Our reef wrasses

[Sparkss]

We added a new fairy wrasse this past weekend and it prompted us to take a few picutres of our wrasses (well, some of the other wrasses got jealous of our only taking pictures of the new guy, so they ended up in a couple of pictures also ).

Here is the new one, he is a bit shy still and being constantly pestered by the cleaner wrasse, hopefully he will get some rest from the cleaner soon

I am a little concerned about our Lineatus, since they share a strikingly similar body style, but so far only a few small border skirmishes (the new guy tried to take up residence where the lineatus likes to hang out). But oddly enough they spent some time "together" in a burrow, no aggression that I could see.

Here is the lineatus, peeking out of his burrow of sorts :

And here is the new guy sneaking up on him

Finally the lineatus had enough and vacated himself, which was a bit odd, since he was clearly the dominate one when he chased the new guy out of his "space".

 

[Sparkss]

Our ornate started getting really jealous and headed over to see what all of the activity was about

and then stopped to pose for me (I guess that is his "good side" ).

 

[Sparkss]

Then our rosy fin stopped over to join in :

His tail is finally healing. I am not sure if he tangled with a hithicker crab (that we had since caught and disposed of) or one of the other fish. But he got that "tail dent" within a week or so of being moved to the main tank (we had him and his mate in a separate tank since she arrived weak and just generally not doing well. We kept them both together and he finally started eating but she never did). He has grown alot since we got him earlier this year and we plan to find him another mate (or two ) once we get the new, bigger tank up and running.

Showing a little dorsal action here

Here's a shot of three of them together (at least 2 of them bugging for camera time )

 

[Elite]

Great shots Tom... How about a full tank shot??

 

[Sparkss]

I didn't take any separate of the cleaner wrasse (or final wrasse citizen ) becuase he was in enough of the other shots . He is actually our oldest tank resident, going back over 2 years now. He will eat just about anything, including occassionally chowing on the smaller Spectrum pellets, although lately he definitely prefers Arcti-Pods

Also, It is aparent that our lineatus is no where near his terminal male colors, so we are also looking to get him a mate or two once the big tank is up and running, and stable (typical fairy wrasse harem is 2 - 3 females)

 

[Sparkss]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8444063#post8444063 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Elite
Great shots Tom... How about a full tank shot??

Wish I could, but unfortunately the 180 starfire that we have up for sale is in the living room a couple of feet from our current corner tank. It makes it so that the best I can do is get some close up/medium distance shots . Once we get the 180 moved out of here I had planned to post some full tank shots (especially before we tear it down to set up the 380 starfire that we bought from BigRed earlier this year). I really am proud of what we have done with this 92 gallon corner tank, both for corals and lighting and also aquascaping, so I plan to take many pictures for posterity before we tear it down to move everything to the new tank (later this year.. hopefully).

 

[GreshamH]

(typical fairy wrasse harem is 2 - 3 females)

maybe in aquaria, but definitly not in the wild/ Your looking at like 15 - 20 per alpha male.

 

[orientalexpress]

one thing i learn about wrasses,if i put them in one at time.one of them either going to die or jump.i finally bought 4 fairy wrasses and put them in at the same time,so far so good.no jumping no harrasment ,no fight.awsome looking wrasses btw .gl

lapsan

 

[Sparkss]

Gresham, True, but I am only going to be able to support 2 - 3 per male in our tank

Lapsan, Ornate went in first (although not a fairy wrasse, it still had a repuation for jumping), the lineatus went in next, then the rosy fin and finally today the new one (to be named later, hopefully). Our tank is 100% covered and I plan to cover the new one once it is set up, using the "mesh" top frmo a thread in the DIY forum here on RC


the new guy was sold as a Ruby Fairy Wrasse (gotta love the ambiguous common names they give these guys), and I found a similar picutre online labeled as an Austrailian Ruby Wrasse, but this one was collected in the Coral Sea, according to the LFS. I think that he may be a Pylie (sp?) fairy wrasse, the jury is still out. either way it is a nice looking wrasse, and I am watching them all very closely to make sure that they continue to play nice together. Otherwise I will have to quickly trap one of them out (none of them are cheap fish )

 

[Sparkss]

Well so far so good with the new guy . I have seen him eat (even the dry food) and he seems to be getting along well with the other wrasses (specifically the Lineatus, since he is the biggest and also the closest body shape). These pictures are not the best, but you can see that they are all swimming around together without aggression (*whew*)

 

[Sparkss]

And here are some more shots of the new guy. As he is out and swimming around alot more I was able to get some better shots . I just love his coloration

 

[Sharkie06]

Red Margin Fairy Wrasse aka Cirrhilabrus rubrimarginatus

 

[Sparkss]

Thanks Sharkie06. Someone else had also PMed me this link :

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/marine/wrasses/RedmarginedFairyWrasse.php

I would have to agree with you and the other person that it is likely the red margined fairy wrasse, but I will say that the picture on the above link don't do it justice

 

[zemuron114]

wow tom! the lineatus and bathiphylus colored up a lot. the bathiphylus looks like a completely different fish! Great shots.

its definitely a red/pink margin fairy. they are highly variable in colors since they have a huge range in nature. They will all have the red on the tail though which is a dead give away

that probably is one of the nicest ones i have seen. Usually the look drab and colorless.

 

[Sparkss]

Thanks DJ, and yea, the wrasses we got from you have been doing great. The lineatus is a pig, and has grown a bit and the rosy fin has really colored up and had a pretty good growth spurt. I can't wait until the new tank gets set up so that we can get a mate for each of them from you

Oh, and that ornate is one of yours also.

As for the red/ping margin fairy, I just hope that he/she will keep that awesome coloration in our tank. I am going to be keeping my fingers crossed on that one, because now it is catch your eye, stop you in your tracks, beautiful (the pictures just do not do it justice, as is usually the case)

 

[Sparkss]

Here is another of the lineatus

and a couple of the rosy fin that I meant to post originally (but posted the wrong pict instead )

P.S. I told you we would take good care of them DJ

 

[Sparkss]

ok, well I figured it was time for a little pictorial update . Please forgive the floating particualtes.. I had just cleaned the glass and between what I put into the water and our foxface swimming frantically stirring up the sand, it all just had not yet settled down .


The red margin wrasse has colored up quite a bit darker :

 

[Sparkss]

Here is a picture sort of in the dark, it really shows off the deeper hues in the fish :

and here are a couple taken with a flash, they show off the higlights pretty well

 

[Sparkss]

I also am happy to report that the Rosy Fin has grown a good part of his tail fin back, and it has colored back up that pretty purple/blue

And the Lineatus Wrasse is coming along nicely also :

The Ornate is pretty much the same, but still a nice looking fish

All 3 of these I got from DJ (zemuron114) earlier this year. They have really come along nicely.. Thanks again DJ !!!!!

 

[Chaotic Reefer4u]

very nice, thanx for sharing...