The Wrasse Lover's Thread!

[Tcook]

@i cant think @Slocke
Maybe one of you guys can help me out. I have a sudden aggression onset with my C.Rubrimarginatus and C.Aurantidorsalis targeting my C.Isosceles. They have all been in the tank together for around a year. The Isosceles was there before any of the others and nothing has changed recently other than adding a H.Iridis who has nothing to do with any of the sudden aggression. I can't figure out why they would suddenly be attacking the pintail and it's going to be almost impossible to catch him and put him in an acclimation box. Any ideas?

A common theme with the pintail. One of the most non aggressive faries. The first to be picked on ime. Often reintroduction with a box doesn’t help. You have a nice specimen if it was one recently posted. If it were me I would dump the other two. What size is your tank?

 

[TARHEEL78]

A common theme with the pintail. One of the most non aggressive faries. The first to be picked on ime. Often reintroduction with a box doesn’t help. You have a nice specimen if it was one recently posted. If it were me I would dump the other two. What size is your tank?

I have a 210 gallon 72x30. The pintail has always been somewhat of an aggressor with the other wrasse, he has never been timid like this. It seems the 2-3 ganging up on him is taking its toll.

Perpetrators:

And the sad pintail:

I'm not much of a photographer and I snapped those quickly with my phone/no filter.

 

[ChiCity]

 

[Tcook]

I have a 210 gallon 72x30. The pintail has always been somewhat of an aggressor with the other wrasse, he has never been timid like this. It seems the 2-3 ganging up on him is taking its toll.

Perpetrators:

And the sad pintail:

I'm not much of a photographer and I snapped those quickly with my phone/no filter.

Maybe removing the orangeback may be enough to disperse the aggression. The rubri could then be sumped for a few weeks.

 

[TARHEEL78]

Maybe removing the orangeback may be enough to disperse the aggression. The rubri could then be sumped for a few weeks.

I don't see a way I'm getting any of these fish out unless I sit in front of the rank for hours on end with a fish trap. Lol

 

[JoJosReef]

I don't see a way I'm getting any of these fish out unless I sit in front of the rank for hours on end with a fish trap. Lol

Egg crate partition? Little by little blocking off the fish you want out? May not work (likely not) with your scape.

 

[TARHEEL78]

I don't think it'll work but I'm willing to try. I just hope the aggression possibly stops as quickly as it started.

 

[Crabby48]

@i cant think @Slocke
Maybe one of you guys can help me out. I have a sudden aggression onset with my C.Rubrimarginatus and C.Aurantidorsalis targeting my C.Isosceles. They have all been in the tank together for around a year. The Isosceles was there before any of the others and nothing has changed recently other than adding a H.Iridis who has nothing to do with any of the sudden aggression. I can't figure out why they would suddenly be attacking the pintail and it's going to be almost impossible to catch him and put him in an acclimation box. Any ideas?

I just saw C.Exquisitus chasing him as well now.

Pintail isn’t as aggressive as the others. As wrasse turn male and or mature aggression can start. Also anding iridescent will shuffle the pecking order. Adding any fish wrasse or not they all will shuffle the pecking order

 

[Crabby48]

I don't see a way I'm getting any of these fish out unless I sit in front of the rank for hours on end with a fish trap. Lol

Most wrasse will go in a trap quick for food. Welcome to the love of stocking fairy wrasse.

 

[i cant think]

I have a 210 gallon 72x30. The pintail has always been somewhat of an aggressor with the other wrasse, he has never been timid like this. It seems the 2-3 ganging up on him is taking its toll.

Perpetrators:

And the sad pintail:

I'm not much of a photographer and I snapped those quickly with my phone/no filter.

What it sounds like is exactly what I had in my tank with my Aquamarinus vs my Flavidorsalis.
My Flavidorsalis hit its maximum size quite rapidly and thus became the tank boss.
Now, my Aquamarinus decided to have it’s growth spurt a while ago growing much quicker and bigger than my Flavidorsalis. With this came the change in hierarchy, it was almost a non-stop “fight” with them both going at each other, the Flavi trying to keep everyone in line but the Aqua trying to top the Flavi.

I usually find this occurs when I add new wrasses to the system. This is why I completely mess with the hierarchy by adding several at once rather than just 1 at a time now.

 

[i cant think]

Most wrasse will go in a trap quick for food. Welcome to the love of stocking fairy wrasse.

My wrasses were the first ones to hit the trap when I was trying to remove my flame back the first time. The flame back wasn’t playing and that trap was a failure for her.

