Psych head wrasse(red tail tamarin male) What to feed?

[jc16]

Hello i got this guy about 2 weeks ago was really healthy started pecking on rocks immediately but still not eating prepared foods yet. He is around 6 inches was fat when i got him but getting skinnier by the day. I guess i dont have a good enough pod population to sustain his weight. I was wondering if any of you has any experience with these guys and what you used to get them feeding. I was thinking artic pods but will have to wait on delivery. Another problem is all my fish steals all the food from him before he gets a chance to feed. he seems really dumb always looking into the glass for food.He ate mysis well for 1 day but seems to be not liking it much lately. any help would be appreciated thanks

picture of him a couple of days in the tank

 

[jmccown]

I'm interested in getting more info on this fish too. Are they very hardy?

 

[jc16]

they are basically the male version of a red tail tamarin part of the anampses family. i've heard they could be hardy once settled in but is a very poor shipper to begin with. Anampses chrysocephalus

 

[rduong89]

feed it articpods. they are not hardy at all.

 

[jc16]

anyone have kept these fish sucesfully long term?

 

[bradleyj]

They are very hard to keep. Especially finding a healthy one is very rare. Best of luck to you. I've kept the females with good success but have only tried a male once and he was in poor health when I got him. My tamarins feed mainly off of my pod population in my tank, but also eat other prepared foods. Best of luck to you, they are very beautiful fish.

 

[AquaKnight]

How hard are they to keep? Take the success rate of the worst fish in the primers, Moorish/Regal/Achilles/your pick, then divide it in half.

Shipping takes it's nasty toll on these guys. If one does make it without ripping it's mouth to shreds, they starve from inadequate tanks. Just imagine how many pods a 8" Leopard wrasse or Mandarin would require to sustain itself.

 

[jc16]

he is still in quite healthy shape right now but just getting skinnier due to inadequate food source i guess all i could do is try some of the artic pods from reef nutrition, how long did the females take to start taking prepared foods? and you thing live tiger pods from reef nutrition are a good product too? im planning to add the tiger pods to my tank but i was wondering if any off you tried the product? does it carry any disease and such? thanks

 

[AquaKnight]

The thing is those live tiger pods bottles, are really only a starter culture. I think the bottle says it contains 500-1000 pods? That's really only a day's meal for a tamarin. A healthy-adequate-sized breeding population of pods, is the only way.

If he's getting noticeably skinny, time to try everything, glass/ghost shrimp, enriched live adult brine, Arcti-pods, etc.

 

[jc16]

glass/ghost shrimp is fresh water shrimp right? is that okay for them?

 

[LargeAngels]

Another problem is all my fish steals all the food from him before he gets a chance to feed. he seems really dumb always looking into the glass for food.

That is a problem as they need to eat all the time. If he's always looking into the glass he is not comfortable with his surroundings.

Try Hikari mysis (regular and jumbo) and PE mysis. Feed A LOT and OFTEN. If there is not enough natural food to graze on then you need to feed often and overfeed so he can continue to browse on food throughout the day as they will search out food in the rocks and sand. These fish also chew, spit, chew, spit and chew before actually eating the food and they may only eat part of each mysis or shrimp. They constantly swim and constantly forage for food.

What temp. are you running the tank at? They prefer cooler temps.

 

[lostintheocean]

he may be lookign at the glass for pods. i see pods on my class if it is not super clean

 

[bradleyj]

Mine also love spectrum pellets, baby size. I have a yellowtail and a potters leopard right now. I lost my redtail a year ago, but that was fault of mine. You need alot of live rock and a good refugium if you ask me.

 

[iamwrasseman]

the psycho head is very difficult to keep because he is a super male in a sense and his duty in life is breeding .this being said he really isn't interested in eating vs looking for a harem of females to hang out with and mate . without a harem its almost impossible to overcome his obsession ,and i would try to quickly find a female and he may settle down a bit to aquarium life . i have had two harems with a male and the males both seemed possessed and never stopped sweeping the tank in search for a mating area for him and his harem IMO . when he doesn't find a huge open reef slope he simply goes berserk and both of mine never settled down . they did eat and the best food for him right now would be live brine or live mysis and they need to be gut loaded too. if you watch that guy he just doesn't stop and is burning up so much energy that it will be very difficult to keep weight on him .mine also ate PE MYSIS but both males just simply withered away over the period of six months or so . believe me i even come home and feed my wrasses two or three times a day because of their special needs . i wish you the best but it will be uphill all the way .awesome looker there huh ? i love that psycho head too !

