Two spot wrasse, Coris, Help, please

[Sanlynn]

Okay, so I went to Beitel's Aquarium in Pearl River, NY...very impressive - I think they're second to Absolutely Fish in Clifton, NJ, in terms of livestock. I brought my "Marine Fish" book by Scott Michael with me and a fish shopping list too. I was determined to "just look" unless I found exactly what I wanted...I don't know what happens when I go to a LFS - but all reason leaves and buyer frenzy begins.

(I am finally ready to restock after a total crash from a power outage a few months ago)

My husband was with me and really liked this pretty, small white with black polkadots and two orange-red spots fish. For the first hour I was there I kept forgetting to ask what it was, but finally I remembered and was told it was a reef-safe twin spotted wrasse. I look in the book and it says NOT reef safe - it eats crabs (I have lots of those) and clams (I have none of those) and shrimp (I have some peppermint). No, said Craig Beitel - don't trust the book. No, said JJ, who works for Craig. Come see how many we have in the tanks full of corals and crabs and clams...

So I get it home and go on the internet to several sites, all of which state it is not reef-safe - and it will overturn rocks looking for food.
Right now it's in a bucket swimming in the store water. It occurs to me they're safe as juveniles - all Beitel's have, of course, but not once mature.

If anyone knows about this, especially from personal experience, please please please write. I'm tempted to add an airstone to the bucket and leave it there for now instead of adding it to my tank and wreak havoc later.
Sandy Lynn

 

[Amphiprion]

Unfortunately, they are not safe with many invertebrates in the long term. I have observed them eating many of the motile inverts (shrimp, crabs, etc.), not to mention the fact that they get HEFTY when adults. Now, when I say hefty, I am talking over 40". Not only that, but they they are not nearly as aesthetically pleasing, either. YOu would be best to take it back to the store.

 

[Kahuna Tuna]

What Amphiprion said. They get huge, ugly, and will eat many desirable things in a reef and cause a lot of other problems. I got a red coris years ago and it was a nightmare to get out of my tank. I didnt have any crustaceans so I figured I'd be OK but he ate all my snails as well and started giving my smaller fish that "you look like dinner" look when he got big. I had to tear down my 180 and remove most of the sand bed to get him out.

 

[Sanlynn]

Thanks for your responses. The upshot is that I did NOT put it in my tank; rather I called Craig at Beitel's who said that as a juvenile it would not harm a reef and that the problem of it harrassing invertebrates wouldn't start for at least three years. Of course, by then I'm hoping my tank will really look good and I didn't want to contemplate taking it apart to get out a fish that burrows in the sand to get away from the net. Craig took it back with no problem and with full credit.

While I was there, he pointed out he had an Orchard Dottyback (Fridman's) which WAS on my list, so it is now in my tank doing well. (I came home with it and a partial credit). So, though I'd rather not have made another round trip, I'm happy enough with the transaction.
Sandy Lynn