Laboutei Wrasse

[exiled_infidel]

Hi

I just saw 2 laboutei wrasses at the LFS for sale. Theyre pretty small 2"ish ones but they dont look anything like the beautifully coloured adults ive seen in the fairy wrasse thread.

Do these guys have a juvenile form?

Also, theyve got both in the same tank and no fighting occurs. Theyre also both the same colour and size. Because ive heard that theres no distinguishing dimorphism between males and females, would i be safe putting them both in my tank?

Do pairs of fairy wrasses interact with one another much like, say, pairs of hawkfish or mandarins would?

Thanks so much.

 

[karid]

Hey - I'm also interested in this topic.

If you can take a picture of them at the store and post it, or describe what they look like (what sorts of colors), that might help. They would probably be fine in a tank together, provided it's not like a 20g or something. What size tank do you have?

I just got a labouti wrasse last week. He's awesome - but mostly purple/blue (not like intensely colored ones I see online). He's about 3.5"-4", so a fairly good size, but I think he'll get larger. I think there just must be a huge variation in colors within the species, so I don't know if the coloration is just a variation or maybe age related.

So labouti wrasses don't have any distinguishing features or colors between male/female?

If anyone has any pictures of a male/female labouti, or a juvenile, I'd be interested also in seeing some for comparison!

Here's my fish:

 

[karid]

Oh - I forgot about the most important things regarding color intensity: stress and food. At a LFS, they might be totally stressed out and not eating as well as they should. That will definitely dull their colors.

The fish I showed above is now pretty comfortable in my tank and has been eating well the past few days. Even since yesterday afternoon I can tell his colors are getting much more vibrant. The blue and purple colors are now like electric blue and electric purple. Definitely the most striking fish.