This may be a question better directed to the reef fish forum but I figured I'd try here first. I recently purchased an adult male flasher wrasse (parachellinus carpenteri) from live aquaria. its a totally awesome fish with loads of personality and as absolutely stunning when it "flashes" by extending its dorsal and pectoral fins. I wanted to obtain a couple of females to provide a little harem for the male and to keep him flashing. They have juvenile fish available but apparently they cannot be sexed as juvies so you just have to take your chances. Of course if one of the juvies turns out to be a male you have to separate them. I haven't as yet found any other distributors who sell females. So I was wondering what people do with this or any other wrasse when they want to group a male with multiple females. Also, now that I am a wrasse fan, I was wondering if male carpenter can be kept with any other male flasher species or fairy wrasses (etc. Scotts, exquisite etc.).
obtaining female flasher wrasses?
- Thread starter drbronx
- Start date
Arik
New member
I've been fighting temptation to buy a carpenter from L.A. for months......I hope pictures follow soon! Anyways, I'd avoid any boisterous species of wrasse since they are likely to harass your carpenter. I'd say you have a 50/50 chance with a fairy wrasse, since both the carpenter and the fairy are generally relatively timid, but you just can't tell until they are in the tank together.
dreaminmel
New member
I'd be interested to know what you find out on this as I had wanted to do the same thing in the past but also was unable to get liveaquaria to guarantee sexes so wrote off the whole idea. Maybe you could get a group and trade in the non-sociable ones to the LFS for store credit?
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
I don't know about liveaquaria or CF, but MO regularly gets in many Flasher and Fairy wrasses- including Carpenters.
I've seen great Wrasses at TRS every time I stop in as well.
In any event, I've mixed male flashers and fairy wrasses in large (hundreds of gallons) FO aquariums before. The (usually but not always) smaller Flashers MUST go in first and you must have plenty of hiding places for the fishes (typical of a reef aquarium. Many FO systems are bare and don't provide enough hiding spots.)
Avoid boisterous Damselfishes in smaller aquariums (they seriously pester Flasher and Fairy Wrasses) and keep a lid on the aquarium!
I tried a Scott's Wrasse years ago before I became aware of their propensity to jump. Mixing male Wrasses increases the odds of finding an expensive carpet surfer.
I've seen great Wrasses at TRS every time I stop in as well.
In any event, I've mixed male flashers and fairy wrasses in large (hundreds of gallons) FO aquariums before. The (usually but not always) smaller Flashers MUST go in first and you must have plenty of hiding places for the fishes (typical of a reef aquarium. Many FO systems are bare and don't provide enough hiding spots.)
Avoid boisterous Damselfishes in smaller aquariums (they seriously pester Flasher and Fairy Wrasses) and keep a lid on the aquarium!
I tried a Scott's Wrasse years ago before I became aware of their propensity to jump. Mixing male Wrasses increases the odds of finding an expensive carpet surfer.
fedukeford
New member
jerry, if you end up buying some juvies, and one ends up being a male LMK and ill buy it off you if you dont want it in one of your other tanks
Thanks for the input guys. I did some searching on the reef fish forum and received some interesting info. Apparently, during the juvenile stages, flashers are semi-hermaphroditic. Essentially, this means that juvies are much more likely to develop into adult females if a male is present. I never knew that and apparently neither did the customer rep. at Live Aquaria since I sepcifically asked him about that. So I guess I'll get a little group of juvies. Now the problem is, I already have a male in quarantine and the females are supposed to be introduced into a tank before the male. I don't want to put the juvies into the main display snce this species is somewhat susceptible to disease. What to do? I also learned that fairies and carpenters can be kept together but as gary stated they need appropriate hiding space and room and yes they are notorious carpet surfers.
fedukeford
New member
i think rick @ natures just got 1 or 2 flasher wrasse, i was just there and im pretty sure thats what they were
