The Wrasse Lover's Thread!

[Slocke]

These guys are cheap… and tend to be misidentified as one of their common names is the ‘Green Coris Wrasse’. However as you rightfully said, this is instead a Halichoeres chloropterus and honestly even though their proce is rather low I don’t see them around too often. I find this to be due to their adult colour form (I have never found a correct photo of their colour form as each photo shows the same wrasse but with different colourings along the body) often being thought of as ‘drab’.

I know when I first got good photos of my Chloropterus when he was a female I was warned with aggression. In my experience that aggression has been minimal, there was a small bit of chasing when my radiant started to transition at the same time but now my iridis is somehow ontop and much further through the transitioning phase.

What's with naming everything a (color) Coris wrasse. With the exception of the Red they're not Coris' wrasse and even the Red is not red but orange and only as a juvenile? Guess that's why wrasse people use the latin name....

 

[Slocke]

Halichoeres - 3
Macropharyngodon - 2
Cirrhilabrus - 2
Paracheilinus - 1
Coris - 1
Pseudocheilinops -1
Labroides - 1

 

[i cant think]

What's with naming everything a (color) Coris wrasse. With the exception of the Red they're not Coris' wrasse and even the Red is not red but orange and only as a juvenile? Guess that's why wrasse people use the latin name.

I can understand the colour part of the name but the coris part is what catches me out a lot of the time. If it’s a ‘Red Coris Wrasse’ which is usually either a Coris gaimard or Coris formosa then I can understand the coris part as they’re from that genus. The colour I will admit as juveniles they look a bit more orange but the gaimard does go slightly redder as they age.

 

[SaltyT]

Just a question as I’m sure many of you can relate but, when someone asks for your favourite wrasses do you end up with a list of 30+ names (scientific or common)?
Would be entertaining to see some of the ones that land in your top 5 for the most common genera kept;
Cirrhilabrus
Paracheilinus
Halichoeres
Macropharyngodon
Anampses (although this doesn’t seem to be a genus that’s as commonly kept anymore).

LOL only you could rattle off 30 scientific names.

If I had to pick 5 favorite wrasses that I've kept it would be:

Anampses femininus
Macropharyngodon geoffroy
Macropharyngodon negrosensis
Paracheilinus attenuatus
Halichoeres melasmapomus

 

[i cant think]

LOL only you could rattle off 30 scientific names.

If I had to pick 5 favorite wrasses that I've kept it would be:

Anampses femininus
Macropharyngodon geoffroy
Macropharyngodon negrosensis
Paracheilinus attenuatus
Halichoeres melasmapomus

You really aren’t wrong!
I only intended to give someone a few ideas for a starting list of species… that small list totals to 34 scientific names.

If I had to pick only 5 it would likely be this (in no particular order)
- Coris venusta
- Anampses chrysocephalus
- Cirrhilabrus shutmani
- Paracheilinus cyaneus
- Halichoeres iridis

 

[SaltyT]

You really aren’t wrong!
I only intended to give someone a few ideas for a starting list of species… that small list totals to 34 scientific names.

If I had to pick only 5 it would likely be this (in no particular order)
- Coris venusta
- Anampses chrysocephalus
- Cirrhilabrus shutmani
- Paracheilinus cyaneus
- Halichoeres iridis

The 1st two are a wish list lol

 

[i cant think]

The 1st two are a wish list lol

They really are, if only Hawaii would open up to their wrasses… I know there’s a few I’d enjoy seeing again.

 

[SaltyT]

They really are, if only Hawaii would open up to their wrasses… I know there’s a few I’d enjoy seeing again.

Totally agree!

Can you get shutmani over there?

 

[i cant think]

Totally agree!

Can you get shutmani over there?

I’ve seen shutmani for sale a few times over here although these were back in 2019 or something like that.

 

[beesnreefs]

I’m not sure he’s my favorite wrasse (it’s so hard to pick!) but this guy is special to me. I’d like to introduce you to One-Eyed Melton the Melanurus:



Melton came to us by accident. I ordered an Ornate Leopard wrasse a couple of years ago from Dr Reef and he accidentally shipped us Melton. When Melton arrived he was super stressed from the trip and had suffered some damage to his dorsal fin with a split in it right in the middle. It never healed back together so it looks like he has two dorsal fins.

He slowly recovered from the travel stress and settled in only to get a bad case of pop-eye a few weeks later. We treated it and it receded. However, the pop-eye returned with a vengeance a few months later. Treatment worked for the most part only this time his eye “healed” problematically. It’s sunken in and somewhat opaque. I’m fairly certain he’s blind in that eye.

A few months ago I set up our new 225g tank and, after a couple of months, moved Melton over. Then a few weeks ago we had an outbreak of flukes (and I suspect something else like velvet)…five fish died, but Melton remains.

As far as I’m concerned he’s immortal.

Melton eats like a champ, is always on the move, buries himself every night, and gets along with everyone. He’s a champ and we love him.

