Strange wrasse behaviour

[lee_d_m]

Hi,

I've had a female peacock wrasse for 3 weeks purchased from a local reefer.

The fish has been fine up until yesterday when she started acting strange. This lasted for 4 hours until she went to sleep in the sand.
Today, she has been fine all day, cruising the rocks as normal, up until now, which is around the same time she started acting strange yesterday.

Here's the symptoms

She swims in one location, either in a front corner, or front middle of my DT facing the glass.

Every 5 or so minutes, her face changes to a light blue colour, this will last a few minutes and then will go back to the normal colour.

Then, every so often, maybe every 10 or 15 minutes, she'll flap her fins really fast, open her mouth wide and have a kind of convulsion where her whole body twitches

If I put food in the tank whilst she is doing this, she will leave the spot where she's at and get the food, but then she'll go back to the spot where she's acting strangely.

I've never seen anything like this before, so would appreciate any insight as to what this might be and what my course of action could be.

Thanks

Lee

 

[eatbreakfast]

What is the scientific name? There are a couple of species which go by peacock wrasse.

If it is Thalasomma pavo, this behavior sounds fairly normal, but it will mean you have a male, as it sounds as though it is going through a nuptial or threat display, particularly the shuddering and the face changing color. It likely saw its reflection in the glass.

If you have Macropharyngodon bipartitus, this behavior sounds a little strange as they dont change colors in their displays.

 

[lee_d_m]

Hi,

It's Macropharyngodon bipartitus

The only thing that is in common with the time this is happening is it is when I feed the tank, (I also feed a couple of hours after lights on and she was fine at that time) but she was fine up until yesterday and I haven't fed anything out of the ordinary.

The only other thing that has happened is that I moved on my Carpenters Flasher wrasse yesterday as he was becoming bit of a bully

 

[eatbreakfast]

The behavior does not seem to be related to the carpenter, otherwise you would be seeing this reaction close to any chasing behavior. To me it seems like your female is begining to transition into a male and th markings haven't caught up to the attitude. It seems as if your bipartitus is catching sight of its reflection and displaying to it.