Pest control wrasse but..

dstrickland

New member
I wanting to add another wrasse and would great to have one that would do pest control such zoa nubis, flatworm, etc.. But my son's favorite is our cleaner shrimp and like to keep him whole

Current 70 gallon reef tank
Current fish: McCoskers, yellow watchman goby and tailspot blenny

Any suggestions or is all hoping that it will be ok
 
I have a male H. melanurus (aka Hovens wrasse) that's good at pest control and totally ignores the shrimp. I know he eats flatworms and bristle worms, don't know about nudies. Its pretty entertaining to drop a bristle worm in the tank and watch him chew it up and spit out the bristles. Nice fish.
 
Thanks Bill. I will look into those. The only pest I have seen is zoanthid nudie ranch (silly iPad. Couldn't bring mysel to correct that autocorrect). I like having fish that perform tasks; especially one that I would want anyway. That's why I got the tail spot blenny.
 
I would definetly second the vote for a melanarus wrasse, very interesting fish that gets along great with others, easy to keep and will eat almost anything from the moment you introduce them to the tank. Other fish that do a good job at controlling pests are the yellow coris wrasse, dusky wrasse (probably my favorite), radiant wrasse, and for that matter most of the helioechores wrasses.
 
i have a yellow coris and he doesn't bother snails, crabs or my cleaner shrimp :) very pretty yellow color too. keep in mind they bury themselves at night, so if you don't see them for a couple of days, you'll know where they are.
 
yellow coris. Great color and very peaceful. No more flatworms or bristles for me. Love that fish. I wouldn't have a tank without one.
 
yellow coris. Great color and very peaceful. No more flatworms or bristles for me. Love that fish. I wouldn't have a tank without one.

+1 for yellow coris wrasse. Mine doesn't bother my shrimp (which were established in the tank long before introducing the yellow coris).
 
I know all of these need sand beds and I got that. Is a sand bed needed in quarantine?

If you do a quaranteen I would suggest only a couple rounds of Prazipro. Most wrasses don't do well with copper. I had a issue with Ich and my tangs and Angels had to be pulled out and treated with copper my wrasses (leopards, yellow coris, dusky and melanurus) never showed any symptoms of contracting Ich. Point is they are very resilient.
 
I have a hoeven's wrasse in QT now, he has been there for 3 weeks, no sand, and so far so good. Very active fish.
 
I really like halichoeres biocellatus, because they are smaller than the other commonly kept Halichoeres wrasses, which can sometimes be questionable with shrimp, and attitude.
 
I have a melanarus wrasse in QT right now. She's been in there for almost 6 weeks now cause I'm waiting to make a tight fitting lid for my DT. Very beautiful fish. Hopefully it keeps off my cleaner shrimp
 
I'll be the first and say sixline wrasses do a fantastic job at bristleworms and some with flatworms. I've seen the occasional one eat certain nudibranchs. Mine happened to eat all 3. They get nasty sometimes with certain fish though. One that doesn't get too big but does it as well is the Adorned Wrasse, which I believe is a Haliochoeres. Excellent looking fish.
 
Have owned all of these fish. My personal experieces in controlling AEFW in my SPS tank......

Sixline Wrasse - Best bang for your buck with pest control. Buy a small one and just make sure to add it after other fish have been established. Look at its mouth, it was designed to get between coral heads. No sandbed needed

Melanarus Wrasse - pretty good but not as solid as the Six line. It will do a decent job when young but once its starts gettting larger / fatter from eating tons of frozen mysis it can become a bit lazy. Needs a sandbed

Radiant Wrasse - almost as good as the sixline but much much more fragile. Really hard to get a decent specimen. Extremely poor shipper. I'd guess 9/10fish die within two weeks. But if it eats and survives the shipping you should be good. Sandbed needed

Merengue Wrasse (Halichores Chrysus ? ) - looks like a yellow coris but the underbelly is all white. Tied with the Radiant for pest control but a bit more hardy. Sandbed needed
 
Back
Top