I previously had a Red head wrasse, Halichoeres rubricephalus, that did great for me and then at the 9 month mark developed a swim bladder issue and was dead in a matter of days. These fish are rarely available as best as I can tell. I purchased another specimen last Friday and placed it into my quarantine tank. It was dead 4 days later. There is nothing wrong with the quarantine tank parameters so that is not the issue. Outwardly the fish appeared fine but never ate and swam mostly at the top. I noticed it was hiding on Monday and found it dead Tuesday after work. Maybe another possible swim bladder issue. I've heard in the past that people had trouble keeping this species for any period of time. I spoke with the late Greg Scheimer, an expert aquarist, about this species and he had no luck with it either. The species comes from the Flores and Banggaii regions in Indonesia. I really think there is a major collection problem with this species as Halichoeres spp. wrasses in my opinion are about as easy to keep as it gets. I don't know if the collection problem is cyanide, improper decompresion, or just poor handling during capture and transit but it is sad because they are incredibly beautiful fish. Has anybody out there had success with this species? Does anybody have any insight why this species does not do well?
Struck out again with the Red head wrasse(H. rubricephalus)
- Thread starter Chooch1
- Start date
Similar threads
