Another wrasse recommendation thread.

[hotelbravo]

Ive never wanted a wrasse before because I thought they all were heavy copepod consumers but recently someone informed me that they are not all like that. My main concern is my mandarin who has been with me over a year now and I dont want to introduce something that will make finding a meal hard for her. Can yall recommend some wrasses that are not big copepod consumers? It doesnt bother me if they will eat CuC cause my hermits and such are food for my snowflake anyway.

 

[CoralNerd]

I'm pretty sure a Flasher Wrasse would fit that bill nicely (just read that they don't hunt on the rock so you have to feed them more often). I made the mistake and got pod eating wrasse like yellow corris wrasse and my Tanaka wrasse seems to hunt them all the time. In fact my Tanaka just recently started eating frozen food.

 

[hotelbravo]

Are they the only ones?

 

[Tjsmoot]

Fairy wrasses and flasher wrasses are going to be your main options. I would suggest looking into them.

 

[hotelbravo]

Well liveaquaria is listing 24 different types of wrasses that are all either a type of flasher or a type of fairy. So I guess since you guys didnt name anything specific that they are ALL the same? Well as far as diet goes.

 

[Deinonych]

Fairy wrasses and flasher wrasses are going to be your main options. I would suggest looking into them.

+1

As far as diet is concerned, fairies and flashers are very similar. Flashers are very peaceful and are great reef tank inhabitants. Most fairy wrasses are peaceful, but some can be aggressive vs. conspecifics (e.g. C. scottorum). I currently have two flashers (P. cyaneus and P. mccoskeri) and one fairy (C. exquisitus) and they all get along. The P. cyaneus is the alpha, but they never get into any serious squabbles.

Check out Evolved's wrasse primer over on 3Reef for a good education on reef compatible labrids: http://www.3reef.com/threads/all-about-reef-safe-wrasses.122261/

 

[eatbreakfast]

Yeah, fairy and flashers will be what you are looking for, and in a 90 you can keep most of the commonly available species.

 

[blazend]

I enjoy my Melanraus wrasse which doesnt seem to eat copepods. I have a mandarin and pipe fish with her in the tank.

 

[evolved]

I enjoy my Melanraus wrasse which doesnt seem to eat copepods.

Unfortunately, Halichoeres wrasses do eat pods in fair numbers.

 

[hotelbravo]

thanks guys one more question I think im going to try to get a male and female I was leaning towards the flashers. but as far as fairy wrasses go are there species that I should stay away from getting a pair with?

 

[nuxx]

Just get two female fairy wrasses, species shouldn't matter too much.

Some have a little more tendency for issues like bloat being deeper water fish.

Also females ship a lot better than males.

 

[Deinonych]

Just get two female fairy wrasses, species shouldn't matter too much.

Problem is, females are very rarely collected.

 

[nuxx]

Problem is, females are very rarely collected.

We get a decent number in

But true, mostly sub-males to large super males.

 

[hotelbravo]

I volunteer my spare time at a lfs and I know we have gptten females in both fairies and flashers. I just always thought in my head "wrasse..that means pod eater..nah ill focus my attention elsewhere"

 

[Duke4life]

I volunteer my spare time at a lfs and I know we have gptten females in both fairies and flashers. I just always thought in my head "wrasse..that means pod eater..nah ill focus my attention elsewhere"

I had the same sorta reaction but was more worried about my shrimp lol.