Dragon / Rockmover Wrasse

[DougBushBC]

You would think that I should have learned to not completly trust the LFS advice regarding fish, but I didnt. I bought a Dragon Wrasse a month or so back, and he is beautiful and great and lovely and all that but I have noticed that he has put a huge ding in my snail/emerald crab population and I caught him the other day eating the legs off of my paddle brittle star. Any ideas on how to slow down his destruction of my invert pop? He doesn't mess with the corals, the other fish, or my GIANT mated pair of banded coral shrimps, but I would like to be able to keep some emerald crabs in the tank (the snails are expendable, my hermits kill more than he does). Any ideas?

-D

 

[philter4]

You could try to keep him very well fed, but other then constantly adding food, it is doing what it does in nature. It gets worse as he grows, as an adult they can flip pretty big rocks in your tank, making it hard to aquascape.

 

[DougBushBC]

He is adult already, and the rocks are safe, I have them secured since I knew he could do that. But I really enjoy him

 

[mhills16]

if you enjoy him so much maybe consider a second tank with only large inverts that he would not be interested in, I want a leopard wrasse so bad but I fear the same outcome.......

 

[ssavader]

How big is your Rockmover? This is ultimately a 12" fish that will loose its awesome juvenile color pattern and peri-orbital antenna. Its color will change to olive green-brown. And, it will have the strength and tenacity to move large rocks looking for its natural pray, i.e., invertebrates! I really do not believe that a fish like this can be diverted from its ingrained behavior by simply keeping it well fed. He would do best in a FOWLR tank with other fish that can deal with its behavior.

 

[DougBushBC]

He is about 3" now, and is already with his adult coloration... Clearly this was poor advice from my LFS...

 

[LisaD]

These are definitely not invert-safe. They don't call them rockmover for nothing, either.

Here's a good article:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/rockmover.htm

You'll need to either move the reef or move the fish. Really.