*&^$! small-tailed pencil wrasse!

[bureau13]

(For reference, I'm speaking of Pseudojuloides cerasinus)

I picked one of these up at an LFS a few weeks ago on an impulse, and we all know that's usually not the best way to do things. Sure enough, now that I'm reading about them they're considered very difficult to get to eat, and generally do not last long. Well, to make matters worse, I got an outbreak of marine velvet with possibly a nice dessert course of ich, and it wiped out most of my fish (don't say it...I just set up a QT tank )

HOWEVER...damned if the pencil wrasse isn't still there, looking healthy as ever. The thing is, I almost never see him. He doesn't come out when I feed the tank, and I actually never see him save maybe once every 3 days he comes out and swims around just to taunt me. See, I'm trying to get the damned survivors out of the tank and into QT so I can leave the display tank fishless and let the parasites die off...but I have no idea how to catch him if I never see him and he's not interested in food.

jds

 

[Alexnlasf]

Sorry to hear about your experience with the fish. I have one in my tank and so far it has been doing well and get along with my other fishes. I guess I got lucky.

 

[bjolly]

I've heard of people draining out most of the water and forcing the fish into one area in the lowest part of the tank - seems like that would force him out of hiding.

sorry to hear about your losses. I lost a lot of my fish in a similar way this spring and it almost made me want to get out of the hobby. good luck!

 

[bureau13]

Thanks for the support...its kind of funny, in his ongoing mission to defy me in every way, the wrasse has been front and center all evening, and even ate some mysis right in front of me. There may be hope for us yet!

jds