Bare bottom sand sleeping wrasse info

[Mortie31]

So it is ok to neglect the fish needs but better not to judge after all those messages? LOL

Not at all, just don’t be selective in what rules you follow to suit yourself... the only way to truly not neglect a fish is to leave it in the sea...

 

[reef lover]

If you guys would like to argue ethics of fish keeping please discuss in another thread. Lets not derail the op s thread....

 

[mort]

I know that stress has been studied in tangs by measuring cortisol (the stress hormone). I don't know the original source but believe it was used to study the influence of tank size. The tangs in tanks both small and large were seen to be stressed to begin with before settling in and calming down, so the conclusion was it wasn't overly stressful for them to live in confined spaces (that's not to say that confined quarters doesn't affect other aspects of their longterm health, like stunting or shortened lifespan).
So stress can be measured. I believe a few years ago people started capturing body posture and facial expression in gobies as it was shown these change with stress.

I don't know anyone who has studied wrasse for stress but it would be hard to conclude the absence of sand was a life limiting problem without it. For me though we should be trying to mimic nature so I'd never keep a wrasse that naturally buried in a tank absent of some kind of sand and simply would leave it upto the wrasse if it used it or not.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

I was not going to comment on this thread but here goes. I am no expert on any thing in this hobby been in fresh water and saltwater tanks for over 40 years, there are many that are experts in certain fields here on reef two reef with good info. Many years ago I got a lot of my info from wetwebmedia and still do once in a while. I also used reefcentral some but it seemed like there was a lot of bickering so I seldom went to that site. Sometime the bickering here gets out of hand or go way past the original posters question. Certain wrasses sleep in sand but to argue that they cannot survive without it for many years has been shown to not be true. I am not going to argue what is best as I have been one that kept fish together that were supposedly not compatible. An example is I hear people saying dwarf angles are coral killers but yet many people keep them with corals very successfully. When I caught my coral beauty picking at a couple of acros and they died I started to believe the stories here. I started asking questions of some people and got some simple answers. Unhealthy corals that were already dying or it was not getting enough food especially algae. Took that info and looked and thought about it. Fed more algae and the unhealthy acros which were new small frags died but the angel never picked on another coral. There are so many different factors that effect our outcome and why some people have specialized in things like chemistry and lighting and even they will tell you that many people keep successful tanks with parameters out of the norm. Please keep everything here on reef2reef fun and informative.

 

[Mykesocalreef]

Thanks for all the comments everyone! Really appreciated. I agree with all points being made. Which is why I want to bring sand in to my BB via some style of container. I will put in multiple containers as to give options. Anyone have info on minimum depth of sand bed? What are your preferred grades of sand for the wrasse that need it?

 

[Bruce Burnett]

Thanks for all the comments everyone! Really appreciated. I agree with all points being made. Which is why I want to bring sand in to my BB via some style of container. I will put in multiple containers as to give options. Anyone have info on minimum depth of sand bed? What are your preferred grades of sand for the wrasse that need it?

At least 2" deep and 2-3 times the length of the wrasse. I used a lid and made a cutout so it had a lip inside. It will reduce but not get rid of how much sand gets kicked out. I used a green container about 4×6 inches .And 4 inches deep. You want to use a sand with out sharp grains on the small side. I had a melanarus and yellow coris wrasse use the container at the same time. You only need one container it will find it probably the first night.

 

[mort]

As above, like the idea of a lip. Smaller grained sand is best but will fly out of the box easier. I've never had any problems with 1-3mm sand (it comes as mix grade) but wouldn't go any coarser than that.