For many months my Katherine's fairy and Mauritian flasher have been very reclusive - both species that shouldn’t be spending most of the day under a rock. I suspected my H. marginatus as the cause. While he’s never hurt anyone he is very pushy, especially around feeding time, which in my case is 5 times a day. I think him being much bigger made him even more intimidating.
I decided to catch him and move him to a cycled QT tank for two weeks, while observing the rest for any behavioral changes. To my surprise, not even an hour after removing him, the Katherine's and Mauritian were out swimming around as if they own the place.
I’ve started thinking about a Halichoeres to take his place. The candidates, in order of preference are luecurus, timorensis or biocellatus. First I’ll try to find a leucurus.
I notice online that there is quite a bit of color variation in leucurus. Is that due to differences in maturity, or are there regional variants I need to be aware of? I’m particularly attracted to the very turquoise and orange ones.
I’ve never actually seen them for sale over here, so I’ll have to get an LFS to keep an eye on the lists and special order one for me. This is why I’m asking about regional variants. I might be able to ask for a photo from the collector. Are there any physical attributes I can use to positively identify even a juvenile? Since adult size and temperament is important, I wouldn’t want to make the mistake I made with the marginatus, which was actually a biocellatus I ordered.