The Wrasse Lover's Thread!

[bluedevils6653]

just swooped up a diamond tail. will post some pics when he comes! been looking for over a year for one!

 

[motoman37]

 

[evolved]

Hey @evolved Any issues with your isosceles and your johnsoni?

No, and I've done this combo now twice, with 2 different fish each time. It's surprisingly a peaceful rival, and I can only attest the mildness to the difference in the tail shape.

This would be a consideration, though I don't find them very attractive.

Me either. :P But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and part of the reason I don't typically like to give general wrasse suggestions to people.

I forgot to mention isosceles - top of my consideration list, though I'm concerned it would boss around the johnsoni as well. I was thinking mccoskeri simply because they stay smaller than johnsoni and that may be enough to keep him busy bossing. The johnsoni actually did most of his showing off towards the helfrichi for fish pair, but now the Magma interrupts.

As I said, it might work just fine and great. I wouldn't necessarily discount the idea still.

I have no love for Rhomboids - I've seen too many that are total jerks, and I don't see the attraction. Lineatus I like much better and would be a nice color contrast against the reds.

I've only had rhomboids be super mild too. You need to see a terminal male with the "gold foil" sheen to appreciate the species.
Lineatus could work too.

So maybe I should go for a lineatus and an isosceles. :)

Should work.

 

[Myka]

I've only had rhomboids be super mild too. You need to see a terminal male with the "gold foil" sheen to appreciate the species.
Lineatus could work too.

I've seen "beautiful" terminal males - just not my cup of tea. Lineatus I find much more appealing, though somewhat similar. Wrasse hunting, so much fun! :D IME Rhomboids are very aggressive - that's so odd that multiple people here say the opposite. Maybe I've met 3 "oddities".

 

[eatbreakfast]

I've seen "beautiful" terminal males - just not my cup of tea. Lineatus I find much more appealing, though somewhat similar. Wrasse hunting, so much fun! :D IME Rhomboids are very aggressive - that's so odd that multiple people here say the opposite. Maybe I've met 3 "oddities".

I've found rhomboidalis to be perhaps the least aggressive fairy wrasse I have dealt with.

 

[vedros74]

Are there any ways to differentiate between male and female choats wrasses and can they be kept together in a tank? It’s 150 gallon tank. Thanks

 

[Jstn]

Well my large male lineatus died today, had him two years ago as an xl male fish, no new additions problems or anything else, could old age be a thing ?

This sucks

 

[Seanislav]

I've seen "beautiful" terminal males - just not my cup of tea. Lineatus I find much more appealing, though somewhat similar. Wrasse hunting, so much fun! :D IME Rhomboids are very aggressive - that's so odd that multiple people here say the opposite. Maybe I've met 3 "oddities".

I've only one Rhomboid that I rehomed for one of the LFS's employees. He was supposedly a total jerk in his 180, but was completely chill in my 300...till he jumped.

 

[evolved]

Are there any ways to differentiate between male and female choats wrasses and can they be kept together in a tank? It’s 150 gallon tank. Thanks

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/i...ale-wrasses-female.243113/page-2#post-2853976

 

[Labridaedicted]

Well my large male lineatus died today, had him two years ago as an xl male fish, no new additions problems or anything else, could old age be a thing ?

This sucks

Sorry to hear about your loss.

That's sometimes the risk with getting large males is that they could already be on in years. Most should expect 3-5 years in captivity but this depends on age at collection.

 

[tkiry1]

My new addition in holding tank...

 

[xRob]

Not sure if this belongs here or in the disease/health section, but hopefully someone can help.

I have two female m. bipartus that have been in my display now for ~6-7 weeks. Prior to that they were in my QT for 6 weeks where they were treated twice with praziquantel. The LFS I got them from maintains a therapeutic dosage of cupramine where they had been for 4 weeks. My display was also treated twice with praziquantel due to a suspected flukes case on a flasher wrasse that eventually died. It had similar symptoms to what I'll describe below except that the physical symptoms got worse every day for that fish.

Until recently they were doing perfectly - out and active at the same time every day, feeding aggressively on pellet, frozen and flake and generally doing great. A week ago I spotted some damage to the tail fin of one of the fish which definitely was not there the previous day. It looked like it had been nipped. Three days later it hadn't gotten any worse but I noticed similar damage to the other one.

Fast forward to today and the second fish to have damage is acting extremely skittish, swimming oddly and hardly feeding. I think there may be some slight discolouration on its belly. It appears to be avoiding the other one which is acting rather aggressively towards it - drifting over with fins flared before darting in and chasing it away. The victim sometimes swims away tilted to one side. It's difficult to tell if that is due to a problem swimming/maintaining balance or whether it's trying to show a low profile to the other fish. Both fish appear to have elevated breathing - the victim more so. The aggressor has fed each time I've offered pellets today though perhaps less so than usual. The other has taken maybe a couple of pellets.

The aggressive fish does seem to have slightly different facial colouration (more green) so perhaps it could be transitioning to male? The only other fish in the tank are a pair of common clowns and a banggai cardinal. The cardinal is slightly territorial towards the wrasse but I've never witnessed any real aggression. The clowns completely ignore the wrasse and vice versa. The tank is a reefer 250 so 90cm/3' long.

I've made a quick attempt to catch either of them for a FW dip to check for flukes but no luck so far. I think that catching them would more or less require dismantling the tank at this point.

Any ideas or things I can try? I have a flasher in my QT ready to be moved across but I don't want to do it unless I can be certain this isn't a disease issue :S.

