Red coris wrasse

[cediss]

Who has kept this beauty in a reef tank? I know they are not recommended for reef tanks, but I have always admired this wrassse and finally put one in my reef last month. So far she has been a good citizen, occassionally flipping smaller rocks. I don't keep any shrimp, but I do have a larger hermit crab that so far has evaded her appetite.
At this time she is about 4-5" and is in early phase 1 coloration. She eats well and seems to ignore the other fish. My Velvet fairy wrasse who is slightly larger has been the more aggressive fish as she was there first. Now they mostly seem to avoid each other.
I don't have many small rocks or small coral colonies so flipping of rocks has not been an issue. We'll see what happens as she grows! I also have a maxima clam at about 5" that I saw her pick at once, but no signs of damage.

 

[SDguy]

Eeek!...watch it carefully. IME red coris wrasses (Coris gaimard) get big and brutish. Will eat or sample most any invert other than corals. I've only known people to keep them in aggressive FO or FOWLR tanks. One even bit me while I was messing with some brittle stars while snorkling off Kauai.

 

[cediss]

Thanks SDguy. I really only plan to keep corals (SPS,LPS and Softies), so hopefully I won't have any significant issues. I'll just have to see. If it bothers the corals I may have to trade it in!

 

[anydarnthing]

I have one in a softy reef and he doesn't bother any corals, hermits, or snails I feed him well when he is awake. Mine is out for about 8 hours max the rest of the time he is under the sand.

 

[cediss]

anydarnthing, that's really encouraging. I don't know if this will work, but I'm shooting for a similiar goal. Mine also is only out about 8 hours. How long you have yours?

 

[anydarnthing]

I have had mine for about a year, he is a little bulldozer tipping over live rock looking for stuff to eat, I have noticed I have no bristleworms even at night. I'm sure there are some still in there but my Coris has done a pretty good job of clearing them out. I got mine as an adult around 7" and he doesn't seem to go after crustaceans since he also lives with 6 Cleaner shrimp and about 150 hermits and 60 snails. Mine has been a model citizen but I don't know about them in general.

 

[cediss]

That does seem to be unusual based on what I've read, but there are always exceptions to the rule. Plus it may be a factor of the size of your wrasse and how well you keep it fed! I diddn't see any pics of it in your gallery. I have to put some in for mine.

I use dto have a harlequin wrasse too, but mine jumped out will I was on vacation. I twas a shock cause it was a relatively small opening and the fish was just a couple of inches from falling back in the opening! Bummer, cause that was a really cool wrasse that was a model citizen!