Wrasses Getting Beat Up or Something More Sinister?

[Brit’s Fish]

I have two lovely and newer wrasses in one of my reef tanks - and Exquisite Fairy Wrasse and a Carpenter’s Flasher Wrasse. They’re both very peaceful and get along with my Midas Blenny swimmingly. (Pun intended lol)
However, I also have a Pixy Hawk in this tank. I don’t see him bothering the wrasses very often, in fact, other than feeding time, they are usually at opposite ends of the tank.
I have noticed a weird patch of scales on the Exquisite wrasse’s right side that almost looks like a bite and the other day, when I first saw it, he spent most of the day hiding is his little cave where he sleeps every night. He came out to eat but went back to hiding pretty quickly. By that night and since then, he’s out and about like nothing is wrong. The patch isn’t getting worse or bigger, just still noticeably there.
The Carpenter’s Flasher Wrasse has been doing his thing too... out and about, eating, no hiding but I noticed the ends of his pectoral fins look a little beat up. His pectoral fin on the left side also looks like it’s missing a chunk on the end.
Do you think the Pixy Hawk is beating them up or could this be a sign of some disease? The pictures are not great because these guys don’t ever sit still.

 

[HairyGary]

Could be a couple things. Both of these wrasse will wedge themselves in crevices and make mucous cocoons when the sleep, so they could be from rubbing up against the rocks at night. Secondly, have you noticed the midas going after them? I have seen very aggressive midas blennies before so could be him at certain points of the day. The marks look more like scraps from rocks. I would just keep an eye on them and make sure they continue to eat. I would think they should be fine.

 

[Brit’s Fish]

Could be a couple things. Both of these wrasse will wedge themselves in crevices and make mucous cocoons when the sleep, so they could be from rubbing up against the rocks at night. Secondly, have you noticed the midas going after them? I have seen very aggressive midas blennies before so could be him at certain points of the day. The marks look more like scraps from rocks. I would just keep an eye on them and make sure they continue to eat. I would think they should be fine.

Yeah, I had thought about the rocks too. They are both sleeping in sort of small rock caves. I did notice the Midas Blenny going after them at first, but hadn’t seen it in a few days. It could be happening at night though when they’re ready to sleep because the MB also likes their caves and will try to steal them.
thanks for your reply! I’m going to keep an eye on the Midas Blenny!

 

[Brit’s Fish]

Could be a couple things. Both of these wrasse will wedge themselves in crevices and make mucous cocoons when the sleep, so they could be from rubbing up against the rocks at night. Secondly, have you noticed the midas going after them? I have seen very aggressive midas blennies before so could be him at certain points of the day. The marks look more like scraps from rocks. I would just keep an eye on them and make sure they continue to eat. I would think they should be fine.

Turns out it was definitely the Pixy Hawkfish. Saw him chasing the wrasses this morning and the Exquisite Wrasse has a big bite mark on his side.
Sadly, Pixy will be going back to the LFS. Bummer because I liked him but I can’t have that in my tank.

 

[Brit’s Fish]

Sadder update - I couldn’t catch the Hawkfish without basically breaking my tank down. The Wrasse was pretty easy to catch so I took it as a sign and moved him into my other tank which has far more peaceful fish - purple Firefish, tailspot Blenny, 1 Banggai Cardinal & a fairly mature cleanup crew. He looked fine other than the sore on his side from being bitten and he ate plenty of food right after getting in there. This morning though, I couldn’t find him at all at first. I saw the whole cleanup crew in the back corner though & then realized what they were doing. My poor little guy! I really thought he would be a lot safer in there but he just didn’t make it. I feel awful!

 

[OrionN]

Sorry to hear about your Exquisite.
Hope your Yellow fin Flasher will do great in his new home.
He is a P. flavinanalis instead of P. carpenteri

 

[Brit’s Fish]

Sorry to hear about your Exquisite.
Hope your Yellow fin Flasher will do great in his new home.
He is a P. flavinanalis instead of P. carpenteri

Oh wow! I didn’t know he’d been mislabeled! Thank you for the correct ID!!
He’s doing great actually... I ended up kind of letting them work it out in his original tank since he also proved to be impossible to catch. He seems to be besties with the Midas Blenny and they kind of hang out together all the time. The Hawkfish has since settled down and I think he now realizes that no one is going anywhere so he has to just deal with it.
Edit: they will all be moving to a 90 gallon tank in the next month or so, so that should make everyone very happy!