Six Line Wrasse... adding Clownfish, will they get along?
- Thread starter alexwbush
- Start date
ReeferBill
New member
Hi alexwbush ; I have a 6-line with 3 clowns a royal gramma a midas blenny a coral beauty 3 firefish 2 green and 4yellow chromises a red scooter dragonet a randells shrimp goby and 2 cleaner shrimp one pepermint a green bubble-tip anenome , 3 emerald crabs assorted hermits snails era nassarius turbo and astrea. Alot of corals and a maroon colored brittle star. The only fish that are a little bit agessive with each nother are the royal gramma and the 6-line but they do not nip just dance. Happy Reefing.!!!!:celeb1:
You have some potential instability in your fish population. First of all, in a 46 gallon tank that is relatively new, your bioload is fairly high. Three clowns will become two clowns in rather short order. Three firefish in the longer run are not stable unless you end up with two as a bonded pair. Six chromis are likely reduce themselves in number as well. Your sixline is new but as it gets accustomed to your tank, may become aggressive towards your royal gramma.
I totally agree.
Angel*Fish
cats and large squashes
To the OP, I recommend doing more research on your fish purchases in addition to starting a thread. Six lines are awesome fish, but you want to know all about it. For example they really aggressively go after beneficial "mini fauna" in your tank. You want to make and educated decision and find out all you can.
I would expect your clown will be fine with the wrasse, but just a tip when hearing experiences of others - their fish may be fairly young. A mature 6 line is going to have much more aggression potential than a smaller, young one.
Also your diamond goby is on the list of potential problem fishes sticky at the top of this forum.
I would expect your clown will be fine with the wrasse, but just a tip when hearing experiences of others - their fish may be fairly young. A mature 6 line is going to have much more aggression potential than a smaller, young one.
Also your diamond goby is on the list of potential problem fishes sticky at the top of this forum.
I hate to add to that, but the 6 line may also get aggressive with the dragonet. They are known to poke out the eyes of mandarins, I assume they would likely do the same with other dragonets.
I totally see what you're saying. I usually do quite a bit of research before picking up coral and fish. This one was more of a rescue from someone who was taking down their tank and the clown didn't have a home. I figured the six line would be fine with the clown as the person who I got the wrasse from had a chromis and fire fish in the same size tank as mine.
As far as the goby... I did quite a bit of reading about it. It's in a tank on it's own. I hadn't heard that it was a trouble fish except that it likes to jump. But it's in a tank with a closed top. I know it's not going to pair with the shrimp. Slim chance, but the shrimp came second and they've claimed different holes... no biggie. The goby was skittish on it's first day, but has been fine since.
Angel*Fish
cats and large squashes
I probably came off sounding like I think you don't know anything at all. I just dont like to assume too much. Nice of you to take an orphan fish! 
gweston
New member
If the clowns are bigger than the 6-line, then they 'should' be ok. Note I said 'should'. 6-lines, especially those that think they 'own' the tank, can be in the face of newcomers, potentially causing stress or confrontation.
I had a pair of mated clowns with a midas blenny and a 6-line. The wrasse was the last addition. Everything went perfectly. The midas was effectively the most dominant in the tank. The female clown died. I later quarantined, then added a juvenile clown. The male paired up with the juvenile immediately and took on the female role. The 6-line would not tolerate the (smaller) juvenile AT ALL. The wrasse drove the clown into the rockwork and kept harassing it. I had to capture and remove the wrasse otherwise the juvenile clown would have died due to stress.
The wrasse is now in 'time-out' in a quarantine tank. Its been a few months. I hesitated to put it back in the display. The wrasse is going to go into a frag tank soon.
Not to completely dissuade you. If you want. Give it a shot. But be prepared to take action. A wrasse is a PIA to catch BTW. I had to take all my rockwork and corals out to catch it.
