Wrasse question

[therightcoast]

I'm new to the saltwater world. I bought 3 wrasse today a 8 line, 6 line and a Christmas. When I introduced them to the tank they all vanished and hid like so bad I've only found one. Not gonna go search for them by taking down all the rock work but is this a normal thing that occurs with them?

 

[hinovak]

Totally normal, I won't see some of my wrasses for a couple days on occasion

 

[therightcoast]

Just making sure it wasn't a sign that they were stressed to the death point

 

[hinovak]

I mean they will hide when they are stressed really bad, but hiding is completely normal even for a happy wrasse. My Xmas wrasse would dive bomb into the sand bed all the time, I was always amazed he did not knock himself out when he would do this.

 

[hinovak]

The guys at my lfs have a wrasse that is about a foot and a half long. Watching him burry himself is hilarious.

 

[therightcoast]

Well I am sitting on my couch staring at my tank and the 6 line has came out and started swimming around exploring but no visual of the other 2 they have been hiding since I put them in at 6pm

 

[hinovak]

I would not worry yet. I think I once went 3 days with out seeing my Xmas wrasse. Just make sure you do your research on what species you are putting in the tank together. Some hate each other, usually if they are similar in color or striped the same. Your lfs should be helpful in helping you choose tank mates.

 

[4FordFamily]

Some wrasse can hide for weeks even months.

Your 6line is going to likely bully the snot out of your other wrasses. I really hate those things they're nasty

 

[therightcoast]

He's half the size of the others so hopefully that helps

 

[4FordFamily]

He's half the size of the others so hopefully that helps

I've seen sixline bully fish that are literally 10x larger. I had one bully a banana wrasse years ago...

 

[eatbreakfast]

Hiding is normal. The christmas wrasse will bury, and may remain buried for some time. Whatever you do don't go digging around for it, it will come out on it's own.

The sixline may become a bully, but depending on which eightline and which christmas wrasse species you have, some of those can be fairly aggressive too.

 

[therightcoast]

Well here is the plan. And yall stop me if I'm a complete idiot. I'm growing coral and all that good stuff in a bio cube. It's cycled all tests are good and have 3 wrasse 3 small shrimp a large spider looking crab and about 15 little cleaner crabs. I bought this tank with the purpose of getting my daughter a mandarin goby because that what she wants. I have since purchased a 90 gallon R/R tank that I'm going to build slowly (like 2 month build). So my thoughts are while the cubes getting really established and I solve the copepods situation in going to let's these wrasse do there thing then transfer them to the big tank. Any input or problems with that let me know. Like I said this is my new obsession I can tell but I'm still in the learning portion of it.

 

[eatbreakfast]

Sixline, christmas, and a type of eightline all eat pods, thus slowing the process of the tank being maturing enough for a mandarin.

 

[therightcoast]

Ok well I guess the 2 month plans needs to get rolling faster then lol

 

[hinovak]

It's a fun, addicting hobby! My best recommendation is read read read, and take bit of info from everyone, then apply your own style for whatever works best for you, I have seen it all here, there are people who don't do things that I personally believe in for keeping a successful reef, and they have a fantastic looking tank. My personal recommendation is to stay on top of water changes. That will save you so much trouble in the long run.

 

[Eienna]

Agreed, watch that sixline. He may bully the other two to death/keep them buried. There are always exceptions, but they can be REALLY nasty.

 

[The Kahnasaur]

Sixline, christmas, and a type of eightline all eat pods, thus slowing the process of the tank being maturing enough for a mandarin.

Definitely agree with this. I don't know from personal experience but I would think it would be hard to keep a mandarin fed with these 3 wrasse(s ?) in the tank. They are much more aggressive and efficient hunters than the mandarin and might eat everything before the mandarin can have his share.

 

[ngvu1]

Are the fish wild caught from a local fish store?
I bought a red line wrasse, wild caught, 6 months ago. I dropped it in and saw it swimming for a few minutes..... then poof never saw it again. 4 months ago I bought another wrasse, yellow coris. The yellow coris was bought from a hobbyist who had it for a while in his nano cube. Dropped it in did not see it for a few days, so I thought it would be like the other wrasse. I told my reef buddy "Another $10 down the toilet". I went to a store and bought a Hawaiian cleaner wrasse (impulse buy without doing research :)). It did not come out the next day. I called my reef buddy and said "There goes my $40". However, the cleaner wrasse came out after hiding for 4 days. The yellow coris also came out after 1 week of hiding. Of course I called my buddy and said "The $40 came back and so did the $10" :)

I still have those wrasses today. They don't like each other very much; the cleaner used to bite and chase the coris once in a while, but that is a different story.

If you are new and happen to have a few reefers around, I suggest you buy "used" fish. They are 100% better in survival and there is no need for acclimation which sometime cause more harm that help for a beginner.

 

[Eienna]

To clarify, that means they don't need to get used to aquarium life like a recently-captured specimen, not that they don't need water acclimation upon arrival. :)

 

[therightcoast]

The six line is swimming around but stays right on the reef still haven't seen the other two. I told my wife I spent 75 bucks for hiding fish.