The Wrasse Lover's Thread!

[jkcoral]

not sure if anyone on here remembers my story about my pin tail fairy, but after 2 months of thinking he has passed on he shows up last night! About an hour and a half after lights off I see a fish swimming around, thought it was weird one randomly came out and he was super white and I couldn’t beleive my eyes. He swam around for maybe 10 mins then disappeared again but still had some meat on him. Haven’t seen him today since the lights have been on but he’s in there! Should I try and take him out and put him into his own tank if I see him again? Or just leave him be and hope he comes around again? Very happy he’s still in there and hope he pulls through. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Ah man, that’s good news.

Curious to hear how others would approach this. My initial instinct would be to just leave him and maybe feed a little extra closer to night time to see if some extra food can get to him for a while.

 

[Slocke]

Red Shoulder Wrasse (Stethojulis Bandanensis)

Minimum Tank Size: 100 gallons

The Red Shoulder Wrasse (Stethojulis Bandanensis), of the order of Perciformes and family Labridae is commonly known as the Orange-Axil Wrasse, Red-spot Rainbowfish, or Red-Spot Wrasse.

Red Shoulder Wrasse are very beautiful when in full colour, but when young their colouring is more matte. Males (terminal phase) are olive-brown above, with a paler lower body separated by a narrow blue stripe through the pectoral-fin base running onto the tail, a narrow blue stripe from the eye along the dorsal-fin base and upper part of the tail, two blue stripes on the anterior body, blue stripes on the head, and a yellow patch on cheek. Females (initial phase) are greyish with small white spots densely covering the upper body, a light patch on each scale on the lower part of the body giving a cross-hatched pattern, a reddish spot above the pectoral-fin base and two small ocelli in the middle of the tail base. Juvenile have small ocelli on the rear of the dorsal fin and tail base.

A 100 gallon aquarium or larger is necessary to provide plenty of swimming room. This species and those in this genus ‘can’ be maintained in fish-only aquariums having a fine sand bed, (0.5 – 2.0 mm) and at least 4 inches deep, along with several rocky crevices to hunt and also open swimming areas. It quickly burrows into the sand if frightened or sleeping at night.

This species can change gender from female to male. When a male is needed, a female changes sex and takes on the role.

They must not be kept with aggressive fish, as this will make their acclimatization problematic. Members of this genus not only rearrange bottom corals in search of delicious bottom invertebrates, but also eat smaller fish, snails, tube worms, starfish, cucumbers, urchins, crabs and shrimp they can find.

Without available natural food it is essential to have an automatic feeders to provide regular, daily food of a varied nature. Requires a meaty diet, including fortified brine shrimp, mysis, and other meaty type marine-based frozen or fresh foods, and should be fed numerous times daily. This species thrives best when there is a sufficiently large amount of micro life (copepods, amphipods or similar) in the aquarium, so that the it can always find their own food.

Another cool one! I need to do some research on this one.

 

[JoJosReef]

Ah man, that’s good news.

Curious to hear how others would approach this. My initial instinct would be to just leave him and maybe feed a little extra closer to night time to see if some extra food can get to him for a while.

Same. @Lps_lover12 what are you feeding? Maybe turn the pumps down in the evening and dump a bunch of pods or baby brine to get it out and eating?

 

[Lps_lover12]

Same. @Lps_lover12 what are you feeding? Maybe turn the pumps down in the evening and dump a bunch of pods or baby brine to get it out and eating?

I feed pellets twice a day and a cube of mysis once a day. I like that idea of pods, when he used to be out 24/7 he was always picking away at pods. Hoping he comes out again tonight and I will try that out. If he pops out after lights out would he be able to see the food if I put some in?

 

[Lps_lover12]

Ah man, that’s good news.

Curious to hear how others would approach this. My initial instinct would be to just leave him and maybe feed a little extra closer to night time to see if some extra food can get to him for a while.

I think leave him too, I feel like if I go searching for him he will get a lot more stressed and just add to the whole situation

 

[Slocke]

Ah man, that’s good news.

