melanurus wrasse

[bboudreaux]

i ordered a melanurus wrasse from vividaquriums on dec 23, and b/c of the holidays it didn't ship until dec 27th arriving the next day. i acclimated him usting the drip method as usual. i put him in the tank when lights went out. he stayed in hiding for 2.5 days. when he did finally come out he was looking normal and he ate immediately. (beautiful fish by the way) the fish was out and acting normal eating like a pig from friday 12/30 until last night when i got home 1/3. i came home to find him laying on his side. (not good right?) it looked like he was breathing normal not fast or slow just normal. well i got the camera and shot a few pics to upload in a email to vividaqauriums. this took a minute b/c i just bought this camera for my wife for christmas so i had to figure it out 1st. by the time i was done with my email (maybe 45 mins) the fish was not breathing dead. i removed it from the tank and took some real good close ups. my wife said the fish was fine earlier in the day swimming around with my sixline wrasse. i thought the sixline would give him a hard time but they were acting like buddies from the start, swimming together and the such. i could swear that six was checking him while he was laying on the sand. he kept swimming by not touching or getting to close just kept coming by an area of the tank he hardly ever goes in. (strange).
tank parameters:
sg - 1.025
no3 - .5-1ppm
po4 - 0 (hanna)
i didn't run calcium, dhk, or mag tests as this is a fish and by the way this tank is over 18 mos old and those parameters never change (ca 450-460 dhk 9-10 mag 1350-1450 this hasn't changed in over a year)
this is a 55g w/ 25g sump
livestock includes
yellow watchmen goby
yellow tang
3 chromis
sixline wrasse
target mandarin

i know the tang should be in there but i am in the process of upgrading in the next month. already bought my tank 125g going to use my 55g as the sump for the upgrade. anyway, npx bioplastics keeps the nitrate at near zero no matter how much i feed eventhough i don't rinse the frozen food. i also use gfo in a reactor as well to help with po4.

my wife had become very attached to the fish, b/c she actually looked like she was going to cry when i told her yesterday that it died. i was wondering if anyone has had experience with this species of wrasse. are they normally hard to keep, susceptible to disease etc... i just can't seem to make sense of this unexplained death. when i think back i have only lost two fish period in the two years of my saltwater experience. wish i could say the same thing when it comes to corals. any thoughts would be appreciated.

brent

 

[SecretiveFish]

i was wondering if anyone has had experience with this species of wrasse. are they normally hard to keep, susceptible to disease etc... i just can't seem to make sense of this unexplained death. when i think back i have only lost two fish period in the two years of my saltwater experience. wish i could say the same thing when it comes to corals. any thoughts would be appreciated.
brent

I have a melanurus wrasse in my 65, and he has been in there for more than 2 years proving to be extremely easy to keep. In the months before I got him, I was having a bad luck streak with fish and could not keep any new fish alive for more than a month. Enter the melanurus wrasse, he eats everything I put in there, is extremely active, and most importantly stayed alive! I suspect he occasionally takes out a snail but that is about all.

Sorry you lost your fish. Reasons you may have lost him:
- Stress from shipping and acclimation. Not much you can do for that one.
- Being bullied. Your sixline may not have been hanging with him; he may have been beating the snot out of your new fish when you were not looking. Sixlines have a reputation for being nasty little buggers.
- You do not mention ammonia in your test results. If there is any ammonia, that plus stress would have been enough to kill the fish.

 

[bboudreaux]

I have a melanurus wrasse in my 65, and he has been in there for more than 2 years proving to be extremely easy to keep. In the months before I got him, I was having a bad luck streak with fish and could not keep any new fish alive for more than a month. Enter the melanurus wrasse, he eats everything I put in there, is extremely active, and most importantly stayed alive! I suspect he occasionally takes out a snail but that is about all.

Sorry you lost your fish. Reasons you may have lost him:
- Stress from shipping and acclimation. Not much you can do for that one.
- Being bullied. Your sixline may not have been hanging with him; he may have been beating the snot out of your new fish when you were not looking. Sixlines have a reputation for being nasty little buggers.
- You do not mention ammonia in your test results. If there is any ammonia, that plus stress would have been enough to kill the fish.

thanks for the response, but the sixline wrasse is normally very laid back to begin with but they were hanging together. as far as ammonia this tank is 18 mos old and i haven't checked for ammonia or nitrite since my cycle ended 1.5 yrs ago besides i have alot of sps in the tank so if there was a problem with water quality they would be suffering long before the fish. i do appreciate the help anyway. i guess fish just die sometimes.

thanks

brent

 

[Korrine]

idk. I'm against 6 lines. I sold my melanurus to a friend with a 125g tank and a 6 line. Well long story short, the 6 line gutted him! Sure it was buddy buddy? He could've been watching, eyeing, taunting, waiting to get him.

