Are Sixline Wrasses the Devil incarnate?

[OrionN]

About 15 years ago, I keep a 420 gal reef, healthy with a lot of coral, reef and clams. The reef was featured here:

Feature Aquarium: The Aquarium of Minh Nguyen

Minh Nguyen shares his tank setup and maintenance with us.

www.advancedaquarist.com

In this aquarium, I have, among other fishes, a pair of Sixline Wrasse and a Mandarin Dragonet pair. They were all doing great. The mandarin were spawning regularly.
After been together for about 1.5 years, one day the the Sixline pair attacked the female Mandarin. The whole attack only lasted a few seconds. It was a coordinated attack right in front of my eye. I seen the whole thing. One of the wrasse went for one eye and the other went for the other eye. It was all over in a second or two. The Wrasse never chase or bite the Mandarin before, and after they eyes got pecked out they completely ignored her.
I was lucky enough to be able to trapped them and back to the LFS they went. I contemplated flushed them down the toilet, but decided not to. I euthanized the female Mandarin after a few weeks as she get thinner and thinner, and I decided that the blindness was permanent, with no possibility of recover.

If anyone who seen this right in in front of him, and don't think that these wrasse are the devil reincarnated, then that person is better than I am.

 

[mort]

I've seen them target mandarins as well but luckily I was there to split them up and no damage was done.

I've said this before as they are one of my favourite marine fish but there are very few tanks where I'd ever advise them. The reason is in more aggressive tanks they can fit in well but house them with fish that they see as easy game or to similar and you are asking for trouble eventually. It's been talked about enough before that those that appear angelic one moment can turn nasty when you least expect it, so it's generally not worth the risk evenue if you hAve a nice wrasse for a couple of years. As these mature and possibly change sex the risk of nastiness increases, when they are young they are generally no bother but change the dynamic of the tank by introducing a new fish or a dominant one going and you can open yourself to world war 3. That's why I keep mine on its own in its own tank, if I wanted a wrasse for pest control in a community tank I'd choose one thats more guaranteed to play well with others longterm.

 

[Krully]

It was the fish I wanted the most. He'll be staying with the old tank when I upgrade next month. If that's helpful.

 

[Fakegolfnews]

I've seen them target mandarins as well but luckily I was there to split them up and no damage was done.

I've said this before as they are one of my favourite marine fish but there are very few tanks where I'd ever advise them. The reason is in more aggressive tanks they can fit in well but house them with fish that they see as easy game or to similar and you are asking for trouble eventually. It's been talked about enough before that those that appear angelic one moment can turn nasty when you least expect it, so it's generally not worth the risk evenue if you hAve a nice wrasse for a couple of years. As these mature and possibly change sex the risk of nastiness increases, when they are young they are generally no bother but change the dynamic of the tank by introducing a new fish or a dominant one going and you can open yourself to world war 3. That's why I keep mine on its own in its own tank, if I wanted a wrasse for pest control in a community tank I'd choose one thats more guaranteed to play well with others longterm.

The reason is the mandarin eats the wrasses pods. The mandarins were frontin the wrasses set