Curious to hear how others would approach this. My initial instinct would be to just leave him and maybe feed a little extra closer to night time to see if some extra food can get to him for a while.

Agreed
Only option I really see

 

[AZReef13]

not sure if anyone on here remembers my story about my pin tail fairy, but after 2 months of thinking he has passed on he shows up last night! About an hour and a half after lights off I see a fish swimming around, thought it was weird one randomly came out and he was super white and I couldn’t beleive my eyes. He swam around for maybe 10 mins then disappeared again but still had some meat on him. Haven’t seen him today since the lights have been on but he’s in there! Should I try and take him out and put him into his own tank if I see him again? Or just leave him be and hope he comes around again? Very happy he’s still in there and hope he pulls through. Any help is greatly appreciated!

I'm with others as well leave hime alone just feed extra in evening,

 

[Tcook]

Ah man, that’s good news.

Curious to hear how others would approach this. My initial instinct would be to just leave him and maybe feed a little extra closer to night time to see if some extra food can get to him for a while.

I think he is clearly being harassed if he only comes out after lights out. May not last long like this. If he is an easy catch I would move him to another tank or low lighted acclimation box. This is a difficult call as he sounds like he doesn’t have much reserves. Maybe some additional opinions @Crabby48 @SaltyT

 

[Crabby48]

not sure if anyone on here remembers my story about my pin tail fairy, but after 2 months of thinking he has passed on he shows up last night! About an hour and a half after lights off I see a fish swimming around, thought it was weird one randomly came out and he was super white and I couldn’t beleive my eyes. He swam around for maybe 10 mins then disappeared again but still had some meat on him. Haven’t seen him today since the lights have been on but he’s in there! Should I try and take him out and put him into his own tank if I see him again? Or just leave him be and hope he comes around again? Very happy he’s still in there and hope he pulls through. Any help is greatly appreciated!

I would A get him out in own tank to get him feed if I think more then more fish is culprit. Remember if you pull top jerk out second in line can step up so choice wise.Or B remove jerk if I think pintail would come out and start eating. Again watch you pull one jerk and it goes down hill.
Either way to reintroduce pintail the jerks need a time out. Once pintail settles you can try re-introducing but some jerks always will be jerks. That’s when you add more to spread out aggression or pick and choice. It a lot of trial and error sometimes. If you put the time in you can get the wreak strong and to stand their ground to jerks and in return make the jerk mellow but it takes time.

Edit. I only glanced at your first post.
What fish are in question of being jerks?
What is the tank size?
What is your stock list?
I may miss replies here. A PM might be better.

 

[jkcoral]

I think he is clearly being harassed if he only comes out after lights out. May not last long like this. If he is an easy catch I would move him to another tank or low lighted acclimation box. This is a difficult call as he sounds like he doesn’t have much reserves. Maybe some additional opinions @Crabby48 @SaltyT

Yeah, probably a bully. Maybe they need to set up a camera for a while and try and identify the culprits.

@Crabby48 mentioned pulling out the other bully/bullies. Seems like a good choice to me vs trying to fish the weakened or stressed pintail out.

Difficult either way, but I think I’d rather play the gambling game of spotting the bully and risk the hierarchy of bullies shifting haha

 

[Crabby48]

Yeah, probably a bully. Maybe they need to set up a camera for a while and try and identify the culprits.

@Crabby48 mentioned pulling out the other bully/bullies. Seems like a good choice to me vs trying to fish the weakened or stressed pintail out.

Difficult either way, but I think I’d rather play the gambling game of spotting the bully and risk the hierarchy of bullies shifting haha

Good point. Sometimes the weak fish is harder to get but sometimes to weak and give up easier. Trap baited with food. Wrasse can’t resist. Hard part is not catching 4 at once. The pintail may go for the food in trap at lights out. A camera works as fish sometimes behave around us. I have watch from far or around corners too.

