melanarus wrasse behavior. input appreciated

Oberst Oswald · Mar 27, 2018

I'm sure with all the different foods they have at a LFS you would be able to feed him more than just brine shrimp. If your LFS is too far away try the seafood department at the supermarket. Buy 1 scallop or a small live clam and cut off/chop up a portion then freeze the rest for the next day/week.

FunWithFishes · Mar 27, 2018

Sounds similar to a melanarus I once had with flukes. It was when he was still in QT, but he started laying down at the bottom and only had short bursts of energy. I sadly didn't catch it in time, but I treated my current melanarus in QT for flukes and he has been a happy camper for months now.

I'll also chime in to vary his diet. Mine likes mysis and dried seaweed. Brine doesn't have much nutritional value and I'd definitely recommend mysis instead if your store has them

Stephen Glover · Mar 27, 2018

Mine enjoys Nori as well, a good balanced diet with Selcon and Vitachem seems to keep my Helichieros fat and happy.

Mark Waltermire · Mar 27, 2018

I had a melanurus I inherited with a tank takeover for about 4 months, until I decided that I would rather have a powder blue tang since he was kind of a jerk. Some days he would come out before the lights came on. Other days he would sleep in. I never once actually saw where he slept, but he didn't like change. He even would wake up at the same time (sun in the sky) after daylight savings time for a couple days before he adjusted.

Deinonych · Mar 27, 2018

Sterny331 said:
i am only feeding brine shrimp. should i be doing anything else for them? its been over a month. he was skittish for the first week but then after he became very dominant. and now back to passive.

Brine shrimp is not very nutritious. I consider it the "potato chips" of fish food. As others have stated, a high quality frozen diet like Rod's or LRS is a much more complete food, and better aligned to their natural diet in the wild.

Stigigemla · Mar 29, 2018

They sleep a lot. I beleive normally they are awake about 8 hours.
By me they have a jet lag for about two weeks when they have a 10 Hours time shift after the import.

Sterny331 · Apr 2, 2018

Well a little update on the wrasse. He seems to be just fine. I started feeding pe mysis with Selcon and also lrs brand. Since then he’s been out till about 7pm every night. Thanks for help! Maybe he just didn’t have as much energy to stay out later. Seems to be eating like a pig now.