 

[Reef Bass]

I bet the 6 line was shadowing him and stressing him out.

 

[tkeracer619]

If a six line takes down a melanarus then the Mel was sick or weak to begin with.

The melanarus wrasse seems to be a very hardy fish. It happens unfortunately. Wait a bit and get another. I would qt the fish. Too many variables otherwise.

 

[milhous3er]

I've had my Melanarus and Ornate for a good 6+ months with no problems. I'm thinking the 6line wasn't buddy buddy, more like attacking when you weren't looking. I still think its odd that a Melanarus was being bullied by a 6line though.

I have had 4 wrasse in my tank at once, none of them being a 6 line. The only thing I was worried with was with them jumping out of the tank during routine maintenance.

 

[tony11387]

I have both a six line and a melanurus. Both are the easiest fish I've ever had. They eat anything I put in the tank including seaweed. My melanurus does some funny things sometimes like dozens of loops around my powerheads. I say you wait a bit and try again because the beauty and bold character of a melanurus wrasse is not easily matched.

 

[souperman]

What are you guys with Melanurus Wrasses doing to keep algae and stuff under control? I just picked one up last week and she's chilling in QT for the month. I was planning on a Yellow Eye Kole to keep up with algae since I'm assuming the wrasse will eat a CUC. I have three large peppermint shrimp I hope don't get bothered also. Do any of you also have a clam w/o problems?

 

[okbishop]

I wonder if he was a bit sick to begin with?

 

[tkeracer619]

Just get big snails. The melanurus will probably leave your snails alone for the most part. Don't underfeed it.

Take care of algae via good husbandry. Snails and tangs might eat algae but they are great at converting that algae into fertilizer for the rest of the algae in the tank. Keeping low phosphates and nitrates minimized the need for a large CUC.

 

[tony11387]

just get big snails. The melanurus will probably leave your snails alone for the most part. Don't underfeed it.

Take care of algae via good husbandry. Snails and tangs might eat algae but they are great at converting that algae into fertilizer for the rest of the algae in the tank. Keeping low phosphates and nitrates minimized the need for a large cuc.

+1

 

[Korrine]

If a six line takes down a melanarus then the Mel was sick or weak to begin with.

I beg to differ in my case. Mine was a well fed healthy fish. It was probably only 3-4", though. Sixlines can be real A holes when they want to be, no matter what size the fish they decide they don't like.

 

[souperman]

Just get big snails. The melanurus will probably leave your snails alone for the most part. Don't underfeed it.

Take care of algae via good husbandry. Snails and tangs might eat algae but they are great at converting that algae into fertilizer for the rest of the algae in the tank. Keeping low phosphates and nitrates minimized the need for a large CUC.

Sorry to hijack the thread.

I continue to have gha on the back of my tank and pumps where the cuc can't reach. I run gfo and always measure 0 po4 and nitrates. I attribute the algae to the dry rock I used leaching and the tank being somewhat young.

Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk

 

[ghostman]

I have both a six line and melanarus in a 120, and they ignore each other. Both are easy to keep fed and happy, I think you just got a bad/stressed one. Six lines get bad raps for aggression, but I've never personally seen it. My triggers are also well behaved, so maybe I buy fish that are wimps

 

[greech]

Just get big snails. The melanurus will probably leave your snails alone for the most part. Don't underfeed it.

Take care of algae via good husbandry. Snails and tangs might eat algae but they are great at converting that algae into fertilizer for the rest of the algae in the tank. Keeping low phosphates and nitrates minimized the need for a large CUC.

Didn't catch the tank size but I would not recommend a melanarus for smaller tanks. I take very good care of my tank and it was always pristine until I added a melanarus. I also feed my fish good. Not a single snail, hermit, conch etc. would come out of hiding while the lights were on. My nassarius snails wouldn't even come out when food it the water. I found a few empty shells now and then but it took me a while to figure out why my sand was getting filthy. Finally the wrasse starting banging my conchs against the glass and then I physically saw it kill and eat my cleaner shrimp. He was out of the tank the next day and my tank is back to it's pre-wrasse condition.

 

[Buzzword]

No problems with mine at all. Gets along well with my Mystery wrasse, have not seen him kill any snails, shrimp or crabs (yet). Very good looking fish when mature! I keep mine well fed with a mix of foods 2x/day.

 

[markster33139]

I had two 6 lines with my Malanurus wrasse, and they were fine. However, I did eventually get rid of the 6 lines because they were a..holes, and pretty much bullied any fish in the tank that they didn't like.