Hoeven's Wrasse (aka melanurus)

[mtaswt]

I am looking into getting one of these. Has anyone had any experiences that you would like to share? I know they say the are reef safe "with caution", but do you think they would go after my sexy shrimp, or any other inhabitants I have (see below for my current inventory)? Any ideas or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you--Matthew

 

[spieszak]

Haven't been able to keep anything but conchs fora CuC since I got mine. Your experience may vary...

 

[brettinteriors]

i would not have a reef without one. saved mine and my buddies zoas. nudis. has never bothered my shrimp, clams, o any thing else. What i dont have is flat worms, bristol worms, and zoa eating nudibranches.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[8string]

I have one. It's been fine with the reef, but it was a little too interested in some turbo snails early on. These snails may have been reaching the end of their lives, as they mowed through all the algae, but this fish definitely helped speed up the inevitable.

The wrasse was just my third fish in the tank, after the clown pair. Once I added a flame angel, the harassment of the snails stopped. The angel would see it going on and would get between it.

 

[sanchoy]

I just added one 3 months ago. Doing fine has not attacked any cuc from what I have seen. Very active always pecking at pods.

 

[NeverlosT]

i have one and he is awesome, great colors, very active, fun to watch bury himself at night. That being said, they WILL eat your shrimp, and maybe hermits, and pretty much anything small enough to fit in their mouths. They arent aggressive or vicious, its just if they see it as food, they will eat it, it is part of what makes them so good at pest control.

Good luck!

 

[nonimmigrant]

i would not have a reef without one. saved mine and my buddies zoas. nudis. has never bothered my shrimp, clams, o any thing else. What i dont have is flat worms, bristol worms, and zoa eating nudibranches.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

+1 the one in my SPS tank is a model citizen.

 

[Met3112]

I have several of them. Everything above is true IME. I have one that was introduced after 2 larger blood shrimp and a cleaner and all is well. The sexy shrimp should be an easy meal for them. Very nice fish to have.

 

[Borchers]

Mine has been great for 2 weeks and is beautiful. Got him to help with flatworms and be is doing an amazing job. Love this Wrasse.

 

[adam82]

any pics of this wrasse???

 

[souperman]

I just added mine last night. She is very active and personable. I was worried she seemed very timid while in the QT tank even with a little bowl of sand to sleep and and plenty of PVC. One of my favorite fish so far. I have a ton of vermitid snails and stubborn flatworms I'm hoping will become dinner.

So far she hasn't shown any interest in my peppermint shrimp or any of the CUC.

 

[Buzzword]

Love my male, he is always out and about "hunting" for pods and such. But your sexy shrimp will just be a snack for this wrasse. Mine did not harm any of my CUC that was in the tank prior to his arrival but added a large cleaner shrimp a few days ago and he tried to eat it for the first two days. But it was large enough that he has finally given up trying to eat the shrimp. The males get quite colorful as the age and grow.

 

[zachk]

Mine was introduced as a 2" specimen into a 125g tank with 4 adult established cleaner shrimp. The shrimp were all gone within 2 weeks.

 

[Met3112]

Mine was introduced as a 2" specimen into a 125g tank with 4 adult established cleaner shrimp. The shrimp were all gone within 2 weeks.

About what size were the shrimp?

 

[redwingrob40]

Will these fish bother clams?

 

[jakearoe]

About what size were the shrimp?

Lots of threads on this fish. I had 2 in different tanks...I still have one, which has been a model citizen in my 90g at my office. 3 large cleaners there, along with many snails, but no messing with the cuc. Heavily fed LPS/softie/nem tank.

My home 120 used to be dominated by SPS (got tired of the SPS thing - best decision eva) and is now mixed with a few big remaining SPS along with a lot of LPS. When I fed my tank less during the SPS days, my 5 inch Melanurus began taking out the snails, then moved on to my 2 cleaners which were large, as I had them for about 2.5 years.

They are great fish, but certainly risky to the cuc...don't kid yourself.

In my experience with 2 different tanks, 2 different fish, I would say a hungry Melanurus will eventually hunt your cuc.

 

[Triple One]

Will these fish bother clams?

i love my melanurus, and have had it for about 6 months, maybe longer. it just recently made the shift from female to male, and it is definitely one of my favorite fish. it acts as a guardian to the corals and clams, and never nips at them or other fish (beyond self-defense or an occasional taste-test, at most). did notice a minor loss of small fanworms in the DT (they're still abundant in the sump), and i moved the giant featherduster and coco worm down to the refugium after introducing it because there was a mysterious feather decapitation (decoronation?) that occurred soon after, but overall a very healthy and friendly fish. i still have a clean-up crew too, though truthfully my nassarius population has dwindled somewhat. honestly, i think the dottyback was the cause of far more collateral CUC damage.

...kind of had a scare with mr. melanurus last week though. since the wrasse burrows into the sand at night, i'm used to it not being around too long after sundown, even though the blue lights are still on, but one evening last week i looked into the tank and saw the wrasse's tail hanging limp and motionless out of my crocea's mantle!

<img src="http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/64648_10100940984750912_10104357_58504240_271392428_n.jpg" alt="wrasse vs clam"/>

innocent encounter, or violent violation? i suspect both parties were innocent, but only the wrasse ignorant (the clam was probably starting to choke a bit...). i was initially quite distraught, since the wrasse is awesome and the clam otherwise happy, but as i reached in and grabbed the wrasse's tail (thinking it dead...), it startled and popped out of the clam as if it had been caught doing something questionable and didn't want anybody to get the wrong impression.

it may have been whistling, i can't say.

the clam still feels traumatized, though
it's alive, but hasn't opened more than about a centimeter in days, and mantle extension has not been what it used to be. hopefully it'll come back relatively undamaged, despite any psychological scarring.

 

[Mike de Leon]

cool pic!

 

[ibefishy]

Clam killers! I feel its not a matter of "if", but when. My wrasse killed 2 of my clams. I walked in on him killing the second one. It found out how to flip them over and go for the soft spot on the bottom. I liked my wrasse, but I like the clams more. I still have 2 clams left.

 

[gemini aquarius(t)]

I love mine, I have hermits, snails, and shrimp... not a problem