 

[Labridaedicted]

Not sure if this belongs here or in the disease/health section, but hopefully someone can help.

I have two female m. bipartus that have been in my display now for ~6-7 weeks. Prior to that they were in my QT for 6 weeks where they were treated twice with praziquantel. The LFS I got them from maintains a therapeutic dosage of cupramine where they had been for 4 weeks. My display was also treated twice with praziquantel due to a suspected flukes case on a flasher wrasse that eventually died. It had similar symptoms to what I'll describe below except that the physical symptoms got worse every day for that fish.

Until recently they were doing perfectly - out and active at the same time every day, feeding aggressively on pellet, frozen and flake and generally doing great. A week ago I spotted some damage to the tail fin of one of the fish which definitely was not there the previous day. It looked like it had been nipped. Three days later it hadn't gotten any worse but I noticed similar damage to the other one.

Fast forward to today and the second fish to have damage is acting extremely skittish, swimming oddly and hardly feeding. I think there may be some slight discolouration on its belly. It appears to be avoiding the other one which is acting rather aggressively towards it - drifting over with fins flared before darting in and chasing it away. The victim sometimes swims away tilted to one side. It's difficult to tell if that is due to a problem swimming/maintaining balance or whether it's trying to show a low profile to the other fish. Both fish appear to have elevated breathing - the victim more so. The aggressor has fed each time I've offered pellets today though perhaps less so than usual. The other has taken maybe a couple of pellets.

The aggressive fish does seem to have slightly different facial colouration (more green) so perhaps it could be transitioning to male? The only other fish in the tank are a pair of common clowns and a banggai cardinal. The cardinal is slightly territorial towards the wrasse but I've never witnessed any real aggression. The clowns completely ignore the wrasse and vice versa. The tank is a reefer 250 so 90cm/3' long.

I've made a quick attempt to catch either of them for a FW dip to check for flukes but no luck so far. I think that catching them would more or less require dismantling the tank at this point.

Any ideas or things I can try? I have a flasher in my QT ready to be moved across but I don't want to do it unless I can be certain this isn't a disease issue :S.

Pick up a aqua medic fish trap. Wrasses are generally pretty bold and easy to catch after a couple of days.

Once caught, keep the captured one in an acclimation box for a while for social acclimation. It isn't uncommon to see aggression between conspecifics in a tank of that size.

 

[scuzy]

My latest in quarantine

 

[scuzy]

Sorry to hear about your loss.

That's sometimes the risk with getting large males is that they could already be on in years. Most should expect 3-5 years in captivity but this depends on age at collection.

Mine just died too. Had him 3 years and it was a xl super make. How's head head a growth in one side like he hit his face real hard and then he perished a few days later.

He was one of my favorite.

 

[xRob]

Pick up a aqua medic fish trap. Wrasses are generally pretty bold and easy to catch after a couple of days.

Once caught, keep the captured one in an acclimation box for a while for social acclimation. It isn't uncommon to see aggression between conspecifics in a tank of that size.

Yeah I'm definitely getting an acclimation box anyway for introduction of any new wrasse. In this instance I'm mostly concerned whether it's some kind of disease I'm dealing with or just simple aggression. Until this morning I've never seen any issues between these two fish. I fed again just now and both seem to be acting normally, breathing is less labored and no aggression that I could see.

 

[OrionN]

Well. I got these two wrasses for 90.00 with 5 dollars off. Good price for a changing Labouti and a Carpenteri, don’t you think? Both are doing well in my 40 gal QT reef. The Labouti had a few spots at first but no more. Both are eating well with the Carpenteri eat more aggressively than the Labouti. The Labouti was abused a little at the LFS and have not completely healed yet.

 

[evolved]

Well my large male lineatus died today, had him two years ago as an xl male fish, no new additions problems or anything else, could old age be a thing ?

That's sometimes the risk with getting large males is that they could already be on in years. Most should expect 3-5 years in captivity but this depends on age at collection.

Mostly agree, but I could make a case for a bit longer expectations in captivity, say 5-7 years. But I definitely agree to the point of buying a large male and not knowing how old they might already be at that time.

ast forward to today and the second fish to have damage is acting extremely skittish, swimming oddly and hardly feeding. I think there may be some slight discolouration on its belly. It appears to be avoiding the other one which is acting rather aggressively towards it - drifting over with fins flared before darting in and chasing it away. The victim sometimes swims away tilted to one side. It's difficult to tell if that is due to a problem swimming/maintaining balance or whether it's trying to show a low profile to the other fish. Both fish appear to have elevated breathing - the victim more so. The aggressor has fed each time I've offered pellets today though perhaps less so than usual. The other has taken maybe a couple of pellets.

The aggressive fish does seem to have slightly different facial colouration (more green) so perhaps it could be transitioning to male?

Yes, everything you're describing is the dominant fish transitioning and trying to make the other fish submissive.

 

[Jstn]

Mostly agree, but I could make a case for a bit longer expectations in captivity, say 5-7 years. But I definitely agree to the point of buying a large male and not knowing how old they might already be at that time.

Yes, everything you're describing is the dominant fish transitioning and trying to make the other fish submissive.

I figured that much, he was a beautiful 5-6" male and only 150 (rehoming from a person who got him off divers den and had an issue with him jumping into the overflow). In general 5-7 is a rule of thumb for wrasse, i would of figured longer?

 

[xRob]

Yes, everything you're describing is the dominant fish transitioning and trying to make the other fish submissive.

In your experience with this species am I likely to have to intervene or should I just let them sort it out? At the main feeding time today both were acting normally.