Pintail Fairy Wrasse Colour Loss

Moray26 · Dec 20, 2023

Hey Everyone,

I bought a male Pintail Fairy Wrasse a couple months ago. He had very vibrant colours and looked incredible. Over the last month it appears his colours have changed and become very dull. Is this normal? Is it possible a male wrasse can change to female?

Thanks in advance!

PizzaIan339 · Dec 20, 2023

A picture may help
@i cant think

Cthulukelele · Dec 20, 2023

Occasionally some super male fairy wrasse will dull a bit over time when initially added to the tank and then slowly color back up. Not sure if that's the case here

nereefpat · Dec 20, 2023

Non-terminal males can turn to female in certain conditions, like if there's another dominate male. There is a point of no return where they become terminal males.

Moray26 · Dec 20, 2023

The only other male would be a melanurus wrasse in the tank. Just weird. Never had this happen in the past. So curious if this was common. The colours now are disappointing lol.

Crabby48 · Dec 20, 2023

They can’t transition back to female. The most dominant. Male will have brighter better colors. Once he no longer is the most dominant his colors will just be normal male.
Stress
Bullying
Disease
Diet or old wrasse. Are some reasons color can fade. Wrasse have a short life and if they are labeled Supermale most are full grown and then you don’t know how old the wrasse is.

Clear pictures under more white?

Moray26 · Dec 21, 2023

Ill try to get a picture later tonight of him. I see no bullying from the other wrasse though so who knows!

EUPHYILLAADDICTION · Dec 21, 2023

I had an issue similar to this before i started feeding new life spectrum color enhancing pellets. made a huge difference for sure!

Moray26 · Dec 21, 2023

EUPHYILLAADDICTION said:
I had an issue similar to this before i started feeding new life spectrum color enhancing pellets. made a huge difference for sure!

Good to know! I'll give that a go.

i cant think · Dec 22, 2023

Moray26 said:
Hey Everyone,

I bought a male Pintail Fairy Wrasse a couple months ago. He had very vibrant colours and looked incredible. Over the last month it appears his colours have changed and become very dull. Is this normal? Is it possible a male wrasse can change to female?

Thanks in advance!

Wrasses cannot revert once transitioning, they can slow in the transition if there is a more dominant wrasse but a ‘supermale’ to me sounds as though they’re old and matured.

Pintails don’t seem to do well with keeping colour in a tank with more dominant wrasses and they seem to fall back as a less dominant wrasse letting the others take control.

OrionN · Feb 2, 2024

Pintail Fairies are sissies. They are often stressed out by another wrasse. Most of the time they just been timid and lost color due to stress and domination from other wrasses.
If you have a large mirror, cover at least 1/3 or more of your aquarium, you can attach this to the front of your aquarium once or twice a week for about 1/2 hrs. It will really get the fish in your tank active and get their blood circulation going. It is one of the best ways to keep colors of your fishes vibrant. It goes without saying that your must have healthy, NON malnourish fish in order for this to help.

jabberwock · Feb 2, 2024

OrionN said:
Pintail Fairies are sissies. They are often stressed out by another wrasse. Most of the time they just been timid and lost color due to stress and domination from other wrasses.
If you have a large mirror, cover at least 1/3 or more of your aquarium, you can attach this to the front of your aquarium once or twice a week for about 1/2 hrs. It will really get the fish in your tank active and get their blood circulation going. It is one of the best ways to keep colors of your fishes vibrant. It goes without saying that your must have healthy, NON malnourish fish in order for this to help.

My Carpenter's loves his mirror!