 

[blaxsun]

Just a question as I’m sure many of you can relate but, when someone asks for your favourite wrasses do you end up with a list of 30+ names (scientific or common)?
Would be entertaining to see some of the ones that land in your top 5 for the most common genera kept;
Cirrhilabrus
Paracheilinus
Halichoeres
Macropharyngodon
Anampses (although this doesn’t seem to be a genus that’s as commonly kept anymore).

Our favorite is our quoy's parrotfish (Scarus quoyi) which we named "Beaker". Quite the personality. When I take too long to feed him after he spots me with the food container he spits water at me.

 

[AZReef13]

Cirrhilabrus Rhomboidalis?

I have one

 

[saltyhog]

LOL only you could rattle off 30 scientific names.

If I had to pick 5 favorite wrasses that I've kept it would be:

Anampses femininus
Macropharyngodon geoffroy
Macropharyngodon negrosensis
Paracheilinus attenuatus
Halichoeres melasmapomus

Can't disagree with any on your list....femininus is my dream fish.

Top 5 that I have kept in no particular order

Cirhillabrus earlei
Cirhillabrus jordani
Halichoeres melasmapomus
Paricheilinus rubricaudalis
Macropharyngodon geofroyi.

 

[SaltyT]

Can't disagree with any on your list....femininus is my dream fish.

Top 5 that I have kept in no particular order

Cirhillabrus earlei
Cirhillabrus jordani
Halichoeres melasmapomus
Paricheilinus rubricaudalis
Macropharyngodon geofroyi.

I had a deposit on a rubricaudalis a couple of weeks ago. It’s been on my wish list for so long, but sadly the vendor contacted me saying they only received 3 and they all died. Yours was beautiful, all of your wrasses are.

 

[saltyhog]

I had a deposit on a rubricaudalis a couple of weeks ago. It’s been on my wish list for so long, but sadly the vendor contacted me saying they only received 3 and they all died. Yours was beautiful, all of your wrasses are.

They are so hard to find and there may be a collection issue as I had trouble getting a healthy one. This one was probably close to 10 years ago. Had him for 3 years.

This picture of a male in nuptial display is what got me first interested in them.

 

[sdreef]

New addition, Anampses lennardi, wanted to share my early experience getting him acclimated to the system

I pre-ordered from the vendor. He basically went from the airport to the vendor, and since I believe he'd spent a fair amount of time in the bag, I decided to follow Biota's acclimation guide to basically temperature acclimate and add to the system. The salinity in the bag measured 34 ppt compared to my system's 35 ppt. System temp is 75-76.

I have a large acclimation box that is invaluable, but historically I don't use for sand dwelling wrasses. Not sure what others do. In this case, I decided to use the box and added about 1-1.5" of sand to one end. This added a fair bit of weight and I needed to employ a larger magnet.

Day 1, emerged from sand around noon, ate a few live black worms
Day 2, emerged around 11 am, eating live black worms, but no frozen
Day 3, Started eating frozen mysis, ocean plankton, and brine shrimp

Day 5, emerged with lights on around 8 am fully adjusted to light cycle. Released into system without incident. Immediately started picking at rocks

 

[NE reefer]

All very beautiful fish. Can I get peoples thoughts on the adorned wrasse. He’d be going into a 50 gallon system with deep sand bed mixed reef but mostly softies.

 

[saltyhog]

All very beautiful fish. Can I get peoples thoughts on the adorned wrasse. He’d be going into a 50 gallon system with deep sand bed mixed reef but mostly softies.

Do you mean Halichoeres cosmetus. They are not "completely" reef safe .....small shrimp and other inverts might be on the menu. Is your 50 gallon a 3 foot tank? Most wrasse recommend at least a 4 foot tank for these as well, they are very active fish.

 

[NE reefer]

Yes that’s the one I believe. My tank is a corner tank with three major rock structures. I’m not planning on heavily stocking the system, probably 6 fish in total. Sorry for the blue picture I haven’t bought a filter for my phone yet. I’m running a sump in the basement with about 40 gallons of water. Will this be ok!

 

[SaltyT]

New addition, Anampses lennardi, wanted to share my early experience getting him acclimated to the system

I pre-ordered from the vendor. He basically went from the airport to the vendor, and since I believe he'd spent a fair amount of time in the bag, I decided to follow Biota's acclimation guide to basically temperature acclimate and add to the system. The salinity in the bag measured 34 ppt compared to my system's 35 ppt. System temp is 75-76.

I have a large acclimation box that is invaluable, but historically I don't use for sand dwelling wrasses. Not sure what others do. In this case, I decided to use the box and added about 1-1.5" of sand to one end. This added a fair bit of weight and I needed to employ a larger magnet.

Day 1, emerged from sand around noon, ate a few live black worms
Day 2, emerged around 11 am, eating live black worms, but no frozen
Day 3, Started eating frozen mysis, ocean plankton, and brine shrimp

Day 5, emerged with lights on around 8 am fully adjusted to light cycle. Released into system without incident. Immediately started picking at rocks

Thanks for sharing! I have one coming after Christmas. This seems to be a wrasse that does well for several months then just dies (perhaps bc of too high of tank temp?). I have my tank set at 75 too I'm hopeful we'll have better luck. I'll be sure to follow your build thread for updates.