Pintail Fairy Wrasse Colour Loss

[Moray26]

Hey Everyone,

I bought a male Pintail Fairy Wrasse a couple months ago. He had very vibrant colours and looked incredible. Over the last month it appears his colours have changed and become very dull. Is this normal? Is it possible a male wrasse can change to female?

Thanks in advance!

 

[PizzaIan339]

A picture may help
@i cant think

 

[Cthulukelele]

Occasionally some super male fairy wrasse will dull a bit over time when initially added to the tank and then slowly color back up. Not sure if that's the case here

 

[nereefpat]

Non-terminal males can turn to female in certain conditions, like if there's another dominate male. There is a point of no return where they become terminal males.

 

[Moray26]

The only other male would be a melanurus wrasse in the tank. Just weird. Never had this happen in the past. So curious if this was common. The colours now are disappointing lol.

 

[Crabby48]

They can’t transition back to female. The most dominant. Male will have brighter better colors. Once he no longer is the most dominant his colors will just be normal male.
Stress
Bullying
Disease
Diet or old wrasse. Are some reasons color can fade. Wrasse have a short life and if they are labeled Supermale most are full grown and then you don’t know how old the wrasse is.

Clear pictures under more white?

 

[Moray26]

Ill try to get a picture later tonight of him. I see no bullying from the other wrasse though so who knows!

 

[EUPHYILLAADDICTION]

I had an issue similar to this before i started feeding new life spectrum color enhancing pellets. made a huge difference for sure!

 

[Moray26]

I had an issue similar to this before i started feeding new life spectrum color enhancing pellets. made a huge difference for sure!

Good to know! I'll give that a go.

 

[i cant think]

Hey Everyone,

I bought a male Pintail Fairy Wrasse a couple months ago. He had very vibrant colours and looked incredible. Over the last month it appears his colours have changed and become very dull. Is this normal? Is it possible a male wrasse can change to female?

Thanks in advance!

Wrasses cannot revert once transitioning, they can slow in the transition if there is a more dominant wrasse but a ‘supermale’ to me sounds as though they’re old and matured.

Pintails don’t seem to do well with keeping colour in a tank with more dominant wrasses and they seem to fall back as a less dominant wrasse letting the others take control.

 

[OrionN]

Pintail Fairies are sissies. They are often stressed out by another wrasse. Most of the time they just been timid and lost color due to stress and domination from other wrasses.
If you have a large mirror, cover at least 1/3 or more of your aquarium, you can attach this to the front of your aquarium once or twice a week for about 1/2 hrs. It will really get the fish in your tank active and get their blood circulation going. It is one of the best ways to keep colors of your fishes vibrant. It goes without saying that your must have healthy, NON malnourish fish in order for this to help.

 

[jabberwock]

Pintail Fairies are sissies. They are often stressed out by another wrasse. Most of the time they just been timid and lost color due to stress and domination from other wrasses.
If you have a large mirror, cover at least 1/3 or more of your aquarium, you can attach this to the front of your aquarium once or twice a week for about 1/2 hrs. It will really get the fish in your tank active and get their blood circulation going. It is one of the best ways to keep colors of your fishes vibrant. It goes without saying that your must have healthy, NON malnourish fish in order for this to help.

My Carpenter's loves his mirror!

 

[Moray26]

Never thought of the mirror idea. I’m going to try that. I will say that his colours are coming back and is probably about 75% there.