Looking to add another wrasse

[Watevadog5]

90 gallon softie tank up and running just over 5 years. Hippo tang pair of clowns purple dottyback pygmy angel and most importantly a solarensis and melanarus wrasse. All is well and has been for the last 2 year's. Do I press my luck and add another wrasse ? Should I be happy with the way things are ? If I add, what sort of wrasse should I be looking for ? Thanks in advance

 

[TheKyle]

From my experience it’s hit or miss based on individual fish personality. My solarensis and blue sided fairy wrasse get along, but when I added a lubbocks things went to chaos pretty quick. The lubbocks was half the size of the others but bullied the solarensis so much he only came out at night for 2-3 months until I finally caught the lubbocks and traded him in. Luckily my tank had plenty of pods for the solarensis to eat at night and sustain himself during that time. Weird thing was with the lubbocks in the tank the blue sided fairy was also a bully to the solarensis. Now that he’s gone everything is back to being peaceful. This is in a 210g tank btw. Just my experience and why I won’t try adding another wrasse again. Too stressful for me to deal with.

 

[nereefpat]

The purple dottyback concerns me too. Do you know what species?

Good luck with what you decide.

 

[Watevadog5]

Not a clue as to what species. Funny you say that because he is generally a jerk to new fish in the tank but always cools off after a few days.

 

[nereefpat]

If it's an orchid dotty (fridmani), they can, in my experience, be good tankmates. Most of the others can be really nasty.

 

[Jesterrace]

90 gallon softie tank up and running just over 5 years. Hippo tang pair of clowns purple dottyback pygmy angel and most importantly a solarensis and melanarus wrasse. All is well and has been for the last 2 year's. Do I press my luck and add another wrasse ? Should I be happy with the way things are ? If I add, what sort of wrasse should I be looking for ? Thanks in advance

I would say with the wrasses that well established your odds of success aren't great. Solarensis and Melanurus aren't kind to new Wrasse Additions once they are well established. My Melanurus still hasn't forgiven me for adding a Blue Star Leopard to the tank after it had been the only wrasse in my tank for over a year.

 

[CindyKz]

You could try a flasher wrasse. I had an established Exquisite Fairy, added a melanarus sometime later (6-9 months I think, I don't really remember) then added a McKosker's flasher after the melanarus had been established for at least a year. This was in a 75 gal. The fairy wasn't thrilled with the flasher but I used an acclimation box and he settled after a couple days. The melanarus never cared a bit.