 

[robertifly]

Tagging along, for the wrasse feeding info. Just got 3 last week McCosker's, Sea Grass, and Yellow Fin. The Yellow Fin was DAA on second day, Sea Grass hasn't eaten and will die today I'm sure it's mouth is swollen, white torn, looking disoriented. McCosker's is eating frozen mystis and veggie blocks really well and looking good. I am trying the Spectrum pellets. I really hate to lose a fish, but I understand some do not survive shipping well at all. What's your experience with the shipping does one size do better or a species thing? bradleyj, your tank is awsome!

 

[iamwrasseman]

smaller wrasses seem to ship poorly IMO . i like to get medium sized wrasses as they seem to settle into aquaria life much easier than large ones . also larger ones will have certain learned traits such as flipping corals and nipping at them also . i have seen this more than a handful of times from larger "reef safe" wrasses as i would imagine they have seen others so they follow and mimic in an attempt to get food . wrasses are very touchy to begin with and they often have extreme difficulty with the collection and shipping process as it is way to stressful for them .

 

[LargeAngels]

the psycho head is very difficult to keep because he is a super male in a sense and his duty in life is breeding .this being said he really isn't interested in eating vs looking for a harem of females to hang out with and mate . without a harem its almost impossible to overcome his obsession ,and i would try to quickly find a female and he may settle down a bit to aquarium life . i have had two harems with a male and the males both seemed possessed and never stopped sweeping the tank in search for a mating area for him and his harem IMO . when he doesn't find a huge open reef slope he simply goes berserk and both of mine never settled down . they did eat and the best food for him right now would be live brine or live mysis and they need to be gut loaded too. if you watch that guy he just doesn't stop and is burning up so much energy that it will be very difficult to keep weight on him .mine also ate PE MYSIS but both males just simply withered away over the period of six months or so . believe me i even come home and feed my wrasses two or three times a day because of their special needs . i wish you the best but it will be uphill all the way .awesome looker there huh ? i love that psycho head too !

So you are saying he is restless and not eating cause he doesn't have a harem of females and a place to breed? I'm not buying it.

 

[iamwrasseman]

okay watch him constantly search and wither away just as mine did .even with two females the male still never stopped relentlessly searching the tank for something he could find .he is not restless rather he is obsessed with mating and that is his only priority .just like the terminator" he will never stop thats all he does"........till he dies.why do they call them psycho heads ?hmmmm

 

[iamwrasseman]

jc16 well has he eaten yet ? im sorry for the distraction as i will not participate in it anymore . i hope that you have one that is much more suited to aquarium life as mine simply couldn't deal with it .

 

[LargeAngels]

okay watch him constantly search and wither away just as mine did .even with two females the male still never stopped relentlessly searching the tank for something he could find .he is not restless rather he is obsessed with mating and that is his only priority .just like the terminator" he will never stop thats all he does"........till he dies.why do they call them psycho heads ?hmmmm

No need to take offense cause I didn't agree with your conclusion. What is needed is dialog on what basis you are forming your conclusion.

IME I don't agree with it. I have one pair and one harem and I haven't seen anything to that affect. One male was QT'd (full Reef style with no other fish) with no female and one with a female. One male is past the one year mark so we will see if they live for years. What I have seen is that they are very delicate shippers and I think they don't seem to do well with the classic, diver to wholesaler to wholesaler to LFS, etc. One of the reasons is handling the other is probably that no one keeps sand for them to burry them selves in. I know of one Wholesaler in LA that won't even bring these guys in. For the best chance the closer you get it from the diver the better. Even then they don't always ship well. I also keep mine at 70-73°F which may also be a factor. Feed frequently and I always overfeed so they can forage most of the day. All have put on weight and are very active. What I have seen is that males loose some color, even with a female, but one is gaining it back with a harem.