Well if you'd like to confirm for me sometime if I have a male or female melanurus, I'll try to get some decent pics. My hunch is male, but the extent of that guess is just from googling what I saw called a mature "super male" on some sites, lol.
You have a lot of wrasses together - can I pick your brain about something I've been wondering about? I'm assuming being male would only pose any problem if I added another melanurus that was also male, or transitioned to male? (Wouldn't do that, just curious). If I were to try adding another halichoeres, say a radiant or a yellow coris wrasse, would the melanurus tend to see them as enemies in the absence of a female? The mel doesn't seem to even attempt to go after the big bristleworms... wishing I could find a wrasse that would, that would coexist peacefully with the mel and is ok in a 4' 75 gallon tank. Starting to realize there may not be many things that will actually try to eat big fireworms (the consensus here is whatever they are, the ones I have are not the good worms and I agree). Not a fan of crabs, so was really hoping to find a utilitarian fish for the job!
Lastly for now, would a tamarin wrasse be typically compatible with the melanurus? And if I were to consider a flasher or fairy wrasse instead, will they only display toward other males of their type, or would they also show off to the male melanurus?
Lots of questions I know, sorry!
I would love to see photos of your Mel and help you sex it! Generally, males are much more green whilst females are more on the blue side with yellow/orange striping (I saw one stunning male melanurus and I would love one but my iridis probably wouldn’t).
Of course you can pick my brain out and feel free to ask questions! I love helping people (as I’m sure anyone does) and one thing I tend to tell others is;
Why have knowledge but never share it?
Male Wrasses only really care about males of the same or similar (often called ‘sister’) species. If we talk about a Melanurus then these may not like males of
Halichoeres vroliki or
Halichoeres chrysotaenia.
Adding other
Halichoeres links to what I said above about the Melanurus, these guys don’t seem to care about males of other species that are totally different however females/juveniles are preferred for both our sake but also the fish’s liking. So adding something like
Halichoeres iridis or
Halichoeres leucoxanthus to an established
Halichoeres melanurus shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Obviously with every introduction you have some sort of aggression however this is expected since it is forming a Hierarchy and showing who is the big boss of the tank and who is the big boss of the group of fish (in this case, the big boss of the wrasses).
This one is controversial however my best fish for invert eating is my iridis. Now, I say it’s controversial as some have bad luck with iridis and eating pests however others have good luck.
Halichoeres chrysus and
Halichoeres leucoxanthus are both good for pest hunting. I would personally go the route of Leucoxanthus as they’re in my opinion the nicer of those two sister species.
A Tamarin would work with a Melanurus however you will need to use an acclimation box as these are more sensitive than the
Halichoeres. I don’t use acclimation boxes with any of my fish but if I had a brand new Anampses, I most likely would use an acclimation box. I know the way I do it is highly unrecommended however I have yet to fail introducing any fish without an acclimation box in my time in this hobby (10+ years).
Now, the Flasher and Fairy Wrasses are odd ones. I assume by ‘type’ you mean they will only display to others in their genus or the other genus (
Cirrhilabrus/
Paracheilinus). I had a flasher (unfortunately he decided to leg it when I added my newest fish) and although their name is literally ‘flasher wrasse’ mine rarely displayed. My lubbocki’s may as well be flasher wrasses because of how much they show off (it’s a daily occurrence).
Cirrhilabrus species will display however they need a reason a lot of the time. This is why
Paracheilinus can be a good pairing with
Cirrhilabrus.
Cirrhilabrus species display to other
Cirrhilabrus species that are close in the hierarchy to show off whose boss IME. They also tend to display to other species with similar body shapes and patterns/colours to them, possibly due to them looking incredibly similar.
