Radiant (Halichoeres iridias) Christmas wrasse (Halichoeres claudia) review...

triggreef

New member
Just looking for any review on these two. These are the last couple fish I'm looking at adding to replace my melanurus I lost during my tank move. Really just looking to see real person reviews on how they fair as flatworm and or bristle worm control. I have a melanurus in another tank and just looking for something different and not a six line.
 
Yeah I don't keep hermits for that reason, And because hermits just kill snails. So far snails seem to be safe for me with everything that says they shouldn't be. Probably cuz I way overfeed.
 
I'll tag along on this one. I snagged the radiant wrasse from DD on Monday and I'm so glad I did, she's a stunner. There are a handful of snails and no hermits in my reef, so it's not going to be a big risk either way. I will report back once she makes it out of quarantine. It will be nice if she eats bristle worms :)
 
I'll tag along on this one. I snagged the radiant wrasse from DD on Monday and I'm so glad I did, she's a stunner. There are a handful of snails and no hermits in my reef, so it's not going to be a big risk either way. I will report back once she makes it out of quarantine. It will be nice if she eats bristle worms :)

I didn't see one on DD I'll have to keep a look out. I was also wondering about the radiants look in real life v. photos because I haven't seen any impressive photos that justify the comparatively high price tag.

There is a LFS with a male christmas wrasse in a large frag tank display. He is very impressive looking. I'm 2nd on their list if they are ever able to fish him out of there but I doubt that will happen.
 
great wrasse, had one for about a year. Have it with a H. melarunus that I got do to a red planaria flat worm outbreak. Great fish.
 
I didn't see one on DD I'll have to keep a look out. I was also wondering about the radiants look in real life v. photos because I haven't seen any impressive photos that justify the comparatively high price tag.

There is a LFS with a male christmas wrasse in a large frag tank display. He is very impressive looking. I'm 2nd on their list if they are ever able to fish him out of there but I doubt that will happen.

Well this is the specimen I got on Monday:



Not fully mature, but pretty nice for her size. The greens in the face pop more in real life, and I'm interested to see how she looks under reef lighting.
 
Yeah I don't keep hermits for that reason, And because hermits just kill snails. So far snails seem to be safe for me with everything that says they shouldn't be. Probably cuz I way overfeed.
Snails can be occasionally picked on too, by a Halichoeres. Hermits are more prone, however.

I was also wondering about the radiants look in real life v. photos
Better than you might think.

Not fully mature,
Pretty darn close, though.
 
Only kept the iridis longterm and its a perfect tankmate and haven't witnessed any destruction of cuc. For flatworm control i think the white belly or canary do a better job.

The iridis does mature into a beautiful fish, starts pretty good looking as well. As Hunter say's the one in the pic is nearly there already.
 
Nearly, yes. I expect the markings in the dorsal fin and face to develop a bit more as the fish grows.

FWIW I put a couple of small snails into the QT with the wrasse (some LR, unmedicated right now) and they are untouched so far. She's been very busy hunting pods though.
 
I have a melanurus and a claudia in a 150 with about 20 hermits (mostly blue leg but a couple of scarlets and haloween). They haven't touched the hermits but dwarf cerith snails are tender vittles to the melanurus. I love them both and will over look the occasional snail that they eat.
 
Well I have a radiant coming from bluezoo and 2 xmas wrasses coming from r2g (the only place I could find them). Hopefully all goes well. My quarantine is an established 72g with just a tray of sand for those guys. Taking out the damsels that have been keeping it ready for me in the morning...

I got 2 xmas wrasses because I half way expect a doa from r2g so this insures I get at least one, and I figure if I get two all the better.

I've read I think on LA that xmas's can be kept together, can anyone confirm that? I can relocate one easy enough if it doesn't work out.
 
I have a claudia in a tank with snails and small hermits and no issues so far. I'm not sure if it's the wrasse or the tusk, but I have no visible bristle worms in that tank.
 
I have a Radiant Wrasse I just got a couple days ago. I have never seen one before the other day. I was stunned by how beautiful they are. When I saw it in my LFS I started researching it right away. He's in qt right now and will reside there for about a month if all goes well.
I also have a Melanarus Wrasse that I qt'd as well and I did not use any sand in the qt with either fish. I feel that by doing it this way it forces the fish to be out and thus will not have any disappearing problems later. My Melanarus did well and I think the Radiant s doing well too. It also removes the internal clock thing and forces the fish to see the light and be up when my lights are on. Now in my display I have plenty of sand it he decides to dive.
 
Interesting. I read an article by someone very well known in the hobby who broke all the rules of the leopard wrasse primer for qt'ing leopards and it worked with very good results. Its posted in the later pages of the primer thread. I still worry about them breaking their mouth by trying to dive into the glass which I have had happen even with a pot of sand in the tank.
 
I have seen that both fish are intelligent and kinda in the first day were seeing there reflection in the bottom glass and were more fascinated by that then anything else. Neither one dived into the glass, it appeared that they knew there was no sand their and just went with it.
Now the first 3-4 days I am very careful when walking into the QT room as not to startle the fish or stress him out at all. I walk real slow and approach the tank. I feed from a distance also until they were used to me.

I have a 4 inch PVC elbow in the tank for QT fish to hide in so there is plenty of security available to the fish.
 
Back
Top