Getting my wrasse to display

[Salty_Kyle]

I added a Long Fin Fairy Wrasse to my 90 gallon reef tank a few weeks ago and absolutely love this little guy. I'm sure its not surprising that I really love to see him display those beautifully colored fins. So here's the question, how can I encourage him to show off a bit more? I've talked to some different people at the LFS and ones says to just pair him up with a Long Fin female. Another said to add another male and a female so that the two compete over her. What do you folks say?

If it matters, the tank has 2 fake clowns, 2 banggai cardinals, a royal gramma and the fairy wrasse.

 

[mike61289]

Fairy wrasses tend to show off for each other, but I'd recommend just adding a male of another species. Females don't stay female for long. I recently tried to keep a pair of pintail wrasses and the female became a male within a week of being in my tank and jumped out because of stress from the original male.

My current male displays because of my other wrasse in the tank: a yellow wrasse. It's quite pretty to see and yellow wrasses are super calm. It would be a nice addition to your tank.

 

[Salty_Kyle]

Fairy wrasses tend to show off for each other, but I'd recommend just adding a male of another species. Females don't stay female for long. I recently tried to keep a pair of pintail wrasses and the female became a male within a week of being in my tank and jumped out because of stress from the original male.

My current male displays because of my other wrasse in the tank: a yellow wrasse. It's quite pretty to see and yellow wrasses are super calm. It would be a nice addition to your tank.

How is the yellow wrasse with coral? I was thinking of possibly getting a male flasher wrasse for him to bro out with.

 

[mike61289]

How is the yellow wrasse with coral? I was thinking of possibly getting a male flasher wrasse for him to bro out with.

The yellow wrasse is great with coral. It might go after super tiny crustaceans, but I've never seen it bother my coral, shrimps, crabs, or snails. They're actually known to feed on some coral parasites.

 

[evolved]

I've talked to some different people at the LFS and ones says to just pair him up with a Long Fin female. Another said to add another male and a female so that the two compete over her.

Both of those are bad ideas, and will lead to you still having a single wrasse.

but I'd recommend just adding a male of another species.

A MUCH better idea.

 

[m0nkie]

I had no luck keeping pairs in 500+ gal tank. the new female tend to kill the older male.

I have about 8 different wrasse now living peacefully. sometimes they flash each other. Sometimes my Tusk would chased the wrasse around and they would flash too

-flame
-rhomboid
-lineatus
-magma
-lennardi
-yellow corris
-mcCosker's flasher
-melanurus

 

[WLachnit]

I've also had no luck with a pair in my 300g. The female turns into a male. I currently have about 7 fairies and they get along fairly well.


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[Salty_Kyle]

Thanks for the replies. I'm glad I didn't jump on that threes company scenario lol

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