ZenGuitarGuy
New member
Ok, so this drama has been slowly building. Here are the details followed by the questions:
--The tank is 9 months old, 65G FOWLR and inverts (emerald crab, hermits, snails).
--About 65 lbs of live rock.
--I do 15% weekly water changes.
--Reef Octopus 100 classic skimmer, TLF GFO reactor, and I have a modded AC hang-on refugium with live rock rubble, some chaeto, and a bag of carbon.
--Tank parameters have been good. No detectable ammonia, nitrates >5ppm. 78F, and SG 1.025.
--Lots of flow for FOWLR. 2xHydor 850's and 1 x Hydro 240 (surface only).
--Inhabitants: yellow watchman goby (7 months), blue reef chromis (7 months), filamentous fairy wrasse (6 months), two PJ cardinals (4 months), sleeper goby (1 month).
--All fish are quarantined for 3-4 weeks.
--The crabs are all very small, and I've never seen them bother any fish. I did remove a coral banded shrimp a while back who was stalking and harassing everyone. Even then, I still thought the wrasse was the real bully.
The issue has been the wrasse. So far I suspect he's bullied a black ocellaris clown and a coral beauty to death
The beauty was just a couple of weeks ago. I just rescued the chromis, who was bullied into hiding 100% of the time, and not really eating much. He is in my QT tank for now.
The behaviours I've observed from the wrasse: he chases anyone in the water column, and not just at feeding time. I think he attacks them too. He doesn't really bother the gobies, casually checks on the PJs now and then, but relentlessly goes after the chromis, and late clownfish and coral beauty.
I tried the mirror trick. I put up a small mirror in the tank to see if it would take his attention away. It has worked somewhat, but I don't expect this to be a permanent solution.
I always introduce new fish at night, when the wrasse is asleep. I'm pretty certain that when I introduce the chromis back to the DT the wrasse will bully him again.
Questions:
--Will feeding more help? They eat 3 times/day. A variety of foods.
--Do I have enough rock? Will more rockwork help? I have 65 lb give or take.
--I am assuming it will be very hard to catch him to remove him, but I'm leaning that way. Any suggestions? He does sleep very soundly, but wedges himself between rocks at the bottom, so I'd definitely be moving some of the rockwork around.
--Do I have a bad combination of fish?
I didn't think Fairy Wrasses were aggressive, but this one certainly is. He's a wonderful fish though, and I hate to have to re-home him, but if that's what it takes then I'll make it happen.
Any advice or help is appreciated. If you need more information, let me know. Thanks, Martin.
--The tank is 9 months old, 65G FOWLR and inverts (emerald crab, hermits, snails).
--About 65 lbs of live rock.
--I do 15% weekly water changes.
--Reef Octopus 100 classic skimmer, TLF GFO reactor, and I have a modded AC hang-on refugium with live rock rubble, some chaeto, and a bag of carbon.
--Tank parameters have been good. No detectable ammonia, nitrates >5ppm. 78F, and SG 1.025.
--Lots of flow for FOWLR. 2xHydor 850's and 1 x Hydro 240 (surface only).
--Inhabitants: yellow watchman goby (7 months), blue reef chromis (7 months), filamentous fairy wrasse (6 months), two PJ cardinals (4 months), sleeper goby (1 month).
--All fish are quarantined for 3-4 weeks.
--The crabs are all very small, and I've never seen them bother any fish. I did remove a coral banded shrimp a while back who was stalking and harassing everyone. Even then, I still thought the wrasse was the real bully.
The issue has been the wrasse. So far I suspect he's bullied a black ocellaris clown and a coral beauty to death
The beauty was just a couple of weeks ago. I just rescued the chromis, who was bullied into hiding 100% of the time, and not really eating much. He is in my QT tank for now.The behaviours I've observed from the wrasse: he chases anyone in the water column, and not just at feeding time. I think he attacks them too. He doesn't really bother the gobies, casually checks on the PJs now and then, but relentlessly goes after the chromis, and late clownfish and coral beauty.
I tried the mirror trick. I put up a small mirror in the tank to see if it would take his attention away. It has worked somewhat, but I don't expect this to be a permanent solution.
I always introduce new fish at night, when the wrasse is asleep. I'm pretty certain that when I introduce the chromis back to the DT the wrasse will bully him again.
Questions:
--Will feeding more help? They eat 3 times/day. A variety of foods.
--Do I have enough rock? Will more rockwork help? I have 65 lb give or take.
--I am assuming it will be very hard to catch him to remove him, but I'm leaning that way. Any suggestions? He does sleep very soundly, but wedges himself between rocks at the bottom, so I'd definitely be moving some of the rockwork around.
--Do I have a bad combination of fish?
I didn't think Fairy Wrasses were aggressive, but this one certainly is. He's a wonderful fish though, and I hate to have to re-home him, but if that's what it takes then I'll make it happen.
Any advice or help is appreciated. If you need more information, let me know. Thanks, Martin.
