Has anyone kept or keeps any of the bigger wrasses ( red breasted, cheeklined, triple tail, broom tail) in their tanks?....How is their behavior regarding tankmates?......Will they prey upon fish less than 4 inches in size, will they fight each other if placed together in a 180 gallon tank?......I have read that the cheeklined(Oxycheilinus digramma) is a voracious predator, so does that mean it will be a nuisance in a tank?:headwalls:
Maori wrasses
- Thread starter Agartha
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moriarty
New member
I currently keep a Cheilinus lunulatus (7") and C. oxycephalus (4") together in my 240 without any compatibility issues thus far. I also just purchased a 10" C. trilobatus and am expecting her to arrive on Tuesday. She will be quarantined in a 150g rubbermaid tub before going into my 10' pool. My C. lunulatus/oxycephalus share a tank with some smaller fish, including a dozen green chromis and neither show any interest, although theres always a chance that this will change with growth (I do have alternate housing in place should this become a problem). I wouldn't attempt keeping any Cheilinus with inverts that aren't intended to become food.
Myles
New member
I've got a triple fin in with two smaller wrasses-a cleaner and a yellow halichores. Absolutely no aggression. Just make sure you put the Maori in before any tangs or foxface as it is more passive than these groups of fish. My Maori bites my soft corals at times -no lasting damage- but leaves all other corals alone. I have no crustaceans or star fish and don't imagine they would survive.
Myles
Myles
kaiboshi
New member
IME the more invert focused maori's (Cheilinus genus) are very chill. They seem to do an initial check on everything they encounter: "Can I eat this?". With bigger "items" it tends to be a thorough visual inspection rather than actually attempting to consume whatever is in question. If they are able to consume something they generally do so. If they cannot then that thing may as well not exist to them. With smaller fish and inverts there's less inspection time and more asking aloud "where did that fish go?".
They (Cheilinus genus) are fantastic fish. Absolutely beautiful and a riot to watch. Very smart fish, you can see them thinking when they explore and hunt. They don't tend to be aggressive unless food is involved and even then they are generally pretty calm. The only aggression I really ever saw was between a floral and tripletail that I kept together. The smaller floral stole a chunk of shrimp from the tripletail. Normally they would just move on to the next piece of food but the triple took particular offense and chased the floral for maybe 30 seconds. Then the triple remembered "food" and went back to business.
I don't have as much experience keeping Oxycheilinus genus fish but they are more piscivourous so they will give you more trouble with smaller fish. I've attempted an oriental maori (Oxycheilinus orientalis) and a ring tailed maori (Oxycheilinus unifasciatus). Neither was particularly keen on eating prepared food though the ring tailed maori tried to kill (possibly eat, seemed more like kill) any fish that it was near. It's really a shame because some of the Oxycheilinus fish (specifically cheeklined) are really beautiful fish.
As far as fighting with one another, I'd steer clear of mixing larger fish of the same genus. In a 180 you could try a twospot and snooty or a Cheilinus and Oxycheilinus but I'd stick with smaller species. I've heard of people having issues mixing larger specimen in smaller (small for a fish that ends up over 12") aquariums that resulted in some intense fights. After having seen what a medium sized (>8") tripletail can do to jumbo turbo snails and smaller fish I imagine the result of a scuffle between two larger maori's would be ugly.
They (Cheilinus genus) are fantastic fish. Absolutely beautiful and a riot to watch. Very smart fish, you can see them thinking when they explore and hunt. They don't tend to be aggressive unless food is involved and even then they are generally pretty calm. The only aggression I really ever saw was between a floral and tripletail that I kept together. The smaller floral stole a chunk of shrimp from the tripletail. Normally they would just move on to the next piece of food but the triple took particular offense and chased the floral for maybe 30 seconds. Then the triple remembered "food" and went back to business.
I don't have as much experience keeping Oxycheilinus genus fish but they are more piscivourous so they will give you more trouble with smaller fish. I've attempted an oriental maori (Oxycheilinus orientalis) and a ring tailed maori (Oxycheilinus unifasciatus). Neither was particularly keen on eating prepared food though the ring tailed maori tried to kill (possibly eat, seemed more like kill) any fish that it was near. It's really a shame because some of the Oxycheilinus fish (specifically cheeklined) are really beautiful fish.
As far as fighting with one another, I'd steer clear of mixing larger fish of the same genus. In a 180 you could try a twospot and snooty or a Cheilinus and Oxycheilinus but I'd stick with smaller species. I've heard of people having issues mixing larger specimen in smaller (small for a fish that ends up over 12") aquariums that resulted in some intense fights. After having seen what a medium sized (>8") tripletail can do to jumbo turbo snails and smaller fish I imagine the result of a scuffle between two larger maori's would be ugly.
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