The Wrasse Lover's Thread!

[Slocke]

I am currently stocking my tank. I am looking for some good wrasse species to add. I love the looks of the Bird Wrasse, but I am unsure if it would eat my Maxima, Deresa, or squamosa clam if I were to attain one. Could anyone please help me with this question? Does anyone have any recommended wrasse to look into? My reef tank is a 270-gallon 72 x 36 x 24, display tank that is peaceful/semi aggressive. I have a couple of tangs, dusky margined wrasse, some blenny's, goby's, chromis, and some anthias.

I don’t know with calms and wrasse honestly. I have a bird and it’s tough yet peaceful.

 

[DeanoL]

Definitely not carpenters. Think it’s a yellowfin

Thanks for the reply - I find it hard to tell between them myself.

What makes you say definitely not carpenters? I'll try and take a couple better pictures today if I can.

 

[JoJosReef]

Agree with flavianalis. Two red filaments on the dorsal fin, yellow anal fin and lack of black in any of the fins (excluding Carpenter's, although I don't know if younger Carpenter's have less black or not). McKosker should have just one filament if I'm not mistaken, and the other common ones have more than two filaments except angulatus. My bet is flavianalis!

 

[EgotisticObeseChihuahua]

I don’t know with calms and wrasse honestly. I have a bird and it’s tough yet peaceful.

Do you feel that a bird wrasse is worth it?

 

[Slocke]

Do you feel that a bird wrasse is worth it?

They are a fun fish. Certainly no issues with mine

 

[EgotisticObeseChihuahua]

They are a fun fish. Certainly no issues with mine

I think I will try one out since I love how they look. Thanks for the information.

 

[DeanoL]

Ok managed to get some better images - from the looks of it I think yellow-fin flasher is definitely correct. Agree?

Sorry that the quality is not great - ended up having to take a video and then get some stills from the video.

 

[JoJosReef]

Ok managed to get some better images - from the looks of it I think yellow-fin flasher is definitely correct. Agree?

Sorry that the quality is not great - ended up having to take a video and then get some stills from the video.

That's a gorgeous Paracheilinus flavianalis!

 

[DeanoL]

That's a gorgeous Paracheilinus flavianalis!

Thanks everyone for your help

Anything I need to know about them in particular? Or pretty much same as other flashers?

If I was to get another flasher in the future is there any other type that would go best with this one?

Thanks again!

 

[Slocke]

Thanks everyone for your help

Anything I need to know about them in particular? Or pretty much same as other flashers?

If I was to get another flasher in the future is there any other type that would go best with this one?

Thanks again!

Pretty standard flasher and it will work with any other species of flasher

 

[jkcoral]

Pintail finally developed some of the black on his dorsal fin. And he decided to make me feel better about the hurricane outside by showing off for a photo.

 

[i cant think]

Pretty standard flasher and it will work with any other species of flasher

Unlike Rubricaudalis that hates other male related species like mccoskeri and carpenteri.

 

[Tcook]

Two new additions waiting to come home. Male and female? What do you think? The one in the first pic is 20-30% larger than the other.

 

[JoJosReef]

Two new additions waiting to come home. Male and female? What do you think? The one in the first pic is 20-30% larger than the other.

Love them! Bit jealous!

 

[i cant think]

Two new additions waiting to come home. Male and female? What do you think? The one in the first pic is 20-30% larger than the other.

Transitioning male and a female

 

[Cael Gallery]

Some more observations with my Pseudolabrus guentheri. As the only person i'm aware of who currently has one, i feel obliged to report on it even though that number probably isn't going to change.

Even after i seperated the T.amblycephalum and put it in the sump, it never recovered from the belting the guntheri gave it. It had some missing scales, but not much physcial damage. I think the stress made it sustain some kind of mental damage because it would constantly swim with it';s belly on the bottom, into corners, rock etc. Like it couldn't lift it's body off the floor.
But aside from that, he's pretty chill. Ignores my small melanurus and neoguinacus alone. Ocassionally chases my large A.meleagrides. When i added some new fish last week it chased everything for a couple hours and then stopped.
It seems to be mianly aggressive with anything of a similar size and niche to it like my thalassoma and my new Lutjanus carponotatus (which is larger and completely peaceful). It occasionally flares up at the snapper. So far it has actually been nicer than my new Thalassoma lutescens of the same size. I have a egg crate set up to seperate about 1/3 of the tank which houses my lutescens. Occasionally, somehow, the neoguinacus manages to get through the barrier and into the lutescens' side where it is usually relentlessly chased. On the other side, the gunthers ignores it. I had heard that they can't be kept with other fish but this hasn't been true so far. The best way i could describe the species is if a Thalassoma were crossed with a Choerodon, both in behaviour and physical form.

The swimming motion is much like Choerodon, but they are hyperactive just like Thalassoma. You know how Thalassoma swim like a bird? They keep their tail stiff and flap their pectoral wings. Pseudolabrus use their tail more than their other fins, but retain that same sinuous movement of the body when swimming.
They have a domineering personality like Thalassoma, but really only towards fish that are of a similar size or have a similar diet or form. My gunthers is also always the last wrasse to go to bed. My schedule goes until 10pm and it is still awake by that time. They have a green reflection from their eyes, so they clearly have some form of night vision too and are probably more crepuscular than strictly diurnal.

