Wrasses Recomendations for a 320 DT

[OrionN]

My wrasse fever in in full swing. I am setting up my 320 with a few Flasher and Fairy wrasses. I wonder if what I have in mind is workable.

The tank is a external overflow 320 with tight cover for sure. There will be no holes for small wrasses to jump out. Once invertebrates establish, the wrasses will be the first to go in.
One potential problem is in the tank, there will be a numbers of anemones, Giganea, Haddoni and Magnifica. My Leopard trio have navigated these dangerous anemone without problem so I hope Fairy and Flasher wrasses will do the same. In addition to the anemones, there will be mostly SPS with a few minor LPS (Fungia, Catalaphyllia and Euphyllia).
I planed to have harems of three species of Flasher wrasses P. flavianalis, P. carpenteri, and P. mccoskeri. P planed to have one male of each species and two or so females of each species, about 10 total. This harem idea was from reading Scott Michael books. I went online and read newer information from various people, especially from evolved and thinking that I will have to ditch this wrasses harem thing.
In addition to these, I like to add two or more male Fairy wrasses of species yet to be determine. I also may added 4-6 Royal Gramma to the mix.

Eventually I wanted to added 3 Leopard wrasses. Tangs will be added, in order Tomini, Foxface Lo, Purple, and Powder blue.

Other fishes will be 3-4 Flame angels, two Regal angels. The Regal angels will likely be in before Purple and Powder blue tangs. 2 Marine Beta. Last to go in will be an Australian Harlequin Tusk. I have 120 gal, 40 gal and 65 gal tanks in addition to the 320. All fish will be healthy and fat before going into the 320 DT. Maybe I have to ditch the Tusk. I love him but can do without him if there is real potential of eating my smaller wrasses. I target feed my Tusk a lot by hand. He eats small cut of fish from my hand until he eats no more. Over several years, I never have my Tusk eaten any of my shrimp or small fish like Royal Gramma, small clowns and damsels. When I get back from vacations, I always count all my small fish and account for my cleaner shrimp because I do worry that he have them for snack.

I do have a Sailfin/Blue throat Fairy wrasse. I think I will keep him in my 65 gal system because I find out from reading that he is too aggressive to be very nice with smaller flasher wrasses.

What do the experts think? Workable? I am very new to wrasses and really love these active and beautiful fishes.

 

[eatbreakfast]

My wrasse fever in in full swing. I am setting up my 320 with a few Flasher and Fairy wrasses. I wonder if what I have in mind is workable.

The tank is a external overflow 320 with tight cover for sure. There will be no holes for small wrasses to jump out. Once invertebrates establish, the wrasses will be the first to go in.
One potential problem is in the tank, there will be a numbers of anemones, Giganea, Haddoni and Magnifica. My Leopard trio have navigated these dangerous anemone without problem so I hope Fairy and Flasher wrasses will do the same. In addition to the anemones, there will be mostly SPS with a few minor LPS (Fungia, Catalaphyllia and Euphyllia).
I planed to have harems of three species of Flasher wrasses P. flavianalis, P. carpenteri, and P. mccoskeri. P planed to have one male of each species and two or so females of each species, about 10 total. This harem idea was from reading Scott Michael books. I went online and read newer information from various people, especially from evolved and thinking that I will have to ditch this wrasses harem thing.
In addition to these, I like to add two or more male Fairy wrasses of species yet to be determine. I also may added 4-6 Royal Gramma to the mix.

Eventually I wanted to added 3 Leopard wrasses. Tangs will be added, in order Tomini, Foxface Lo, Purple, and Powder blue.

Other fishes will be 3-4 Flame angels, two Regal angels. The Regal angels will likely be in before Purple and Powder blue tangs. 2 Marine Beta. Last to go in will be an Australian Harlequin Tusk. I have 120 gal, 40 gal and 65 gal tanks in addition to the 320. All fish will be healthy and fat before going into the 320 DT. Maybe I have to ditch the Tusk. I love him but can do without him if there is real potential of eating my smaller wrasses. I target feed my Tusk a lot by hand. He eats small cut of fish from my hand until he eat no more. Over several years, I never have my Tusk eaten any of my shrimp or small fish like Royal Gramma, small clowns and damsels. When I get back from vacations, I always count all my small fish and account for my cleaner shrimp because I do worry that he have them for snack.

