Type of sandbed for Melanarus Wrasse?

[rja]

Hey all,
Setting up a new tank with a Melanarus Wrasse. I understand that Melanarus Wrasse will sleep in the sand bed. Is there a preference as to the grade of sand? Should I go more fine? I don’t want crushed coral to scratch it when it dives into the bed.

 

[i cant think]

Hey all,
Setting up a new tank with a Melanarus Wrasse. I understand that Melanarus Wrasse will sleep in the sand bed. Is there a preference as to the grade of sand? Should I go more fine? I don’t want crushed coral to scratch it when it dives into the bed.

I’d aim for as fine of a sand as you can get. I personally don’t have issues with stupidly fine sand and high flow. If you use your rockscape to your advantage you can reduce sand storms (which your Melanurus will cause anyway). I have a 1’ deep nano and it’s got a Wavemaker in it that’s pushing quite a strong flow and back flow but my rocks break it up as well as my SPS.

Also with a Melanurus I’d try and get a 4” deep sandbed so that there’s plenty of sand to keep it covered in the night. My personal sand bed in my 4’ tank with 3 sand sleepers is 3-4” in depth. My nano with 1 (soon 2) sand sleepers is 0.5”-1” in depth. My 4’ tank has much larger sand sleepers (X. margaritaceus, H. iridis and H. chloropterus) and my nano will have 2 smaller sand sleeper species (M. bipartitus and M. choati)

 

[Rmckoy]

Hey all,
Setting up a new tank with a Melanarus Wrasse. I understand that Melanarus Wrasse will sleep in the sand bed. Is there a preference as to the grade of sand? Should I go more fine? I don’t want crushed coral to scratch it when it dives into the bed.

Good question ….
I personally have always used the same sand but at only 1-1.5” depth I don’t think there is any chance of him diving into the sand .

I’ve never noticed where he sleeps . But I did have a yellow wrasse years ago that would dive into the sand bed as soon as the lights went off .
Cover its body leaving his head sticking out ( almost like the sand was a blanket

 

[1112-425XL]

My sand bed is just under 2". My melanurus wrasse has no problem sleeping. Every night 8:55 (lights out at 9:00) he says goodnight. Usually see him about a half hour before lights on at 11:00 the next morning.

 

[Mathew0]

I have a red coris and a Melanurus. My substrate is coarse crushed coral and shells. I was super worried about them hurting themselves, so I put a large tray with med-fine live sand for them. The coris used it once the first night. Since then they both prefer the gravel, and the expensive sand is just a refuge for the conchs when they get tired of the hermits.
The wrasses don’t really seem to care about the grade. I’ve never seen a scratch. However, they do like to play volleyball with frags

 

[zoomonster]

I'm on my 2nd Melanurus in 9 years and this tank has a ~4" sandbed mostly Caribsea Seaflor with some Caribsea ocean direct mixed in. It and other wrasses do just fine with it. Sugar sand will just be nothing but problems and is not necessary. And yes, he does a total dive into the sandbed with a cloud of dust. The one I have now is probably already 4"+ and very fat. Never seen any of my wrasses harmed by the sandbed.

 

[Isaac Alves]

Nothing bigger than 2mm grain size. And that’s like CaribSea Special grade which is good for higher flow.

 

[stauzin]

Mine does ok with my CaribSea Special grade sand. big enough size to not blow around with lots of flow but small enough for him to enjoy.