I have red sea reffer 350.70g. I want to add wrasse, currently in the tank there are a couple of ocellaris clowns, two bangays, a bicolor angel fish, a fiery angel, a copper striped butterfly. Can I add yellow coris, cleaner wrasse, radiant wrasse, leopard black. Please advise someone can remove or other options.
I see you like your wrasse!
On paper this would generally seem fine and work, but heres a few things that may help you
The chrysus and the Iridis are both Halichoeres wrasse, so they love to eat pests and are generally good tempered. The Yellow “Coris” isn’t actually a Coris wrasse though people call it and mark them for sale as a ”Coris“. These guys get good coloring, but as they mature they can start to get a little curious “as most fish do” when a new fish specifically another Halichoeres is added. Just make sure curiosity doesn’t turn to aggression.
The irids is one of my favorites. Really good color and very peaceful, though some can turn into the boss of the tank at rare times. These guys are a bit more sensitive than your typical Halichoeres so it’s good to QT these guys( all wrasse should technically go through QT) and to make sure there is a good amount of copepods and microfauna in the tank.
All Halichoeres wrasse sleep in the sand, so a deep enough (2”+), soft enough sand bed (coarse sand or gravel or crushed coral bits can potentially harm the fish and wound it). These guys tend to be shy in the first few days or weeks when first introduced so they tend to be very reclusive and stay in the sand for long periods of time even throughout the day.
Now here is something that helped a buddy of mine that may help you. “I can see why you like them as they are a peculiar looking fish and they are pretty. But it’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing! They tend to do the opposite of helping, especially if it’s with small fish. They tend to actually abuse the fish if it’s clean and have ended up killing fish this way. Because the fish is clean, and there are not parasites and few dead skin cells clinging to them, the cleaner wrasse will repeatedly harass the fish until it gets sick and then it cleans them“ A good alternative would be the little Neon Blue Goby.
Like mentioned earlier Macropharyngodons like the negrosensis you want are very very sensitive fish, and if this is your first tank I suggest you get some good experience with wrasse first and them move onto the leopards. They need a mature tank, with copepods thriving and a peaceful setting. I see you have a CBB and if it’s healthy then it shows you already have some good experience handling and keeping a very difficult fish and this will help you once you get your leopard. Negrosensis is a nice choice.
All of these guys jump so a lid is a must.