I do have a Sailfin/Bluet throat Fairy wrasse. I think I will keep him in my 65 gal system because I find out from reading that he is too aggressive to be very nice with smaller flasher wrasses.

What do the experts think? Workable? I am very new to wrasses and really love these active and beautiful fishes.

I completely agrre with not doing harems of any one species of fairy or flasher wrasse, as it seldom works out longterm.

The haddoni and gigantea concern me. Fairy and flasher wrasses can be quite a bit more reckless than leopard wrasses when they are excited. So they are more likely to inadvertently ending up darting into a carpet. Having territorial clowns hosting in the carpets can help, but not entirely eliminate the risk.

I have found that as tuskfish mature they are more aggressive toward other labrids. This aggression seems to start once they get around 5", so I probably would advise against him being kept with other wrasses longterm.

 

[OrionN]

Thanks eatbreakfast.

Any species recommendation would be greatly welcome. Looks and compatibility is my goals. I am not so much into the rare and expensive thing.
Two fairy wrasses that looks just as nice, one 300 due to being less common and one 30 because he is widely available, I will choose the 30 dollars wrasse almost every time. I will buy a 800 dollars Gigantea or a 600 dollars fish if I think that they are beautiful and I don't have cheaper option to fill in what I have in mind.

 

[eatbreakfast]

Lineatus, rubrimarginatus, and rhomboidalis are my three favorite as far as looks go. I am also a fan of isosceles. Jordani are very bright. And solorensis, although common, is very colorful. All of those species are well-behaved.

 

[OrionN]

Are there any Flasher or Fairy that pair up or form harem in small tank of their own? 65 or 40 gal DT?
I love to keep breeding units of smaller fishes and successful in keeping a number of smaller fish that spawned in my tank. I would love to do this with wrasses if possible.
Sixline wrasse does not count.

 

[eatbreakfast]

There are no fairy or flasher wrasses that you could do that with, but it's possible with Wetmorella species or the pink streaked wrasse.

 

[Elegance Coral]

Hello OrionN,
I'm sure you're aware of the the fish/anemone risk. I wouldn't worry about the gigantea, but the haddoni????????
The first problem you will likely run into, trying to produce harems of flasher wrasses, is simply finding females. The vast majority offered for sale are already male.
With the fairies I would buy females if possible. They are less expensive, and typically hardier IMHO. They also grow and change to male quickly.
Two female fairies that mature together in the same tank are much more likely to get along than two adult males you just drop in the tank together.
Peace
EC

 

[Elegance Coral]

You can produce spawning groups of fairies.

 

[OrionN]

I am checking Live Aquaria. They do have female flasher and fairy wrasses available at a higher price than terminal males of the same species. In preparation I put in a bunch of in stock notification request and with in a a few days I got my notifications. I plan to order them in mass when I have my tank ready from Live Aquaria.

EC,
It is good to converse with you. Have done this for a long while.
Gigantea are agressive fish eater. As much as Haddoni.

 

[4FordFamily]

Lineatus, rubrimarginatus, and rhomboidalis are my three favorite as far as looks go. I am also a fan of isosceles. Jordani are very bright. And solorensis, although common, is very colorful. All of those species are well-behaved.

Some of my absolute favorites!

 

[eatbreakfast]

You can produce spawning groups of fairies.

But this doesn't last long term. Females almost always transition into males rather quickly, and two males of the same species are very intolerant of each other.

 

[OrionN]

Very nice video.I have Flame Angels that spawned almost daily.
EC,
How long have you keep that harem of Flame Wrasses?
It seem that by most accounts, it will not last long term. A lot of us do like to keep breeding fish, not to raise them or anything. To me, when I can get my fish to spawned, is when I see most interesting behavior and a confirmation that I am doing a good job at taken care of them.

 

[OrionN]

Well so far I got the following wrasse in my 320 DT. Labouti, Exquisite, Lubbock Fairy wrasses. Also have a Yellowfin Flasher wrasse. I am getting a Eightline Flasher wrasse female and will add her whenever I think she is doing well and hold her own in DT. Wish me luck. I lost one healthy Ruby Longfin Fairy. He was doing well eating well and not thin. One day return from work he was dead on the sand. He eating well that morning