adult red coris wrasse

[microbubbles]

i just saw one of these... and i was blown away

right before my impulses were about to take over, i asked the reef-compatability question and i was so disappointed w/ the answer. anybody else love these fish? i almost want to start and aggro fish tank

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

I've got one in my reef. No problems. They are a beautiful fish in both juvinle and adult coloraition. I got him from a local club member. He was about half way thru changing to an adult coloraition. He is a beautiful fish. The only problem I had with him was he tended to turn over rocks that were on the sand bed. He wasn't eating any corals, just looking for food under the rocks.

I've since moved him into my 400 G tank and within 2 weeks, he completed his transfermation to full adult color. he's a beautiful fish and I haven't seen him bother anything. In my little reef, I have LPS, SPS, Softies, Shrooms, Zoa's and clams.

here's an old pic from back in October of last year when he was between color changes. The clam is closed up because the lights had just come on and it wasn't opened up yet.

 

[FishyBiz]

I also have one in my reef. He/She is my favorite fish. Doesnt bother anything but blown63chevy is right. They love to turn stuff over so you better glue it down.

 

[microbubbles]

right on!
so should i get the juvenile then? it's seems soooooooo tempting to get an adult w/ that gorgeous coloration. should just test him out for a week or two in a quaratine w/ some corals?
also- the reef-safe part... it's the exception and not the rule, right? i'd hate to buy one and have to let it go. thanks in advance!

 

[tptp279]

they are suppose to eat snails and hermits though...

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

I'll post this once again as I can't find where I originally put it so bear with me.

All fish are different, just like us. They all have a personality and wll do different things in different enviroments. To say any fish is reef safe, is a bit of a misnomer I beleive. Some do great in a reef enviroment, some don't. Even of teh same speices.

On thing I've noticed though over the years is that fish can somewhat be taught if you will, a new behaovor. They are smart.

I've kept several fish in my tanks that others have had nothing but bad luck with. Why are mine different? I don't know. But I can give you this advice. I feed my fish, just about every day. They are accustomed, or "trained" to get their food from me. So because of that, they don't go "looking" for other foods to eat. They look for ME to feed them.

Here's another thing about the "conditioning". I bought a large FOWLR setup from a guy, fish and all. He had the system for over 3 years. Some of the fish are large tangs that came with the system. All he ever fed the fish were sinking pellets and sheets of Nori.

Whe I got them, I tried to feed them frozen cubes of Brine and other foods. If I just dropped the cube in the tank, they ignored it because it floated on the waters surface. If I thawed it out and poured it in where the food sank, they would devour it. If I put a sheet of Nori in the tank, floating on the surface, they would devour it however. Why? Becaus ethats what they had been "conditioned" to eat, sinking food or floating sheets of nori, nothing else.

I have been slowly converting the tank over to a reef. I removed the rock that came with the tank and added real coral LR. It has some alage growth on it and yet the tangs and even the rabbit fish don't touch it. Why? My guess is because it's been so long since they saw any, they are now conditioned not to eat it.

Sorry for the long post and you may disagree with me but these are MY observations on MY tanks for the last 7 years. Good luck.

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7391879#post7391879 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tptp279
they are suppose to eat snails and hermits though...

he never touched a single one in either tank I have him in.

 

[microbubbles]

awesome. no doubt, i will set up an observation tank w/ chap frags, crabs and snails just to see how the fish will react. if all goes well, i'll add that beauty to my harem.

OH! i should;ve mentioned this, but i haven't actually started this reef yet. it has been ready for stocking for about a month but i've been taking it really slow, building up the pod population and letting coralline set in. i plan on getting mostly non-aggressive fish like anthias, a few tangs and a handful of reef-safe wrasses such as rhomboids, 5-bars (although i'm hearing some really bad things about compatability w/ docile fish), lineatus, leopard wrasse, hawaiian flame wrasse, etc. amongst other peaceful tankmates

do you still think this might work?

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

I don't see why not. I now have mine in a large tank, 400 G but I do have some small peaceful fish in there, wrases, anthias and such. Just remember, this fish gets big, i.e. up to 10" I beleive. Mines now at about 5".

 

[microbubbles]

thanks chevy. i appreciate all the info and i'll let you know how it goes.

 

[CMReefer]

The Juveniles can be tougher to feed than adults so adults tend to be a little sturdier. I also have one in a 140g reef and he is a spectacular fish. I have noticed though that he has become more trouble with age. As a juvenile he didn't bother anything, but now he will occassionally go after a hermit or snail and he definitely likes to move stuff around that's on the sand... never touches stuff that on the rock. I agree that every fish is different and I have considered taking him out of the tank many times, but he is just way too cool. I will replace 5 snails every couple of months if it mens I can keep this fish, he's very cool.

If you are going to have small frags on the sand as some folks do then forget about it, otherwise they are awesome fish and don't seem to bother smaller fish including smaller wrasses.

Just my two cents...
Danny