My experience with melanarus wrasse

ImHereForTheCoral · Nov 3, 2018

I just wanted to share my experience with the Halichoeres melanurus. I've had this guy for about two weeks now. One thing I have noticed so far is his appetite. This guy can eat. I feed all my fish 2 times a day with brine shrimp and he still is on the hunt 24/7. I also feed all my coral brine shrimp 2 times a week. This guy will pick the food right out of their mouths. My tank now looks like a snail cemetary. I love this fish! Such a personality. Very passive fish with my starry blenny and chromis (so far anyway). Swims all day, I've actually only seen him burrow one time when I first added him. Even frightened he darts in the rocks then comes out a few seconds later. Very active. I attached a photo of him stealing food from a coral right after I just fed him.

Screenshot_20181103-155304_Video Player.jpg

mtraylor · Nov 3, 2018

He sleeps in the sand so be sure not to put corals in his sleeping spot or he will move them. Great addition!

nereefpat · Nov 3, 2018

Really pretty fish you have there.

Mine is among the most efficient eaters that I've seen. Make sure it gets something besides brine though. Mysis is a good one to mix in.

ImHereForTheCoral · Nov 3, 2018

mtraylor said:
He sleeps in the sand so be sure not to put corals in his sleeping spot or he will move them. Great addition!

Yep! Thats my favorite part of the Halichoeres family lol i had another Halichoeres that did nothing but hide in the sand. I'm surprised how active this guy is.

ImHereForTheCoral · Nov 3, 2018

nereefpat said:
Really pretty fish you have there.

Mine is among the most efficient eaters that I've seen. Make sure it gets something besides brine though. Mysis is a good one to mix in.

I alternate between brine and mysis. But he seems to favor brine by the way he goes into a frenzy.

4FordFamily · Nov 3, 2018

My radiant male and male melanarus are awesome! Always out and beautiful. Great eaters! Nice fish!

ca1ore · Nov 3, 2018

Halo wrasses are an excellent addition to an appropriately sized reef tank. Excellent predator of many common pests, though literally murder on the CUC as noted. Hoevens/melenarus is certainly the most commonly seen. My personal favorite is the dusky, though it gets a bit larger.

pdxmonkeyboy · Nov 4, 2018

mine was a complete pig as well. dude would eat and eat and eat. then he started eating expensive things so... he lives somewhere else now

mort · Nov 4, 2018

Never had a problem with melanurus and cuc but have heard some people being unlucky, I do believe its the minority though. Brine shrimp isn't a great food tbh. Its good for getting fish eating but is nutritionally poor long term. The best benefit is has is it acts like fibre or us. Add some meaty foods to the wrasses diet and you might see it go easier on your cuc. They do love krill, Mysis and mine loves picking cockles or mussels from the shell.

Bigfish of La. · Nov 5, 2018

4FordFamily said:
My radiant male and male melanarus are awesome! Always out and beautiful. Great eaters! Nice fish!

I have a melanarus in my frag tank and was considering adding to my DT, but concerned about my astrea, cerith, nassarius and turbo snails. I am looking for an adorned, vrolik and red line, but the first two are hard to find. Are any of these hazardous to my snail population?

4FordFamily · Nov 5, 2018

Bigfish of La. said:
I have a melanarus in my frag tank and was considering adding to my DT, but concerned about my astrea, cerith, nassarius and turbo snails. I am looking for an adorned, vrolik and red line, but the first two are hard to find. Are any of these hazardous to my snail population?

They can all have the potential to eat CUC, especially at larger sizes. I’ve always found the wrasses worth it, I can replace my CUC!

Bigfish of La. · Nov 5, 2018

4FordFamily said:
They can all have the potential to eat CUC, especially at larger sizes. I’ve always found the wrasses worth it, I can replace my CUC!

Have you seen the volik and adorned wrasse available. I’m on email list with LA and no notifications for 3 months, but then I could have missed it.

4FordFamily · Nov 5, 2018

Bigfish of La. said:
Have you seen the volik and adorned wrasse available. I’m on email list with LA and no notifications for 3 months, but then I could have missed it.

Yes, I’ve had a few vroliks from LA and I’ve seen adorned on DD a couple times. An Adorned is less impressive in person unless a terminal phase male and even some of those are not too handsome. The Vroliks are less beautiful in person IME as well. I was disappointed with all three I’ve had, and find the Melanarus male to be more consistent and beautiful!

I know they’re common which is why I wanted to change it up. But I came back to them again and love mine.

CamInDFW · Nov 5, 2018

They are beautiful and brutal all in the same breath.. They are one of the most efficient shrimp killers I have ever seen. Peppermint Shrimp were just expensive treats for mine

Bigfish of La. · Nov 5, 2018

CamInDFW said:
They are beautiful and brutal all in the same breath.. They are one of the most efficient shrimp killers I have ever seen. Peppermint Shrimp were just expensive treats for mine

I have a large melanarus in my Frag tank and a small peppermint shrimp and he’s never bothered him in the year the shrimp has been in frag tank. Must have a defensive shrimp to have survived this long.

CamInDFW · Nov 5, 2018

Bigfish of La. said:
I have a large melanarus in my Frag tank and a small peppermint shrimp and he’s never bothered him in the year the shrimp has been in frag tank. Must have a defensive shrimp to have survived this long.

That.. or your wrasse is very well fed and they friends, not food

Jesterrace · Nov 5, 2018

My Melanurus is definitely an invert muncher, but has left my corals alone (other than a little "test nip" phase it went through). Mine has been a bit of a jerk to my Blue Star Leopard Wrasse, but they have settled in to the point where they mostly tolerate each other. A fun fish for personality though (loves to dance for it's dinner), very curious and has proven adaptable (eats seaweed). I feed my fish reef frenzy since it's a wide variety of diet in one food source. Personally not a fan of brine shrimp as a food source since it's very nutrient poor for fish (basically like feeding them candy).

mort · Nov 5, 2018

Bigfish of La. said:
I have a melanarus in my frag tank and was considering adding to my DT, but concerned about my astrea, cerith, nassarius and turbo snails. I am looking for an adorned, vrolik and red line, but the first two are hard to find. Are any of these hazardous to my snail population?

adorned and vroliks are essentially just a melanurus in different clothes. They reach the same size, have the same temperament and same risks ime. Red lines are smaller and about as safe as a halichoeres gets with cuc. TBH I've never had any troubles with any of those listed apart from a adorned/cosmetus that I saw eat a hermit. I'm kinda surprised people have found they are problematic as its normally only the bigger halichoeres that cause issues whilst these and the smaller ones are pretty well behaved.

I'm setting up a mainly sunlit tank at the moment and will be getting a adorned as they can be stunning imo, especially when seen in natural light as nature intended.

jp_75 · Nov 5, 2018

4FordFamily said:
My radiant male and male melanarus are awesome! Always out and beautiful. Great eaters! Nice fish!

have you qt radiant? if yes, what did you do? ttm?

4FordFamily · Nov 5, 2018

jp_75 said:
have you qt radiant? if yes, what did you do? ttm?

Copper, two times successfully. One time the fish got a spinal injury and survived until jumping out of a tiny hole. Copper power at 1.75 and a Hanna copper checker. This is our protocol (@HotRocks and I are close friends in real life and share just about everything including quarantining each other’s fish). The protocol we use is below:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-current-qt-process.483371/