Male McCoskers harrasing new additions

[jschultzbass]

I have a male/female pair of McCosker's flasher wrasses in my 180 that have been there about a year. I recently added a pair of Rhomboids and a female Lineatus. The male McCoskers chases them quite a bit to the point they don't like to come out of hiding. The McCoskers will even go as far as to look for them and bombard them while they are trying to hide. The male Rhomboid gets it the worst. I was able to trap the male McCoskers and move him to my refugium. The other wrasses now are coming out and eating. My question is how long should I keep him in the refugium and if enough time goes by would it be safe to put him back in the DT?

 

[evolved]

The problem with waiting too long, is that your female McCoskers will begin to transition. Any period longer than a week might start to jeopardize that.

You need to reintroduce the male in the DT using an acclimation box. And as an aside, you should use this same method when adding any wrasses to a system which already has established wrasses.

There's a couple threads active on the acclimation box topic right now in Reef Fishes.

 

[jschultzbass]

Thanks evolved! I was hoping you would reply. The female had already began turning male but will add the dominant male back in with the box. Do you think he'll settle down after a while?

 

[evolved]

In that case, he'll probably be distracted with his new sub-male competition... Be vigilant there.

Others have done "time out" like this before with good results.

 

[jschultzbass]

Thanks again! One more question for you. I have a male/female pair of Red Mandarins. Was thinking of getting a Halichoeres wrasse but was afraid it might outcompete the mandarins for pods. Your opinion?

 

[evolved]

It's certainly possible. I've always stayed away from dragonet's for that very reason.

 

[jschultzbass]

That's what I was thinking but my wife LOVES the mandarins so they need to stay. Thank you!