Ok, that was a long write up. But what i really found interesting is that whenever i change the tank's lights to full actinic (they're usually white), the gunthers goes absolutely crazy. It starts chasing and nipping the tails and fins of all the other fish in the tank. Including my massive 15cm+ personifer angelfish. If i turn the lights back to white it immediately calms down. I don't really know what's up with that.
Overall, i feel like P.guentheri is an attractive wrasse that would do well in most large fowlr tanks with moderately aggressive fish. They're definitely a good alternative to Choerodon/thalassoma/bodianus. What remains to be seen is how they do with multiple large, aggressive wrasse. In the seperated section of the tank i will be stocking my next batch of wrasses. The following will be added to this section before being released into the rest of the tank:
Coris gaimard
Coris aygula
Coris pictoides
Coris dorsomacula (if i can find one)
Bodianus pulchella
Bodianus rufus
Thalassoma nigrofasciatum
Thalassoma quinquevittatum
Thalassoma lucasanum
Anampses lennardi
Anampses twistii
Pteragogus cryptus
Choerodon fasciatus
Gomphosus varius
Halichoeres biocellatus
Cheilinus chlorourus/oxycephalus (if i can find one)

 

[Slocke]

Some more observations with my Pseudolabrus guentheri. As the only person i'm aware of who currently has one, i feel obliged to report on it even though that number probably isn't going to change.

Even after i seperated the T.amblycephalum and put it in the sump, it never recovered from the belting the guntheri gave it. It had some missing scales, but not much physcial damage. I think the stress made it sustain some kind of mental damage because it would constantly swim with it';s belly on the bottom, into corners, rock etc. Like it couldn't lift it's body off the floor.
But aside from that, he's pretty chill. Ignores my small melanurus and neoguinacus alone. Ocassionally chases my large A.meleagrides. When i added some new fish last week it chased everything for a couple hours and then stopped.
It seems to be mianly aggressive with anything of a similar size and niche to it like my thalassoma and my new Lutjanus carponotatus (which is larger and completely peaceful). It occasionally flares up at the snapper. So far it has actually been nicer than my new Thalassoma lutescens of the same size. I have a egg crate set up to seperate about 1/3 of the tank which houses my lutescens. Occasionally, somehow, the neoguinacus manages to get through the barrier and into the lutescens' side where it is usually relentlessly chased. On the other side, the gunthers ignores it. I had heard that they can't be kept with other fish but this hasn't been true so far. The best way i could describe the species is if a Thalassoma were crossed with a Choerodon, both in behaviour and physical form.

The swimming motion is much like Choerodon, but they are hyperactive just like Thalassoma. You know how Thalassoma swim like a bird? They keep their tail stiff and flap their pectoral wings. Pseudolabrus use their tail more than their other fins, but retain that same sinuous movement of the body when swimming.
They have a domineering personality like Thalassoma, but really only towards fish that are of a similar size or have a similar diet or form. My gunthers is also always the last wrasse to go to bed. My schedule goes until 10pm and it is still awake by that time. They have a green reflection from their eyes, so they clearly have some form of night vision too and are probably more crepuscular than strictly diurnal.

Ok, that was a long write up. But what i really found interesting is that whenever i change the tank's lights to full actinic (they're usually white), the gunthers goes absolutely crazy. It starts chasing and nipping the tails and fins of all the other fish in the tank. Including my massive 15cm+ personifer angelfish. If i turn the lights back to white it immediately calms down. I don't really know what's up with that.
Overall, i feel like P.guentheri is an attractive wrasse that would do well in most large fowlr tanks with moderately aggressive fish. They're definitely a good alternative to Choerodon/thalassoma/bodianus. What remains to be seen is how they do with multiple large, aggressive wrasse. In the seperated section of the tank i will be stocking my next batch of wrasses. The following will be added to this section before being released into the rest of the tank:
Coris gaimard
Coris aygula
Coris pictoides
Coris dorsomacula (if i can find one)
Bodianus pulchella
Bodianus rufus
Thalassoma nigrofasciatum
Thalassoma quinquevittatum
Thalassoma lucasanum
Anampses lennardi
Anampses twistii
Pteragogus cryptus
Choerodon fasciatus
Gomphosus varius
Halichoeres biocellatus
Cheilinus chlorourus/oxycephalus (if i can find one)

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing

 

[Cael Gallery]

well i received a 15cm G.varius yesterday...put it in the divided section of my tank with my 10cm T.lutescens. This morning the lutescens is dead. Yep... he's going back to the fish shop. I also got a bunch of other wrasses which went in the other part of the tank (with the gunthers). the highlight is definitely my new 15cm A.lennardi. will upload some videos soon

 

[Fishfreak2009]

A couple poor quality pics from tonight and a quick feeding video.

This tank currently houses the following wrasses:

Cirrhilabrus chaliasi
Cirrhilabrus filamentosus
Cirrhilabrus katoi
Cirrihilabrus lubbocki 'Indo'
Halichoeres chrysus
Halichoeres cosmetus
Halichoeres garnoti
Halichoeres marginatus
Wetmorella nigropinnata

Threw these photos in as well since they're both usually pretty popular with the people who post on here.

 

[i cant think]

I can’t wait to see this grow out and then get big enough that dragging it won’t make a difference.