 

[sck90]

Here are two shots of my pintail cruising in front of my big bubble coral.

Merry Christmas !

 

[i cant think]

Here are two shots of my pintail cruising in front of my big bubble coral.

Merry Christmas !

dang… do I pull the trigger on another Isosceles again

 

[Slocke]

 

[85173]

@TARHEEL78 I have tagged you into a thread by @sdreef on a method for catching difficult fish. Might help with your wrasse issue.

 

[sdreef]

@TARHEEL78 I have tagged you into a thread by @sdreef on a method for catching difficult fish. Might help with your wrasse issue.

@TARHEEL78, my system is 84x34. In a non-emergency situation, I personally would start with a fish trap for a fairy wrasse. If you catch any of the aggressors, I would separate them to an acclimation box, sump, or other holding system until I caught the desired wrasse. In a time sensitive situation or if I wanted quick results I have used the coralling technique that @GBRsouth shared. It is very effective, but it helps to have a second set of hands.

Method for Quickly Catching Difficult Fish Out of a Large Reef Tank with a Net

There are several techniques for catching a fish out of a reef tank. None of them are perfect or work equally for all fish, and many require time and patience. I have a 330 gallon mixed reef that's about 16 months old. In the past year, there have been a couple occasions where I've needed to...

www.reef2reef.com

Good luck!


Also, some wrasse photos from this morning.
Potter's Leopard, M. geoffroyi

Radiant, H. iridis

Diamond-tail Flasher, P. attenuatus

 

[OrchidMiss]

@TARHEEL78, my system is 84x34. In a non-emergency situation, I personally would start with a fish trap for a fairy wrasse. If you catch any of the aggressors, I would separate them to an acclimation box, sump, or other holding system until I caught the desired wrasse. In a time sensitive situation or if I wanted quick results I have used the coralling technique that @GBRsouth shared. It is very effective, but it helps to have a second set of hands.

Method for Quickly Catching Difficult Fish Out of a Large Reef Tank with a Net

There are several techniques for catching a fish out of a reef tank. None of them are perfect or work equally for all fish, and many require time and patience. I have a 330 gallon mixed reef that's about 16 months old. In the past year, there have been a couple occasions where I've needed to...

www.reef2reef.com

Good luck!


Also, some wrasse photos from this morning.
Potter's Leopard, M. geoffroyi

Radiant, H. iridis

Diamond-tail Flasher, P. attenuatus

Absolutely stunning fish you have

 

[sdreef]

Absolutely stunning fish you have

Thank you

 

[Crabby48]

Feed me!

Nevermind I’ll hunt

 

[Cael Gallery]

Some new wrasses i got for the 200. I'm up to 19 wrasses and about 32 fish total.
Late initial phase Sunset wrasse (Thalassoma lutescens)
Terminal Japanese wrasse (Pseudocoris yamashiroi)
Terminal Blackbarred wrasse (Thalassoma nigrofasciatum)
Terminal Richmond's wrasse (Halichoeres richmondi)
and a gorgeous Five-stripe hogfish (Bodianus paraleucosticticus)
I looked and B.paraleucosticticus sell for $5500 usd over in the US! I paid $1000 aud for this guy, it's crazy the price goes up like 7x when they're exported. It goes both ways too though, we pay absurd prices for some fish which are affordable in the US. I guess the importers/exporters just take a huge cut.

They've been in almost 3 days at this point so i've made some observations.
The P.yamashiroi immediately buried itself and still hasn't come out yet. The H.richmondi was bought as a replacement for my melanurus that died. It's occured to me that they're literally the same as melanurus except they look significantly nicer in every way, though they are much more expensive in australia.
The hogfish is doing really well and eating everything, though it definitely isn't used to being in such a well stocked tank.
The 2 Thalassoma were introduced to a tank that already has my almost 4" lightning wrasse (T.quinquevittatum). The male T.nigrofasciatum was ignored by the lightning but the lutescens which is the same size got absolutely rinsed. I could see it was trying to put up a fight against the signifcantly smaller lightning, but it was just way too fast and kept 'dive bombing' him. After a few hours the T.nigrofasciatum began chasing both the lightning and lutescens around but fairly lazily. It's weird that the lightning was only hostile to one of the larger thalassomas. I ended up catching both the lightning and nigrofasciatum and will be sumping both of them for a couple weeks to give my other wrasses a chance to establish. Once i removed them the lutescens immediately started cruising comfortably around the tank, so far he's been a model citizen. They seem to be much more timid than other Thalassoma and can get picked on easier.