Pink Margin Fairy Wrasse

[CanadianReefer]

Anyone had one that went after their cleanup crew?

I had noticed a cleaner shrimp missing and have seen my snail population dwindle by quite a bit. I was wondering who the culprit was... until I saw my pink margin tip over a snail and eat him, and just now, saw him attack and munch on a hermit crab. He's swift and efficient with his attacks!! It's impressive...

I'm QT'ing 3 new wrasse - I hope his aggression doesn't incorporate attacking new additions.

Anyone had a bad experience with this wrasse attacking other fish? I understood them to be fairly peaceful, and he doesn't seem to be bothering with my current tank inhabitants... but I'm simply curious.

If so, I may think twice about the rhomboid and flame wrasse... they are expensive fish.

 

[4FordFamily]

Anyone had one that went after their cleanup crew?

I had noticed a cleaner shrimp missing and have seen my snail population dwindle by quite a bit. I was wondering who the culprit was... until I saw my pink margin tip over a snail and eat him, and just now, saw him attack and munch on a hermit crab. He's swift and efficient with his attacks!! It's impressive...

I'm QT'ing 3 new wrasse - I hope his aggression doesn't incorporate attacking new additions.

Anyone had a bad experience with this wrasse attacking other fish? I understood them to be fairly peaceful, and he doesn't seem to be bothering with my current tank inhabitants... but I'm simply curious.

If so, I may think twice about the rhomboid and flame wrasse... they are expensive fish.

Adding three wrasse together means you should be fine regardless. I've not seen a fairy wrasse predate like that. Cleaner shrimp don't live very long, so they come and go somewhat regularly, I would be surprised if your wrasse was the culprit.

 

[eatbreakfast]

That is highly unusual for any fairy wrasse to behave like that. So unusual that I would sooner believe a case of mistaken identity rather than a pink matgin flipping an invert over to hunt.

Pink margins are usually a pretty well behaved species with both inverts and other fairy wrasses.

 

[CanadianReefer]

I know - very odd, right? ... But I watched it happening before my very eyes. That's why I'm wondering what introducing new fish will bring....

 

[evolved]

Anyone had one that went after their cleanup crew?

I had noticed a cleaner shrimp missing and have seen my snail population dwindle by quite a bit. I was wondering who the culprit was... until I saw my pink margin tip over a snail and eat him, and just now, saw him attack and munch on a hermit crab. He's swift and efficient with his attacks!! It's impressive...

That's pretty unusal behavior, unless he's really hungry. What and how often are you feeding?

 

[CanadianReefer]

I feed a ton. Nori 4 times per day and spirulina brine twice per day. I struggle to keep my nitrates at 2. Lots of water changes...

It is really like pack mentality. I caught my hawkish eating a fire shrimp that was bigger than him yesterday, and today the margin fairy picked off a cleaner shrimp in front of my husband. It has become the tank of death! They've gone through most of my CuC at this point.

Thankfully I'm all about the fish so I'm trying not to be upset, but what an expensive snack :-(

I've actually decided that the flame hawk, lemon peel angel and margin fairy will be relocated to my 105g system... between them, they are super destructive!

Oh - my squamosa clam was chomped on too... that one was hard to take. The lemon peel has moved on to what was a nice acan colony.

 

[4FordFamily]

I feed a ton. Nori 4 times per day and spirulina brine twice per day. I struggle to keep my nitrates at 2. Lots of water changes...

It is really like pack mentality. I caught my hawkish eating a fire shrimp that was bigger than him yesterday, and today the margin fairy picked off a cleaner shrimp in front of my husband. It has become the tank of death! They've gone through most of my CuC at this point.

Thankfully I'm all about the fish so I'm trying not to be upset, but what an expensive snack :-(

I've actually decided that the flame hawk, lemon peel angel and margin fairy will be relocated to my 105g system... between them, they are super destructive!

Oh - my squamosa clam was chomped on too... that one was hard to take. The lemon peel has moved on to what was a nice acan colony.

Geez that's bad luck for those three!

 

[CanadianReefer]

Geez that's bad luck for those three!

They'll be happy there, I think. It'll be one big huge system all to themselves. I was going to use it to quarantine corals and grow out frags (I wanted to put a pair of Flurry clowns and a Kole tang in there initially) but instead, I'll add a baffle and use a small portion for the corals and make a home for the killer clan out of the rest...

A prolonged timeout! Lol