I had a pair of mated clowns with a midas blenny and a 6-line. The wrasse was the last addition. Everything went perfectly. The midas was effectively the most dominant in the tank. The female clown died. I later quarantined, then added a juvenile clown. The male paired up with the juvenile immediately and took on the female role. The 6-line would not tolerate the (smaller) juvenile AT ALL. The wrasse drove the clown into the rockwork and kept harassing it. I had to capture and remove the wrasse otherwise the juvenile clown would have died due to stress.
The wrasse is now in 'time-out' in a quarantine tank. Its been a few months. I hesitated to put it back in the display. The wrasse is going to go into a frag tank soon.
Not to completely dissuade you. If you want. Give it a shot. But be prepared to take action. A wrasse is a PIA to catch BTW. I had to take all my rockwork and corals out to catch it.
85galsalty
New member
I have a false clown and a six line wrasse. Clown was in the tank first and I added the wrasse 6 months later. Never had any issues with either of them fighting with eachother. I would make the wrasse the last addition in the tank. I added a kole tang a year after the wrasse and he really beat my tang up. Took me 5 hrs to net the wrasse and put him in the time out sump. I think this is going to be his new home because like gweston said..PITA to catch.
Angel*Fish
cats and large squashes
Sometimes an easy way to catch a 6 line wrasse is to observe which rock he sleeps in. After lights out remove the rock - probably doesn't hurt to hold a net over his hole. When he swims out of the rock in the bucket of saltwater, remove the rock. Not always possible, but when it is, it's a real time saver.
We had a very docile six line in our first tank with our clowns. When we moved the clowns to the frag tank and added a younger pair in the display tank, the wrasse tormented them. We had to move him to the frag tank as well and the larger, older clowns set him down the right path to model citizen again.
I go back and forth over our new little six liner. I like the fish and its utility tremendously but they're a pain to catch if removal is needed.
I go back and forth over our new little six liner. I like the fish and its utility tremendously but they're a pain to catch if removal is needed.
When I started my first marine tank 6 years ago, my first fish were a pair of True Percs that I got from Inland Aquatics. I then added a Six-line after being given the ok by a LFS- in a 25 gallon Biocube (obviously, I was not doing the research that I should have been doing)! I can honestly say that the Percs stayed (and still stay) within 4" of their anemone and the Six-line cruised the tank freely (he has since carpet surfed his way to fish heaven). I want to be clear that I am not promoting this arrangement, but just wish to point out that fish have personalities that may run the gamut from "typical of the species" to "totally unique for that fish". The interesting thing with Six-lines is that on RC, there are definitely two camps with regards to this fish- Natural Born Killers vs. Great Additions.
Angel*Fish
cats and large squashes
:lol:
Besides that there are so many variables. Rock arrangement and amount of rock being an important one that usually left out of discussions. Age of the fish is often not mentioned.
I think they're cool, but wouldn't have one again because I'd rather have a mandarin.
Jay_R
New member
I Know this is a historic thread; But i've just added a Picasso Clown ( After my previous female died ) to accompany the existing Male clown. My Christmas wrasse didn't approve of the new addition. While the wrasse doesn't constantly harass the new clown, it does give her a nip when ever she dares venture into the open area of the tank, and has started doing the same to the Male if he dares join her. Not impressed with the new Wrasse attitude.
I'm thinking of giving the wrasse some time out on the naughty step in the QT while the Picasso settles in. Hopefully this will resolve issues. I can only attribute this new behaviour to timing.
The wrasse was one of the last fish in the tank, with a flame angel.
I'm thinking of giving the wrasse some time out on the naughty step in the QT while the Picasso settles in. Hopefully this will resolve issues. I can only attribute this new behaviour to timing.
The wrasse was one of the last fish in the tank, with a flame angel.
I have a six-line in a small tank with 2 juvenile clownfish and I've never had a problem with him. I added them all at the same time so maybe that helped, but he is less aggressive than I anticipated and is not a bully at feeding time.
