It's been hiding for 7 weeks

[ian1974]

hi,
New to here and this is my first post so go easy on me.
I bought an Iridis wrasse 7-8 weeks ago and at first it was fine. Swam around a bit and was pretty chilled out. Then my silver bellied wrasse decided he didn't like it and chased it away. I have seen it once or twice since but only for a very brief time before it is chased again and hides. I had given up and thought he'd died because I hadn't seen it for 4-5 weeks.
Today I moved some of the substrate and it popped out for a second. It looked healthy and was moving well so it must be feeding on something.
Can anyone offer advice on how to encourage it out and how on Earth is it surviving. I have never seen it eat anything.
Current contents:
Fox face lo
Valentino puffer
Silver belly
Common clown
Chromis
Royal grama
Jam sandwich goby
275lt tank

Thanks

 

[wkscott]

This is not uncommon with wrasses that can bury themselves. The only way to get them to stay ouy is to make them feel safe. That pretty much means moving one of them to a different tank. The bullied wrass may look healthy now but will eventually waste away. My melanurus did this for 2 months, hiding from a Christmas wrasse. I didn't move either one and it just worked itself out. I think hunger finally brought out the melanurus wrasse. He was skinny but recovered.
If you can figure out just who is doing the bullying, you could temporarily move the bully to an acclimation box and see if that might work.

 

[eatbreakfast]

An option would be to place one of the wrasses in a social acclimation box for a few days and see if that allows things to calm down. If not, one will need to be rehomed, because as said above, the iridis will start wasting away.

 

[Maritimer]

Wish I knew!

I've got a Quoy's parrotfish in quarantine who's just straight-up shy. In spite of covering the tank, and in spite of his being the only 6" fish in a 75 gallon with a trio of 3/4" black-bar chromis, he's been hiding in PVC pipe fittings pretty much constantly. It'll be a month in two days, so your seven weeks actually offers some hope!

Must be a labrid thing.

Oh, and by the way ... Welcome to Reef2Reef!

~Bruce