Yellow Banded Wrasse Color

[tyro]

I have a yellow Banded Wrasse. The red on it's body was very pale when I got it. I've had it for 3 or 4 weeks now. It's never buried itself in the sand. All signs point to healthy. Eats, picks at my rocks, and comes out when I feed. other tank inhabitants leave it alone. I noticed a lot of pictures online they have a pale appearance. But then others look super bright.

Just thought I'd ask on here if anyone had similar experience and if they ever found anything that helped them color up?

Other info
34g
Rock has lots of cliffs and tunnels and places to hide.
Healthy copepod and amphipod population.
Variety of food. Dry mix is PE flake, hikari plant based pellets, new life spectrum pellets. Frozen Mysis, Calanus, LRS reef frenzy, splash in a bit of reef nutrition ROE.

Thanks in advance.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have a yellow Banded Wrasse. The red on it's body was very pale when I got it. I've had it for 3 or 4 weeks now. It's never buried itself in the sand. All signs point to healthy. Eats, picks at my rocks, and comes out when I feed. other tank inhabitants leave it alone. I noticed a lot of pictures online they have a pale appearance. But then others look super bright.

Just thought I'd ask on here if anyone had similar experience and if they ever found anything that helped them color up?

Other info
34g
Rock has lots of cliffs and tunnels and places to hide.
Healthy copepod and amphipod population.
Variety of food. Dry mix is PE flake, hikari plant based pellets, new life spectrum pellets. Frozen Mysis, Calanus, LRS reef frenzy, splash in a bit of reef nutrition ROE.

Thanks in advance.

May be a female which I’d less colorful
Any pics under white lighting?

 

[tyro]

I had not thought of that. After looking into it more that is normal for them. Thanks. I'll try to get a picture under whites but I think you nailed it.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

As far as the not burying itself goes, some genus of wrasse (such as Pseudocheilinops) actually sleep in mucus cocoons that they wrap around themselves - sort of like a sleeping bag. I can’t seem to find any info on the sleep habits of the Wetmorella genus (which includes the Yellow Banded), but based on their other noted behaviors, I wouldn’t be surprised to find they do the same.

 

[nereefpat]

As far as the not burying itself goes, some genus of wrasse (such as Pseudocheilinops) actually sleep in mucus cocoons that they wrap around themselves - sort of like a sleeping bag. I can’t seem to find any info on the sleep habits of the Wetmorella genus (which includes the Yellow Banded), but based on their other noted behaviors, I wouldn’t be surprised to find they do the same.

Right, possum wrasses don't sleep/hide in sand.

The Wrasse Guy - All About Reef Safe Wrasses

Introduction Below, you will find sections about: these guidelines, wrasses which qualify as reef safe, the general requirements, feeding, shipping, quarantine, adding new wrasses to your system, mixing species and genera, the acclimation box, protogynous hermaphroditism & sexual dichromatism,

www.thewrasseguy.com

 

[tyro]

Thanks for the info. I know I've read in a few places a 2 inch sand bed is recommended for the possum wrasse as they might bury themselves at first or if stressed. Mine has a few holes in the rockwork it goes to sleep in. I mentioned it as I don't think it's stressed as it hasn't displayed that behavior. Awesome link. Thanks. I see it's not sexually dichromatic. Very good to know. Maybe I can get it to eat some red nori if I'm lucky that could help.

 

[i cant think]

Wetmorella don’t sleep in the sand and do sleep in mucous cocoons, other genera that do this are;
Pseudocheilinops, Pseudocheilinus, Cirrhilabrus, Paracheilinus, Cheilinus, Thalassoma, Cetoscarus, Scarus and others.
There is not difference between male and female with this genus and pseudocheilinops, the reason many are lighter coloured is due to stress and possibly them being nearly introduced. When stressed fish will lose much of their colour and go pale until settled into the tank.

 

[tyro]

Thanks. Yeah the link posted earlier had a lot of great info. Off hand does anyone know what all vitamins or what I could look into to enrich foods to help color. I read that red nori can help red coloring. But any others I'd definitely look into.