I am about to do a tear down, and remove the sand bed from my SPS tank. I have a 5 inch Yellow Coris Wrasse that has done a great job eliminating pyramidal snails from my clams.
Do I need to find a new hone for this wrasse, or wil he be able to adapt to a bare bottom?
Dave
Fairy wrasse don't need sand but the leopard , choati and other coris might survive but they will not be happy or it can be fatal for them because of lack of rest ( sleep)
not everyone have tons of rock to hide in like your tank
I am in the process of adding 2" of sand to keep my sand sleeping wrasses happy
I will see if I can re-home him. He is a gorgeous fish and a proven guardian of clams, but it would be nice to have shrimp and fairy wrasses again. He is not kind to them.
Mine doesn't bother my fairy wrasses at all or any inverts, I would say it is 4-5"s and has the war paint on the face. It does love the sand however and hates the mystery wrasses in the tank that is much smaller.
I purchased a melanurus wrasse from an LFS recently. They had him in a tank where he could not bury himself. He looked fine, had no marks from trying to bury and was eating well so I bought him. The first thing he did when I put him in my tank was bury himself for 4 days. He now buries himself like clockwork every night when my lights go out and gets up at the same time every morning too. I would be worried about his long term health if he didn't have a sand bed to sleep or hide in when he wants to. It just seems like a natural instinct for these types of wrasses that I wouldn't want to take away.
Leopards and Tamarins need a sandbed, generally. Halichoeres wrasses would definitely prefer sand, but they can manage without one. Fairies and flashers do not require sand.
So you could keep the yellow wrasse, but I'm sure he'd appreciate a new home, especially if he's used to having a sandbed already.
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