Stock List ... plz give opinions

[just dave]

If the goal was two Fairy wrasses and a Leopard wrasse I would look at Cirrhilabrus rbrisquamis, C. adornatus , and C. flavidorsalis as smaller ones to pick from. The Leopards I would look at would be Macropharyngodon negrosensis, M. choati, and M. kuiteri as smaller ones to choose from ( though Kuiter's Leopard is not common in the hobby it does show up from time to time.)

 

[Cabin3tGuy]

Well I wanted the Cirrhilabrus rubrisquamis so thats a lock ... Negrosensis or Choati's would be nice I just thought they were a little harder to find

how bout Cirrhilabrus lubbocki for the second wrasse I don't think they get quite as big

Dave do we ever see Cirrhilabrus bathyphilus ?? Couldn't remember if I had ever seen it in the store

 

[crpeck]

One thing to be careful with is to wait until you're sure you don't have any gorilla or xanthid crab hitch- hikers in your set up.

Some of the fairy wrasses build themselves a cocoon into the rocks to sleep at night. They're sitting ducks for predator crabs.

I never even realized I had a bad crab in the rocks until I added a fairy wrasse to the tank. The wrasse just melted down over a 6 week period from stress. He got ich and finally disappeared altogether. I couldn't figure out what happened ... all my other fish had been fine in there for several years.

Lately several of my rock sleeping fish have disappeared. Found a Xanthid crab who has been in there who knows how long. He's not big enough to catch and eat anything big as a wrasse. But he was certainly big enough to pick at one at night and stress him to death.

 

[just dave]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11990562#post11990562 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Cabin3tGuy
Well I wanted the Cirrhilabrus rubrisquamis so thats a lock ... Negrosensis or Choati's would be nice I just thought they were a little harder to find

how bout Cirrhilabrus lubbocki for the second wrasse I don't think they get quite as big

Dave do we ever see Cirrhilabrus bathyphilus ?? Couldn't remember if I had ever seen it in the store

The Black Leopard is fairly common and male looks pretty cool. The Choats comes from Australian collectors and shows up fairly regularly in mass . In other words everyone has them for a week or two and it may be a few months before you see them again.

Lubbocks get about 3.5"

Cirrhilabrus bathyphilus 3.5"
Never seen one.

 

[Cryptoreef]

If you couldn't tell that was one of the fish he had in the old broke bottom show tank..I've only seen the one come through there. As for the rarity of the leopard wrasse, it doesn't matter you need to let the tank get "really" established before putting a leopard in there anyhow so it may be worth the wait as far as getting what you want.