Thinking about a 6-Line.......on the fence

M

monty

New member
Im on the fence with adding a six line to my tank. I have a 120 reef and currently only 2 fish for the past year or so (sailfin/flameback angel). My goal is to use the six line to eliminate (or reduce) flatworms so i dont have to add chemicals.

Im not worried about the 6 line bullying my fish, im sure the flameback will keep him in check...I hesitate adding a wrasse because i dont want him to eat my blue/red legs and various snails. Do they go after these? I had a checkerboard years ago and i couldnt keep any snails/hermits in the tank.

any thoughts?
 
I've owned 3 six line wrasses and not a one of them has ever gone after a snail. They mostly spend their day swimming up and down the rock work looking for little critters to pick off.
 
I've never heard of/seen a sixline go after anything with a shell- mine leaves all snails and hermits alone, even the teenty tiny baby cerith snails. They're great little fish; they weave in and out of the rock, buzzing around the tank with a very curious look about them, poking into every little nook and cranny.
 
Sixlines typically don't bother inverts, but they will become aggressive once they are established in your tank. If you ever plan on adding another small fish to your tank, don't get a sixline. My sixline wrasse killed 4 other wrasses and made my firefish jump out. This was in a 180 with plenty of rock work.

Also, there is no guarantee that a sixline will eat flatworms. Some do, some don't.
 
Sixlines typically don't bother inverts, but they will become aggressive once they are established in your tank.
Click to expand...

Yep. The last sixline I kept was a monster, it was fine for about a year and a half and then it started going after even established fish and it killed and ate an established cleaner shrimp. They are not to be trusted with any passive fish IMO.
 
Thanks everyone....thats why im on the fence...its a trade off, (usually) they are great with flatworm control, but they also have a complex.

keep the feedback coming
 
I had a six-line in a 25g with two clowns and he was active without being ever aggressive, and he never touched a snail or shrimp. However, this seems to be the exception because RC is abound with posts about assassin-six lines. So don't get one just for the flat-worm control. Planaria are really harmless, just unsightly when they get out of control. Try dealing with the planaria with nutrient control and save the six-line for when just really want to have one because they are beautiful.
 
My six line is harmless to my other fish, inverts, and........unfortunately my planaria too. You might think about a yellow coris wrasse. I believe they are a little more known for going after planaria.
 
They are busy at work all day eating your pods. That is the last thing I want to happen in my tank. Pods help your tank stability. Mess with that and the next thing you know you could have planaria AND and an algae bloom. One solution might be doing everything possible to encourage pod growth. Your hermits may be eating pods also. I never understand why everyone has crabs :)
 
As for flatworms - A little bit of elbow grease to siphon out most of your flatworms, and then a dose of Flatworm Exit (or related meds) will take care of your flatworm problem in one shot. Then improve your water quality to keep them in check in the future. Unless you know you NEVER want to add any passive fish to the tank, the sixline is likely to wind up doing way more damage than the meds.
 
Moonstream said:
I've never heard of/seen a sixline go after anything with a shell- mine leaves all snails and hermits alone, even the teenty tiny baby cerith snails.
Click to expand...

Some people use them to control the small pyramid snails that are parasitic to clams, so they can definitely go after snails. I've had them go for larger snails as well.
Also, as mentioned above, they tend to get aggressive towards other fishes, and can limit what else you could add to the tank.

As for the OP, there are no fish that are a sure bet to get rid of flatworms; there are a ton of fish that might eat flatworms. Every fish I've seen eat flatworms in one tank, I've seen completely ignore them in another. If there's a fish you want that also happens to sometimes eat flatworms, go for it, but I wouldn't get one solely for that purpose, because it often doesn't work.
FWE is a much more reliable method.
 
Wolverine said:
If there's a fish you want that also happens to sometimes eat flatworms, go for it, but I wouldn't get one solely for that purpose, because it often doesn't work.
FWE is a much more reliable method.
Click to expand...
That's excellent advice :D

This is a dramatic example, but when I very first started in the hobby, I obtained a huma huma trigger to get rid of my mantis. The mantis outsmarted the trigger, while in the meantime the trigger destroyed all my worms, amphipods and anything else he could find. It was a distaster - lol. Took the huma back to LFS and got the mantis myself.

Good luck, I know how frustrating these problems can be.
 
I live in Germany and one of our marine magazines had an article this month saying that sixlines are coral eaters. They seem to go for poccilipora corals...
I've had one in my tank but not a poccilipora. So I can't tell....
 
Have a look at a melanurus wrasse. I loved mine, but sold her when I tore down the tank. She ate my flatworms right up and are peaceful fish. She's now living in a 125g and last I heard was recently being bullied by his 6 line :(

Another wrasse already mentioned was the yellow canary wrasse. H. Chrysus. Another peaceful fish that should eat your flatworms up.
 
interesting mention of the pocillopora, as i have a large colony in my tank. ill have to do some more research on that, thanks
 
I have had a 6-line in my tank for about 5 months.. The tank has been established for 6 almost 7 months.. He is extremely peaceful I have never seen him go after any of my other fish or invertebrates... The thing is that I do have some flatworms but he doesnt eat any of them... I'm thinking of getting another wrasse to help me with this.. And he doesn't touch any of my corals what so ever he just goes around all day doing his own thing with out bothering anyone :)
 
I keep reading on these about how bad adding a sixline is to tanks, but the author of the Nano Reef Handbook says it's one of his favorite fish for a nano.... At the end he outlines setups done by professionals to use as templates for creating your own. They profile a 7.5 gallon that houses 2 false clowns and a sixline, along with various corals and invertebrates. Even nano-reef.com gives a 10 gal minimum tank. After reading opinions on here, this sounds like it would be crazy. Who do I trust, pros or random Internet commentary?? Hmmmm I think I'll go with the pros
 
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