Yellow tail wrasse (tamarin?)

x Sarah x · Oct 28, 2009

Hi there, i've just joined the forum so hello to everyone :smile:

I have a question, we have just aquired a yellow tail wrasse, after being in the tank for 24 hours it disappeared over night, we thought the worse and were rather sad...

however another 24 hours later and it reappeared! it was swimming around and eating algae off the rocks, and sure enough not long later disappeared again! i have no clue where it goes, and since has been going into hiding mostly over night and several hours throughout the day then coming out again and acting completely normal!

I just wondered really, is this normal for the species, it worries us everytime its gone, as its nowhere to be seen and gone for a rather long time, but always come back out looking great!

ficklefins · Oct 28, 2009

They sleep in the sandbed at night and take a little while to adjust to your light schedule. Once it gets use to your light period you will see it more often during the day, but once those lights go off you will see a puff of sand and back to bed it goes.

Welcome to R2R Sarah

x Sarah x · Oct 28, 2009

Wow that makes huge sense, we were sitting watching TV the night we got him/her and all of a sudden there was a massive puff of sand and thats when it disappeared!

My OH did say he swears it was the wrasse going under the sand, but there were other fish around the area and i was more convinced it was the blue tang playing again.

I found it hard to believe the wrasse could lie under the sand for so long without being uncovered, i just can't picture it lying so still under there :tongue:

Sand sifting snails won't pose a problem will they?
I know they live under the sand and eat any dead fish that are lying on the bottom, i wouldn't have thought they'd prey upon live fish but better safe than sorry i say, so worth asking?

JR's Reef · Oct 28, 2009

Welome to R2R!

Brad Syphus · Oct 28, 2009

This is perfectly normal for a tamarin wrasse. They will bury in the sand at night and hunt for food in the rocks all day long. Hopefully your tank is well established with a good amount of live food, (copepods). Their main diet is copepods.

x Sarah x · Oct 28, 2009

See now we were told they need live rock, but were not told why (silly man)

I know there are copepods in the tank, however i don't know as to what extent.

The guy had a smaller wrasse that hes managed to get eating frozen foods, but he recommended we have the larger one as its less likely to be bothered by the other fish and he said it should do ok because we have a large amount of live rock in the aquarium.

It spends all its time grazing on the rocks and hard coral skeletons. I hope the tank is good enough for it, such a stunning fish!

Sikryd · Oct 28, 2009

Brad Syphus said:
This is perfectly normal for a tamarin wrasse. They will bury in the sand at night and hunt for food in the rocks all day long. Hopefully your tank is well established with a good amount of live food, (copepods). Their main diet is copepods.

+1

That is why I am waiting to transfer to the new tank, and get it established before I pick up some of the more "finicky" wrasses that stick to copepods until they switch over to mysis/flake/pellets/ect.

Watch the tank about an hour before lights out and you will see where they all sleep. All mine have there own little areas where they go bury themselves in the sand. A couple of my wrasses sleep in the rocks though. One of them sleeps vertically. Its pretty funny to see.

Welcome to R2R!

Brad Syphus · Oct 28, 2009

Sikryd said:
+1

That is why I am waiting to transfer to the new tank, and get it established before I pick up some of the more "finicky" wrasses that stick to copepods until they switch over to mysis/flake/pellets/ect.

Watch the tank about an hour before lights out and you will see where they all sleep. All mine have there own little areas where they go bury themselves in the sand. A couple of my wrasses sleep in the rocks though. One of them sleeps vertically. Its pretty funny to see.

Welcome to R2R!

You must have a few fairy wrasses also.
Fairy & flasher wrasses sleep in the rocks and build a mucouse cacoon around themselves for protection @ night.

x Sarah x · Oct 28, 2009

Can't wait to see it do it!

Unfortunately the only other wrasse i have kept is a Blue streak cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus) and it never used to sleep, just constantly swim around cleaning the fish.

Sikryd · Oct 28, 2009

Brad Syphus said:
You must have a few fairy wrasses also.
Fairy & flasher wrasses sleep in the rocks and build a mucouse cacoon around themselves for protection @ night.

Yep - big mix of wrasses.

x Sarah x said:
Can't wait to see it do it!

Unfortunately the only other wrasse i have kept is a Blue streak cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus) and it never used to sleep, just constantly swim around cleaning the fish.

Its fun watching them burrow into the sand. Mine usually do it like clockwork ~ 1/2 hour before final lights out.

Brad Syphus · Oct 28, 2009

Trust me, wrasses are very addictive, be careful or they could take over your tank. LOL

x Sarah x · Oct 28, 2009

may take a few more days then for it to get used to our routine, we've only had it about 3 days, maybe thats why its a little unpredictable at the moment