Anyone with sixline AND leopard wrasses?

triggreef

New member
I have 4 well established Leopards and some H. wrasses as well. I know the general consensus is sixlines are no good with other wrasses especially leopards but...

I have a huge red planaria flatworm population. I've tried all sorts of things from wrasses (melanurus, timor, solorensis, 2 yellow coris in my frag tank, yellow purple, possum), 2 velvet nudi, springeri dottyback, neon dottyback, probably more I can't think of. Nothing will eat these things. I watched the velvet nudi's crawl over piles of these things and they never ate a single one.

I also grabbed a redline and a green wrasse from DD so maybe those will help, I doubt it.

I'm not using flatworm exit or any other chemical, at least not until I can dwindle down the population. As many of them as there is they still don't create a problem with my corals, so its not an emergency per se. But I am worried about them being so many that they create a large die off and poison my tank. Even the sand bed is littered with them, and it is quite unsightly.




So back to the point of this thread, has anyone had success with leopards and a sixline together? My tank is very much wrasse dominated so I'm thinking that may dissipate the would be aggressiveness from a sixline. :worried:
 
any other thoughts on the flatworms?

Ive also heard springeri damsels will take a toll on them but A: Haven't found any and B: my current blue damsel would likely kill a new blue damsel and C: I dont really want another damsel.

I'm very frustrated with these worms.
 
Feed the tank less. The Halichoeres wrasses will pick at them if they are hungry. But if they are getting enough food they will need to hunt less. Also, the food you give feeds the pod population as well. Your wrasses will prefer the pods to the flatworms, (as will the sixline you are considering)so if there are enough pods the Halichoeres species just wont eat the flatworms.

If you were to skip one day a week in feeding, or one feeding a day, this will put more pressure on the pod population, which in turn will see less discriminating picking by your wrasses. Adding more Halichoeres wrasses will work as well.

But if the Halichoeres arent eating them, it is unlikely a sixline will make much of a difference, and with the attitude they bring with them it is just not worth it.
 
any other thoughts on the flatworms?

I had a huge problem with the cursed things and found a Dusky wrasse to be just the tonic! Perhaps they're hit-or-miss also, but mine was a hit. Cleared the tank of the worms in no time (versus my QT that is absolutely covered with them still) and inspects any new coral or rock that gets put into the tank. Dude has gotten very large (six inches or so) but wouldn't be without the big fella. Gets along with my leopards reasonably well - chases the male bipart occasionally.
 
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well, I added a green coris and a redline to my qt today. Hopefully one of those will make me proud. I tried to grab a vrolik's that was finally in stock on LA but they wouldn't tag it to my order and I wasnt about to pay an extra $40 for one.

The LA pic of the dusky does it no justice. After seeing the pics from exotic's thread I'd certainly consider trying one if none of these work out.

I must have a great pod population cuz even with all these wrasses I still see pods at night on the rocks. I get what your saying about feeding but I wouldn't feel comfortable cutting food with the leopards. My leopards are fat and happy and I wouldn't want to chance anything slimming them down.
 
my melarunus ate all the red planaria in my tank in about 2 days. If a Halichoeres wrasse doesn't take care of them there is something wrong with it lol.
 
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