 

[Crabby48]

Spent 1.5 years about getting a flame not to kill my wrasse. In the end he had a problem with Hemi. This was them actually living with each other and not trying to kill. Flame still staying close trying to stress Hemi but Hemi started to stand his ground in the video.
It started with full out fights. Each one locked on each others tails circling and just ripping each other apart. I would make Hemi that stressed after fight laying on the sand bed get up and stay in open water and when flame would chase I keep him up to stand up and fight.
This was the end result

 

[JoJosReef]

They're

Spent 1.5 years about getting a flame not to kill my wrasse. In the end he had a problem with Hemi. This was them actually living with each other and not trying to kill. Flame still staying close trying to stress Hemi but Hemi started to stand his ground in the video.
It started with full out fights. Each one locked on each others tails circling and just ripping each other apart. I would make Hemi that stressed after fight laying on the sand bed get up and stay in open water and when flame would chase I keep him up to stand up and fight.
This was the end result

That's an amazing video. Of course you don't want your fish stressed out, but look at that display!

 

[Crabby48]

They're

That's an amazing video. Of course you don't want your fish stressed out, but look at that display!

Both colors there are muted some. When they ripped each other apart it was a rainbow of color. When they lock tails in a circle they are full speed and hard to see.
@OrchidMiss got to see a small taste of the wrasse death circle with yellow fin and redtail

 

[Lps_lover12]

I would A get him out in own tank to get him feed if I think more then more fish is culprit. Remember if you pull top jerk out second in line can step up so choice wise.Or B remove jerk if I think pintail would come out and start eating. Again watch you pull one jerk and it goes down hill.
Either way to reintroduce pintail the jerks need a time out. Once pintail settles you can try re-introducing but some jerks always will be jerks. That’s when you add more to spread out aggression or pick and choice. It a lot of trial and error sometimes. If you put the time in you can get the wreak strong and to stand their ground to jerks and in return make the jerk mellow but it takes time.

Edit. I only glanced at your first post.
What fish are in question of being jerks?
What is the tank size?
What is your stock list?
I may miss replies here. A PM might be better.

I’ll send you a PM

 

[Lps_lover12]

Yeah, probably a bully. Maybe they need to set up a camera for a while and try and identify the culprits.

@Crabby48 mentioned pulling out the other bully/bullies. Seems like a good choice to me vs trying to fish the weakened or stressed pintail out.

Difficult either way, but I think I’d rather play the gambling game of spotting the bully and risk the hierarchy of bullies shifting haha

Think it may be my exquisite. A little while after I added the exquisite is when it got really bad with him hiding, plus my exquisite is a jerk to my Mccoskers sometimes. If I could get the exquisite out I would sell him lol

 

[hexcolor reef]

I put an offer through with my LFS for that animal kingdom wrasse,
That’s not the scientific name for it just a name I call it since it has multiple patterns representing the animal kingdom. Can’t wait to receive the pair.
Will be my first wrasse 100$/wrasse

 

[hexcolor reef]

Wednesday photo tax:

Are these rock flower anemones? If so how long did it take for them to grow out to this size

 

[jkcoral]

Are these rock flower anemones? If so how long did it take for them to grow out to this size

Yes, all RFAs. I’ve collected them for 20+ years, and the only thing I can say for certain is that frequent feeding (2 times a week or so) helps them put on the size faster. Some of those in the photo are 2 or 3 years old, and some are 10+.

Fastest growth is in the first year and a half of being born. They really pack it on during that time if you feed them, and then their growth tapers from there.

But I’d say for any RFA, a year or two of quality feeding should get you some good growth.

 

[jkcoral]

Think it may be my exquisite. A little while after I added the exquisite is when it got really bad with him hiding, plus my exquisite is a jerk to my Mccoskers sometimes. If I could get the exquisite out I would sell him lol

Very well could be. My exquisite flares up and chases my rhomboid, but rhomboid can hold her own alright. He will chase the pintail too, but never biting or anything.

In my experience, pintails are shy and don’t like it when other fish are roid raging around.

I wonder if your exquisite might just be acting rambunctious and scaring the pintail but not injuring them. You should try to catch him. Maybe a little timeout would let the pintail feel safer.