Wrasse pairs- does it really make sense?

[Philwd]

I've been keeping wrasses and wrasse pairs now for over 4 years. In that time I've seen more than 1 pair(laboutei and lineatus) where I had a BIG male(>4") and a 1" female turn into a big male and a nice 3" sub-male. In fact my lineatus female may be pushing even further as my male has starting occasionally chasing him/her.

I also had the case there I lost my big laboutei male and got another ~ 7 weeks later. In that time span the female had turned and viciously attacked the new male.

My rationale for a pair always was to get the male to show off and flash as well as promote more natural behavior. IME the pairs do not hang together and the males usually ignore the females. The males flash each other.

We've heard many other instances lately on the forum where a female or sub-adult has gone terminal and started a war.

So I'm wondering if it really makes sense to keep pairs given the good possibility the females will try and turn.

Thoughts?

 

[cwoods8]

Perhaps it is more natural to keep these guys in harems rather than pairs. This may allow for a pecking order that can be established amongst the group, thus broadening competition both above and below the potential male to be, distracting it..and i do stress it......(aka...shim!) from premising a surprise takeover.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

IME Cirrhilabrus grow and mature quickly so it might not make sense to try keeping them in pairs or harems. For example: I had a harem of Lubbock's and as the females turned male my male flavidorsalis would kill them. (He courted them when they were females, though!) Like already posted- males will flash at other males without the presence of a female.

 

[Philwd]

And I forgot to add the females are much more aggressive.

I agree that they grow up fast. Well I have 2 pairs right now, lineatus and rhomboid, that I'm going to keep as long as I can until 1 turns. Especially the rhomboids. But no new females.

 

[kdblove_99]

Interesting for sure. I Have only males at the moment but had planned to add females, especially for my Supermale Flame.

So you like your Boids better than the Lineatus?

 

[Philwd]

Yeah I do like my rhomboids. I like my lineatus too. The lineatus male is just shy of being a supermale. Female has been a witch though. But rhomboids have always been my fav.

 

[buzzbombtom]

this is my theory that i have been working on for the last few months.

i just got a pair of flames a terminal male and a female. the male now shows extreme signs of stress, fins lots color and he gets nipped at. he was not the last one to go into tank. i fear that the all the other males in the system see her as a hot date and are trying to off him to get to her OR he is stressed out due to the fact that all the males in the system are flashing at his lady, and he is trying to stop them. i do not believe that i will be putting another pair of fairies in my system again, unless it is something special that is. the fading color is ok in my book as long as they stay alive.

my male and female hang together for the most part though there are times that they are not, when the sleep they are ALWAYS together along with most of the other wrasses, so i would conclude that the daytime pecking order is based on females present.

i think that putting females in a system only raise the stress for all fish from what i have seen in my case, kinda like throwing a female prisoner into a jail stocked with a bunch of really buff good looking guys. do the math

 

[LargeAngels]

It may be that naturally in a harem one female starts turning into a male at which point she leaves the harem and starts her own.

One question I have is if the females growth is retarded in a harem situation, much like clownfish? In a clownfish group the female is the largest, followed by the male and then a bunch of smaller clowns. While the male and female are alive the rest of the clowns don't really grow. Growth happens when the male or female dies and the next in line takes over. A small WC clownfish can be very old, but look like a juvi. Is this the case for wrasses?

 

[zemuron114]

fairies live in very very large harems with multiple females and multiple males including more then one terminal male. In each harem there is a smaller harem where one terminal male will mate or court with some females and the other terminal male will court with other females (in the same larger harem) The reason why females change (in the wild) is because the male is either eaten or caught (maybe dying of old age...)

in an aquarium, assuming the male never dies, the female should have no reason to change. But they do! So IMO, in order to keep the harem a harem you need A LOT of fairies - maybe 25+. This would allow a few males and room for a large pecking order.

Fairies have always been a mystery to me. there isn't any rule of thumb for them like many other fishes.

PS: females are always the meanest!

 

[buzzbombtom]

what you speak of is not a harem its called a super troop with fission-fusion/gregarious where the size can change greatly in one day as to who is in the group, this is what baboons do. many small family groups that troop together for safety.

 

[zemuron114]

harems have an indefinite size which can include more than one male in them. the bigger then harem the more males there will be since a sole terminal male cannot hault the change of every female who starts.

who knows why fairies do what they do... lol