The Wrasse Lover's Thread!

[i cant think]

Very interesting. I'm not sure if it’s just because he's new to the tank but he rarely ever puts his fins up.

I had that with mine - if there’s other wrasses in the tank, they can be a bit shier to start with, but once they settle in after a couple of weeks they start flaring their fins usually.

 

[i cant think]

Well, the 5 foot has almost all my wrasses back in now;

So far the wrasses are;
• Cirrhilabrus lineatus
• Cirrhilabrus katherinae
• Cirrhilabrus exquisitus (x2)
• Halichoeres iridis
• Halichoeres leucoxanthus
• Pseudojuloides splendens

Plus the Foxface as the only Non-wrasse fish so far

 

[TylerHaworth]

Coming along nicely!

 

[i cant think]

Safe to say the wrasses are back to their normal self again… Photobombing coral photos

 

[mycats23]

I want a tank with wrasse and gobies

 

[mapman]

New leopard wrasse out and about on the first day

 

[EricR]

My first ever wrasse - Carpenter's flasher wrasse.
Ordered 1, received 2 on 7/24/2026.

Haven't been able to really get a good picture.
I think this is the slightly smaller of the two:

Can kinda see both here but not well:

I assume I'll have to re-home one at some point but so far there hasn't been any aggression so just keeping an eye on them for now.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Well, I'm finally getting around to upgrading my 240g to a much larger system, a 900g display with a few hundred gallon sump.

Display is mostly tangs, angels, and butterflies, but lots of other odds and ends including tilefish, fusiliers, damsels, clowns, anthias, chromis, jawfish, and triggers.

Current wrasses that will be moving to this tank include:
1 Supermale Bird Wrasse (Gomphosus varius)
1 Pink face wrasse (Thalassoma quinquevittatum)
1 Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus)
1 Longfin Fairy Wrasse (Cirrhilabrus rubriventralis)
1 Moyers Leopard Wrasse (Macropharyngodon moyeri)

Any other suggestions? Contemplating adding a couple smaller female bird wrasses, a few other fairy wrasses, a couple pencil wrasses, and a black leopard wrasse.

Bird Wrasse photo (in the 240g where he's waiting until I get the 900g moved in the next couple weeks) for tax:

 

[christinna77]

Some new pictures from today!

 

[skidmarkstevie]

My favorite fish. Does such a good job and is super peaceful. Unless of course you're a pod.

 

[Michael Hughes]

1 Pink face wrasse (Thalassoma quinquevittatum)

What's your experience with the pink face? I've heard they're incredibly aggressive. Has this been your experience?

 

[Fishfreak2009]

What's your experience with the pink face? I've heard they're incredibly aggressive. Has this been your experience?

Mine actually came with the 900g and has been a model citizen so far with other fish. I think because he was small and grew up with all the other much larger fish, he didn't pick up any bad habits.

 

[Cael Gallery]

What's your experience with the pink face? I've heard they're incredibly aggressive. Has this been your experience?

I've been out of the hobby for a couple years now, but i used to have a roughly 4-4.5" pinkface in my 200g fowlr with about 15 other wrasses. It was easily the most active fish in the tank. Incredibly fast moving and it never sat still. Yes, it was a bit of a bully, but only to a couple of the wrasses, particularly my similarly sized Pixy wrasse (Coris pictoides). The pinkface would swoop in and divebomb the pixy wrasse occasionally, and swiftly exit before it could retaliate. It was kept mostly in check by my two larger Thalassoma wrasses (a 5" lutescens and 6" nigrofasciatum). If not for the several larger boisterous wrasses, and the tank bosses (desjardini and a personifer), it likely would have been more of a bully towards the smaller wrasses in that tank. Thalassoma wrasses generally don't bother non-wrasse fish.

Many people will say that Thalassoma wrasses in general are too aggressive to be kept with other wrasses, but in my experience it is doable, and well worth it for how active and beautiful they are, but its highly dependent on the other fish stocked. I'm not caught up on this thread, what kind of tank do you have and what other wrasses do you have?

 

[Koty]

Should have post it here

 

[Michael Hughes]

I've been out of the hobby for a couple years now, but i used to have a roughly 4-4.5" pinkface in my 200g fowlr with about 15 other wrasses. It was easily the most active fish in the tank. Incredibly fast moving and it never sat still. Yes, it was a bit of a bully, but only to a couple of the wrasses, particularly my similarly sized Pixy wrasse (Coris pictoides). The pinkface would swoop in and divebomb the pixy wrasse occasionally, and swiftly exit before it could retaliate. It was kept mostly in check by my two larger Thalassoma wrasses (a 5" lutescens and 6" nigrofasciatum). If not for the several larger boisterous wrasses, and the tank bosses (desjardini and a personifer), it likely would have been more of a bully towards the smaller wrasses in that tank. Thalassoma wrasses generally don't bother non-wrasse fish.

Many people will say that Thalassoma wrasses in general are too aggressive to be kept with other wrasses, but in my experience it is doable, and well worth it for how active and beautiful they are, but its highly dependent on the other fish stocked. I'm not caught up on this thread, what kind of tank do you have and what other wrasses do you have?

This is great info, thanks!

I have a new (~6 months) mixed reef, 125g, so far with two ocellaris, a red firefish, and engineer goby. I'm taking my time with stocking. The only wrasses on my list so far are melanurus and a McCosker's flasher. Other planned additions are a copperband, 6 lyretail anthias, royal gramma, tomini tang (maybe), longnose hawkfish, and possibly a blue throat trigger.

I've always liked the look of Thalassoma wrasses (pinkface and bluehead especially) but I think they may be too boisterous for my current tank. I have often thought of running a fowlr for all the butterflies, angels, and wrasses I'd be unwilling to risk in my reef tank - harlequin tusk at the top of the list! But the pinkface is such a beautiful species.