adorned wrasse vs melarnus wrasse

[thesoulpatch]

Title says it all....would love to get input on either or...they both are very pretty and can't decide which

 

[cancun]

Title says it all....would love to get input on either or...they both are very pretty and can't decide which

Hi! I have a male Melanarus Wrasse and love him, very pretty and active fish. Not agressive to all my other Wrasses including 5 leopards I have.

 

[Oshengems]

The female Melanurus is very dull compared to a male and the adorne and female Melanurus are very very Similar, but the male Melanurus in my opinion of course is way more vibrant than the adorned, btw my local petco has a female Melanurus and adorned which I thought were the same. My only actual experience has been male Melanurus which was an eye catcher in my tank and excellent pest control specially for flatworms

Edit: females Melanurus from what I read will eventually transition to males in captivity that would be a nice show to view

 

[67chevellemalibu2]

I have a Melanarus and I like him. I have been looking for an Adorned and have never seen one for sale, even online. I would get both.

 

[Jesterrace]

The Melanurus Male is definitely more colorful. As pointed out the Female Melanurus is about on par with a Male Adorned. Not sure on the temperament of the Adorned, but Melanurus can be somewhat aggressive to other wrasses if they are added first (ie once they become established). As pointed out many Melanurus Females trasition to being male when they are by themselves in captivity, which gives them an edge over the Adorned IMHO. I currently have a Melanurus that is young and is in the process of going from a juvie (similar to female) to adult color scheme. I have noticed some additional detail in the stripes on it's body, but what I notice most is the tail. When it was younger the tail was a brown to yellow color with no detail, now it has matured into a gorgeous Blue, Green, Red Multicolored Stripe Pattern. Can't wait to see what happens next. It's only about half sized right now.

 

[mort]

Both wrasse are the same in terms of care and attitude so it comes down to which you prefer. I will say that melanurus photograph better because of their darker blue body, whereas cosmetus normally look washed out. My personal favourite is the cosmetus as they are a stunning teal blue so id look at plentry of picture so you see their potential.
Females nearly always transition into a male so it's the male colouration that I'd base my decision on.

 

[thesoulpatch]

I'm thinking about doing the tank transfer method for the fish how I would do it since it likes being in sand to sleep? I only have like 3 lbs of sand left over. And that's not a lot for the times I'd need to switch it

 

[Fishnut]

You can use a few plastic food containers with sand in each and place them in each transfer tank or bucket. I find that they do fine without sand during TTM. I just offer a piece of PVC.