus flavidorsalis
Cirrhilabrus rubeus
Cirrhilabrus naokoae
Cirrhilabrus exquisitus
Paracheilinus angulatus
Paracheilinus flavianalis
Paracheilinus carpenteri
Paracheilinus mccoskeri/amanda
Anampses meleagrides
Anampses melanurus
Anampses twistii
Macropharyngodon choati (Difficult… not a first choice but definitely worth keeping room for later on)
Macropharyngodon meleagris
Macropharyngodon kuiteri
Macropharyngodon ornatus
Macropharyngodon bipartitus/marisrubri
Pseudojuloides splendens
Pseudojuloides kaleidos
Pseudojuloides severnsi/edwardi
Pseudojuloides xanthomos
Pseudojuloides polynesica
Pseudojuloides mesostigma
Halichoeres iridis
Halichoeres biocellatus
Halichoeres leucoxanthus/chrysus
Halichoeres chrysotaenia
Halichoeres melanurus
Halichoeres pelicieri
Pseudocheilinops ataenia
Wetmorella albofasciata
Wetmorella tanakai
Wetmorella nigropinnata

 

[Giek]

Throw out your sixline when you get the chance, that thing will murder flashers/fairies.

Noted. I've read about how aggressive it is before getting it, but I found it to be, at least in my tank (probably due to its small size + last entry) to not be such a jerk.
I've always thought sixline has cool colors overall and would have been a nice addition, but it really was the fact that in 30g I had not too many other choices :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:. I think I can rehome him, during the tank switch.

Throw out your sixline when you get the chance, that thing will murder flashers/fairies.
You can mix species from within the same genera too! I know, it’s so confusing with wrasses - the easy route is if we give you a starting list of wrasses to look at, and then you come back with a huge list (it will be giant, do not panic) that we can work through and end up with maybe 10 species to pick from :)

It would be very cool;)

I'll take a while to go through all these nice looking fish, even though I'll be helped by the fact that here in Italy we have a fairly limited choice, as a lot of species are really really rare to find, and others may have never stepped in the country at all. I may expand the search to European vendors/importers, but it will be pricey ahah:rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Not great pics by any means, and the tank doesn't look the best between the dinoflagellates and the scratches in the acrylic, but got pics of every Wrasse + parrotfish in the 100 gallon besides the Possum wrasse.

Best pics by far though were the basslets: Serranus baldwini, male Pseudanthias kashiwae, and male Pseudanthias bartlettorum.

 

[ChiCity]

(cartoon colors)

 

[Pscha4]

I love me some wrasse's, so I want to see everyone's wrasse pictures! Please share!

I've been practicing my fish taking.. Snapped a decent one of my Naoko Wrasse, still need to polish up on my skills though!

Edit:

Forgot my earmuff! Colors since this picture have really improved!

This picture is a few years old but this is one of my Favorites fish in the tank

 

[85173]

Not great pics by any means, and the tank doesn't look the best between the dinoflagellates and the scratches in the acrylic, but got pics of every Wrasse + parrotfish in the 100 gallon besides the Possum wrasse.

Would that be your possum wrasse under the dusky wrasse in this photo? Maybe you did get them all?

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Would that be your possum wrasse under the dusky wrasse in this photo? Maybe you did get them all?

Nope. Unfortunately he's a pro at evading the phone

 

[i cant think]

This picture is a few years old but this is one of my Favorites fish in the tank

I love my female Lineatus, she’s such a character. I need to get the camera out again now I have the Neoguinaicus to photograph.
But here’s the newest photos I have of her;

Still waiting on a POTM where I can use some of those photos I have of my wrasses :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:

 

[OrionN]

i give you a run for your money

 

[Cael Gallery]

I’d be intrigued to see if a radiant could survive your tank, especially with Thalassomas and the other more boisterous fish.

I've had good luck with those medium-sized Halichoeres and Coris so far.
I actually added 3 new fish the other week, a 5" male H.chloropterus, a 3" female Coris dorsomacula (gorgeous) and a 3" Coris batuensis.
Surprisingly out of the 3 wrasses that i added the chloropterus copped it the worse, mainly from my pixy wrasse and my male bird. The pixy in particular would chase him around the entire tank for the first 2 days and back him up into a corner while the bird wrasse would just crash into him occasionally. Minimal aggression from the wrasse boss (my big male T.nigrofasciatum), who actually helped a bit by putting the bird wrasse into place. It's been about a week now and the pixy and bird have left him alone and he's doing great, occasionally gets nudged at feeding time by the nigrofasciatum.

The dorsomacula was ignored by all of my wrasses except for my 2" H.prosopeion. He'd swim up to the dorsomacula, who's only been out about 4 times in the past 10 days and is very shy (but eating), and flare his fins and even try to nip at him. The dorsomacula was having none of it though and just pushed him away. Unfortunately he's being given a hard time by my dottyback.

The C.batuensis i haven't seen in 7 days. I only saw him once after i added him, hope he's okay. He got pushed around a bit by the C.pictoides, but the pixy was more focused on the chloropterus. Fingers crossed he's just under the sand somewhere.

So whether or not a radiant would survive my tank i think would be more dependent on how well behaved my pixy wrasse is. I've had a melanurus and H.richmondi in the time i've had the pixy in my tank (both died from vibrio :( ) and he gave both of them a hard time for the first few days before he'd basically just forget about it. My Thalassoma and bird wrasse tend to only care about larger wrasses. Maybe if you had a few Thalassoma and the only other wrasses were some tiny leopards or something they'd become aggressive, but they seem more concerned with pushing larger Halichoeres, Coris, other Thalassoma around and ignore the little things.

