The Wrasse Lover's Thread!

[Duke4Life]

what is LRS???

Larrys Reef Services, great stuff would highly recommend.

 

[eatbreakfast]

What are the snail eaters I want to stay away from???? also coral eaters???? I've got the salt bug pretty bad, I love the hobby, don't mind the work, but the worst part of it is seeing something get killed or diving. it's not the killing fish fault, I feel in a way, it's mine for not doing my home work enough. seeing my wants and ignoring the realities. so i'm making the effort to find out the most I can. please again, chime in...

Wrasses don't hunt what is below the sand. And it is Halichoeres, Macropharyngodon, Pseudojuloides, and Anampses that will hunt at the surface of the sand and rockwork. It would mostly be Halichoeres that will hunt snails, but that is as they get larger, and it's not all species. Fairy and flasher wrasses won't bother the microfauna.

Treating all wrasses for internal parasites is a good idea, but it is best to do it in a qt tank, as prazipro will kill all the worms in a tank.

 

[Maritimer]

You bring up an interesting thought, Eatbreakfast - would it be possible to keep a Halichoeres biocellatus or other Halichoeres ('cause I think they're pretty awesome, and leopards scare me a little...) in a tank that also contains sexy shrimp (How did they get the genus name "Thor", anyway?!), snails and featherdusters? ... Or would that just be too darned risky . . .

~Bruce

 

[eatbreakfast]

You bring up an interesting thought, Eatbreakfast - would it be possible to keep a Halichoeres biocellatus or other Halichoeres ('cause I think they're pretty awesome, and leopards scare me a little...) in a tank that also contains sexy shrimp (How did they get the genus name "Thor", anyway?!), snails and featherdusters? ... Or would that just be too darned risky . . .

~Bruce

Sexy shrimp will be on the diet if most wrasses.

More than a few scientific names are tied into mythology. I would imagine Thor is such a case.

 

[saltyhog]

I have an almost 6" H. chrysus that has never looked at my clean up crew or my blood and skunk shrimp. I also had a Vrolik's (H. chrysotaenia) that was over 5" and also never bothered anything. Sexy shrimp?......pretty sure they would have been toast before they hit the sand bed. :)

 

[Duke4Life]

Sexy shrimp?

 

[redwingrob40]

C. Earlei settled in the DT

 

[reef_ranch]

Your Earlie is gorgeous! Nice colors. I just introduced a new one to my DT. One of my favorite fish.

 

[Greenstreet.1]

Sometimes the Earlie looks just like my eight line

 

[redwingrob40]

Your Earlie is gorgeous! Nice colors. I just introduced a new one to my DT. One of my favorite fish.

Congrats they are one of my favorites as well, if not my favorite. Post some pics when you get a chance, always love seeing some Earlei's!!!

 

[Rybren]

Sexy shrimp?

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=497+525+1135&pcatid=1135

 

[demolitionman]

Some of it may be coincidental. But a qt protocol may help. Out of curiosity and to better help diagnose the situation, what are the other fish in the tank? Is there an anemone in the tank? Have you successfully added other fish since you tried adding wrasses? Also, check for stray voltage.

Agree ^, and I would also advocate QT.

I'm definitely not against a QT, but when these fish are going in under 72 hours sometimes under 24hr, it's pretty clear they would just die in QT. QT would be great for keeping them from endangering the rest of the tank of course, but I just want to try to identify this specific problem.

It's like taking your care to the mechanic for a rattle in your suspension and he wants to focus on whether or not you've been doing oil changes regularly enough. He probably has a point....just a different point that why you are there.

I have indeed added other fish since the wrasses and they are healthy and happy. The fish that were there before the wrasses are health and happy.

It's a very strange, very specific, wrasse problem...I can't figure out.

I have 4 Rock Flower Anemones in the tank, 3 very small and 1 pretty large.

Really, from corals and inverts to fish, this has been one of the healthiest, nicest, problem-free tanks I've ever set up....except for how every wrasse I add almost immediately dies of goes MIA. But nothing else.

Would voltage effect a bunch of wrasses to the point of death while leaving every other species in fine shape? Could there be some trace mineral that a wrasse specifically needs or must avoid? I have lots of hitchhiking small serpent starfish. LOTS. But they're all very small. One couldn't eat a wrasse, but could they be finding them and killing/injuring/stressing them?

 

[eatbreakfast]

I'm definitely not against a QT, but when these fish are going in under 72 hours sometimes under 24hr, it's pretty clear they would just die in QT. QT would be great for keeping them from endangering the rest of the tank of course, but I just want to try to identify this specific problem.

It's like taking your care to the mechanic for a rattle in your suspension and he wants to focus on whether or not you've been doing oil changes regularly enough. He probably has a point....just a different point that why you are there.

