For lunare wrasse owners..

[stewie24]

Hi all,
Just purchased a new lunare wrasse today for my tank. (about 4-5 inches)
Like an idiot, I didn't research before I bought.
I looked up on marine depot live and it says they might eat snails, crabs, starfish, bristleworms, etc.
I'd like to know a little more about this fish.
Will my large (10+ inch) brittle star be ok?
For those of you who have them in a reef - what all do they bother(inverts wise).
For all others - what should I be feeding it? If i don't have the food it likes, I can always go get some.
Thanks bunches!

Stewie

 

[sunamoon]

I don't mean to worry you but i saw a lunare fed once in a lfs. The guy gave it a live goldfish.... i don't reccomend giving a marine fish a freshwater diet even tho some do. The violence in which the lunare took the fish was amazingly scary. He grabbed it, took it down to a lr, slammed it a couple of times then ripped it up and ate it. all in a matter of seconds. SO I would say the brittle star may very well be in danger.
They are very beautiful when grown. I would feed it silversides, probably. and maybe some fresh shrimp or scallop.

good luck

 

[stewie24]

Oh no! NOT what I wanted to hear... The only other tankmates are a yellow tang and a false perc clown.
I'll keep an eye on everything, and if he gets too agressive, i'll just sell him or give him to someone. I really hope the brittle star will be ok. (There was one about 1/4 of the size of mine in the same tank at the fish store, and it wasn't bothering it.)
The one thing i did notice, was when I put it in the tank after acclimation - the tang swam and hid, and the clownfish started chasing it.. LOL. Hopefully it was friendly fishy play, but I'm afraid that i'll wake up in the morning with missing inverts. (I only had a peppermint shrimp, but haven't seen him for weeks, so if the wrasse eats him it'll be a good meal lol)

I'll keep an eye and post results tomorrow.
If anyone else has information (good or bad) please let me know!
Thanks
Stewie

 

[Docbones]

I had one in a FOWLR with a tiny Blue Spotted Puffer and Huma HUma and it didnt bother snails or crabs i feed it the Omega One pellets with garlic and it absolutley went nuts for them

 

[stewie24]

Thanks for the reply docbones!
I really want to keep it as long as it doesn't bother anything. It's a very pretty marked fish. Extremely healthy looking specimen at the store.
I don't have garlic, or the pellets.
I'll try a mix of things to see what it likes.
I have frozen foods including cyclopeeze, omega one flake, formula two, some others. I guess it will be a trial and error to see what mine likes to eat.

Thanks again
Stewie

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6973500#post6973500 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by stewie24
If anyone else has information (good or bad) please let me know!
Thanks
Stewie

As soon as your Lunare Wrasse is big enough it'll eat your clownfish. I've seen Lunare Wrasses attack Tridacna clams. This fish will get more destructive as it grows larger.

 

[stewie24]

Gary,
For the time being, its only about an inch or two longer than the clown. I'll have to keep an eye on it I guess.
Both the clownfish and tang have great personalities, so hopefully some of that will rub off onto the lunare wrasse
If not, like I said earlier, i'll just give it away or something..
Thanks!
Stewie

 

[Qwiv]

Yah, your clown is toast. If it isn't bigger or can't get away from it, it will try to eat it. Hermits and snails should be OK as they are pretty well armed, but shrimp and crabs without a comfy snail shell are toast. The brittle will get nibbled I am sure.

 

[just dave]

I had one eat the eyes out of every fish in the tank it was with overnight. It didn't kell the fish either,they just had no eyes.

 

[stewie24]

Well everything looks fine for the time being. Hopefully when I wake up in the morning, everything will still be in tact.
Thanks guys.
Stewie

 

[sabodish]

ill weigh in here..my lunare wrasse is about 7" long now. his tankmates are a purple, yellow and hippo tang, 2 saddleback clowns, a small (1.5") six line wrasse, a small (2") percula clown, a 12" engineer goby, a CBB, a long nose butterfly, and a hawkfish. in 3 years, he has NEVER eaten the small 6 line or the small perc. he does on occasion harass my yellow tang, but nowhere near to the death. he will eat all snails, crabs and shrimp he can get a hold of. he has never touched a coral. he will eat any food you put in the tank...pellets, all frozen foods and even nori.

 

[stewie24]

Update:
Its been in the tank for 24 hours now. So far (fingers crossed) nothing has been disturbed or killed. Its getting along nicely with my tang and clown. I fed it some flake food, and it went nuts (VERY agressive when feeding). I think it made the tang and clown scared as every time it ate a piece of flake, it would zip around the tank real fast, then launch up and grab another piece.
Thanks again everyone for your inputs.
I"ll keep you posted.
Stewie

 

[dragonladylea]

My Lunare would take krill from my fingers, had him with a snowflake eel who was also hand fed. Would not trust a Lunare with any shrimp or crab its their favorite food.

 

[sunamoon]

are you going to get it some meaty foods? I don't think it could stay healthy eating flakes. Its a carnivore.

 

[stewie24]

Yes I'm going to get it meaty foods.
I have mysis shrimp, but that package was left at the girlfriends house for her tanks. I'll be seeing her tomorrow so i'll get them from her. I think it will like the mysis. I'll also try frozen cyclopeeze. (feed it to my other fish/corals anyways, so if it eats some then good for it lol).

Stewie

 

[BlkWolfe]

i have an 8" lunare with what was a 1" red coris. Never attacked the coris, which has grown to 2.5" now.

He does love to eat snails though. Loves mysis (almost jumps outta the tank when he see's the feeding cup), as well as nls pellets.

 

[stewie24]

Thats one thing i don't have - pellet food.
I don't have that many snails in the tank (thank god my tank parameters are that stable that there is little algae besides lots of coraline). 4 margaritas, a few astreas, rest of the tank is hermit crabs. I mag-float the glass about once a week but nothing really comes off it. (its that clean lol).
I'll give it a shot w/ mysis t/m and let you guys know how it goes.]
Last time i checked on it - it was swimming right beside the tang.

Stewie

 

[Amphiprion]

I have watched lunare wrasses eat adult firefish whole. In addition to that, I have seen them greedily enjoy any invertebrate life that makes it into the tank--even echinoderms. The whole eye-eating thing is a new one for me, though.

 

[stewie24]

Update:
Today and tongiht I fed it different food. (forgot the mysis again).
It ate zooplankton readily.
It also (i think this is extremely funny) was eating seaweed. I clipped on some seaweed for the tang, and both the tang and wrasse were nibbling on the seaweed. So far nothings dead, and its not bothering anything. Eating like a champ and looks really healty.

Stewie