 

[Cael Gallery]

Patient, patient my little urchin. Little Mystery will be big beautiful Mystery soon enough (and mean)
;)I wonder how much they pay over and under the table to get almost a monopoly on this. They have to recoup I suppose ;)

BTW, IME these Radiants are delicate little wrasse. They do not tolerate shipping well, but so beautiful, both females and males.

There was a little 1.5 inch Mystery I saw this last weekend. I was so tempted to get her but she lost out to the Radiant.

Yeah but then not only would i be paying like $900 for a 2" mystery wrasse, i'd have to wait several years before it's a nice 3-4" one,

 

[OrionN]

Yeah but then not only would i be paying like $900 for a 2" mystery wrasse, i'd have to wait several years before it's a nice 3-4" one,

I prefer to get the smallest animal that I can get (that I can easily keep a live), So small anemone and small fishes for me please.

 

[i cant think]

Yeah but then not only would i be paying like $900 for a 2" mystery wrasse, i'd have to wait several years before it's a nice 3-4" one,

But then you have a wrasse that lives for 5-10 years at least rather than 2-3 years and it’s dead…

 

[i cant think]

I've had good luck with those medium-sized Halichoeres and Coris so far.
I actually added 3 new fish the other week, a 5" male H.chloropterus, a 3" female Coris dorsomacula (gorgeous) and a 3" Coris batuensis.
Surprisingly out of the 3 wrasses that i added the chloropterus copped it the worse, mainly from my pixy wrasse and my male bird. The pixy in particular would chase him around the entire tank for the first 2 days and back him up into a corner while the bird wrasse would just crash into him occasionally. Minimal aggression from the wrasse boss (my big male T.nigrofasciatum), who actually helped a bit by putting the bird wrasse into place. It's been about a week now and the pixy and bird have left him alone and he's doing great, occasionally gets nudged at feeding time by the nigrofasciatum.

The dorsomacula was ignored by all of my wrasses except for my 2" H.prosopeion. He'd swim up to the dorsomacula, who's only been out about 4 times in the past 10 days and is very shy (but eating), and flare his fins and even try to nip at him. The dorsomacula was having none of it though and just pushed him away. Unfortunately he's being given a hard time by my dottyback.

The C.batuensis i haven't seen in 7 days. I only saw him once after i added him, hope he's okay. He got pushed around a bit by the C.pictoides, but the pixy was more focused on the chloropterus. Fingers crossed he's just under the sand somewhere.

So whether or not a radiant would survive my tank i think would be more dependent on how well behaved my pixy wrasse is. I've had a melanurus and H.richmondi in the time i've had the pixy in my tank (both died from vibrio :( ) and he gave both of them a hard time for the first few days before he'd basically just forget about it. My Thalassoma and bird wrasse tend to only care about larger wrasses. Maybe if you had a few Thalassoma and the only other wrasses were some tiny leopards or something they'd become aggressive, but they seem more concerned with pushing larger Halichoeres, Coris, other Thalassoma around and ignore the little things.

Oh yeah, a iridis wouldn’t survive your tank anymore…
A Chloropterus male is aggressive but towards a 1 inch female iridis (they are imported at this size most commonly), it would be game over.
Believe me, I had a 4 inch Chloropterus (nicknamed the Green Beast). He was fine with my male iridis as I got the Chloropterus as a 0.5 inch female, then a month later got a 1 inch Iridis female.

The chloropterus is now sat in my LFS’s coral tray and I struggle to add other wrasses outside of cleaner wrasse to his system.
He is also now 5 (maybe even 6) inches and I need to photograph him today to show him off - he will forever be my pride and joy wrasse, mainly because it was my 2nd ever wrasse outside of a sixline.

Also, iridis just to let you know is one of the smaller Halichoeres unless paired. They will max out at 3.5 inches and only really get 4.5-5 inches if with a female IME. Mine definitely stopped growing until I paired him with the female (which is now fully male).
Here’s my current iridis (the female I had paired initially until I lost my Male to a hawkfish).

 

[Cael Gallery]

Oh yeah, a iridis wouldn’t survive your tank anymore…
A Chloropterus male is aggressive but towards a 1 inch female iridis (they are imported at this size most commonly), it would be game over.
Believe me, I had a 4 inch Chloropterus (nicknamed the Green Beast). He was fine with my male iridis as I got the Chloropterus as a 0.5 inch female, then a month later got a 1 inch Iridis female.

The chloropterus is now sat in my LFS’s coral tray and I struggle to add other wrasses outside of cleaner wrasse to his system.
He is also now 5 (maybe even 6) inches and I need to photograph him today to show him off - he will forever be my pride and joy wrasse, mainly because it was my 2nd ever wrasse outside of a sixline.

Also, iridis just to let you know is one of the smaller Halichoeres unless paired. They will max out at 3.5 inches and only really get 4.5-5 inches if with a female IME. Mine definitely stopped growing until I paired him with the female (which is now fully male).
Here’s my current iridis (the female I had paired initially until I lost my Male to a hawkfish).

1"?
0.5"?
Forget the chloropterus (which so far has been hammered and isn't high up on the pecking order), any fish that's 1" or less is turning into snapper food literally the second it hits the water. I still don't fully trust him around my 2-2.5" H.prosopeion.

 

[Cael Gallery]

All the salt creep on the glass is from the snapper smashing the pellets so hard that he splashes water out.

 

[Cael Gallery]