I have indeed added other fish since the wrasses and they are healthy and happy. The fish that were there before the wrasses are health and happy.

It's a very strange, very specific, wrasse problem...I can't figure out.

I have 4 Rock Flower Anemones in the tank, 3 very small and 1 pretty large.

Really, from corals and inverts to fish, this has been one of the healthiest, nicest, problem-free tanks I've ever set up....except for how every wrasse I add almost immediately dies of goes MIA. But nothing else.

Would voltage effect a bunch of wrasses to the point of death while leaving every other species in fine shape? Could there be some trace mineral that a wrasse specifically needs or must avoid? I have lots of hitchhiking small serpent starfish. LOTS. But they're all very small. One couldn't eat a wrasse, but could they be finding them and killing/injuring/stressing them?

If treating for disease, some may not succumb in qt, it really depends on what they died from.

What other fish specifically are in the tank? Some fish generally are ok with fairy wrasses, but some individuals within a species can harass them.

Stray voltage stays at the surface of the water, if there is an outlet for the current to travel, a fairy wrasse, which has a reputation for jumping, can be a more likely candidate for encountering it at the surface.

 

[Djbrandriff150]

how long has your deep sand bed been set up ???

2 years

 

[cnseekatz]

Wrasses don't hunt what is below the sand. And it is Halichoeres, Macropharyngodon, Pseudojuloides, and Anampses that will hunt at the surface of the sand and rockwork.

Not necessarily true. My Macropharyngodon love to wiggle into the sand to stir stuff up into the water, then eat whatever they've stirred up.

 

[eatbreakfast]

Not necessarily true. My Macropharyngodon love to wiggle into the sand to stir stuff up into the water, then eat whatever they've stirred up.

But that still is the 'surface' depth. They don't delve into the lower depths of a deep sand bed.

 

[evolved]

I have always stayed away from wrasses because I have a deep sand bed and when setting it up, I took a lot of time setting and establishing the fauna. worms, pods, etc. I had a 6 line wrasse in a bio cube once and it ate all the

I think i am going to jump in and start getting wrasses. I know they will start eating the worms and pods. i've been warned. but as I have a 4 inch deep sand bed, what will happen if all the worms and pods get eaten? when I set up my deep sand bed, I was warned that if that happened, it could kill the sand bed . is that true. anybody, everybody, please sound in. need lots of talking into to reassure me that this is going to end up okay, and not with a dead sand bed and a crash...

also very interested in a leopard wrasse, but i hear that if i add one without a quarantine, that it is likely to cause parasites, and I need to treat my tank with prazipro right from the beginning as a precaution every time I add one. please, again everyone, anyone sound in.

As eatbreakfast has pointed out, if you stick with Paracheilinus and/or Cirrhilabrus wrasses, none of that will be a concern.

He looks like a bad dude! Snail eater?

As a Pseudocheilinus, yes. And not a genus which plays nice with other wrasses.

Sometimes the Earlie looks just like my eight line

Me thinks you've never seen an earlei in person in that case. ;)

 

[fishfinn]

Question:
Is it bad to have 2 wrasses in one tank? I have a 300g tank with about a 5" banana wrasse and I jus faded a cleaner wrasse today. My understanding was that 2 wrasses in one tank is fine if they don't have the same color, which they don't. The banana wrasse is showing pretty strong signs of aggression I guess, he chases around the cleaner any chance he gets until I hit him with the algae scraper. Any ideas as to if this will stop eventually or what I should do will be much appreciated, thanks

 

[Greenstreet.1]

Talking about the stripes relax bud seen many in person

 

[petemichelle]

I just had aNaoko's Fairy Wrasse die on me in isolation. I don't have a quarantine tank but when I got him home I took about 1 hour acclimating him and another fairy wrasse, different species. I don't know which one, but I put them each in a different isolation container that hung on the inside of my display tank. fed them 3 or 4 times at least a day, and let them get used to the other occupants. after 1 day the Naoko started to breathe really hard, and hardly move. woke up this morning, which was morning of the second day, and he was stiff as a board... dammnnnn that was a $60 wrasse.... plus pretty rare to get... I was being so careful.. he was eating at the store, and when I got him home for almost a day he ate, brine shrimp. the isolation contain was 1.75 gal, so pretty big. put it inline with the back fan so there was lots of circulation going through there but not too much, made sure the fan was turned down so that he was able to swim and sit still if he wanted to but the brine shrimp would still blow around. I am just so jaded sometimes when I do everything I can think of and still they die. any ideas for the next time guys???

and as to the leopard wrasse, how many guys have success in putting them into their display tank with out quarantine and medication for internal parasites? please sound off and let me know. if they do have any, would it spread to the other fish??? and If I did get some, should I get like 3 and put them all in at once??? same species, or different species leopard or is leopard wrasse in itself a single species? and coloration.