Wrasse additions

[gflat65]

Before doing this, wanted to see what everyone thought.

In a 280 with a super male yellow patch fairy (6" C. lyukyuensis), female yellow patch, and a large male leopard wrasse (6"+ M. ornatus), I was planning to add a male C. rubriventralis and a male P. filamentosus with two female P. filamentosus. Am I asking for problems? They should get along, but with the supermale yellow patch, I wanted to get consensus.

TIA

 

[mobatic]

I really don't see it being problematic with such a huge tank.
But that's just what I think, let's see how this rides out.

 

[gflat65]

Thanks mobatic. I don't feel like there will be either. The C. lyukyuensis supermale seems to get along well with the male M. ornatus. I had gotten what I'd hoped were two females for the C. lyukyuensis, but one was transitioning to male. It was chased into the overflow (overflow is mostly covered with a small opening above where the water flows through the weir, so it took a feat of acrobatics to end up in the overflow), but it was likely seen as another male (female coloration is pretty bland, and one that got chased into the overflow looked to be a little more than halfway through the color change to male).

 

[mobatic]

I would only be worried if you had a mystery wrasse, six line or a solitude wrasse species.
They're the more aggressive species and can only exist on their own.
Now if you have fairy wrasses, those do better in harems or pairs, but make sure you have only 1 male of any wrasse species, otherwise there's going to be plenty of competition going on.
I've had a harem of flames before, and 3 of the 4 males turned into super males, but all were able to coexist for over a year. I finally decided to trade them with some locals for female flames and those females are now sub females.
I'm not even sure how this happens, but as long as they get along it doesn't bother me.

In case you're wondering how I remove the wrasses, its at night and when they're sleeping. You'll see a mucus cacoon, you can slowly side your palm underneath and scoop it out.

 

[Madreef]

I really don't understand the post above because it says not to have two males, yet he kept multiple flame males. There's many people keeping multiple males of different species together.

The thing that you have going for you is the large size of your tank. So there's lots of room to escape or hide from an aggressive fish. Having said that I would fully expect your yellow sided male to pick on ANY other fairy or flasher that you add to the tank. It might only feel the need to chase the new fish for a day, but it could easily do it until one fish has to be removed. Your best bet is using a acclamation box to see how it reacts to the new fish.

My recommendations of wrasses which would make easy non aggressive tank mates would include a group or single yellow coris(not white belly), melanarus wrasses(pick one of the several species available), any leopard wrasse species, also the radiant wrasse could be kept instead or with the yellow coris.

Hope this helps.

 

[mobatic]

Let me reiterate.

You shouldn't have more than 2 Male Flame wrasses, only one.
Females that turn into Males, will coexist

Different species such as Male Flame + Male Rhomboid + Male Labouti are fine. More than 2 of any in a tank, you're in for a treat.

 

[btkrausen]

I'd use an acclimation box just to make sure that your new guys don't get bullied by established community members. Mine has really helped when added fish, as some fish would poke at the new guys in the box for the first day, but then after another day, they were not, and when released, everybody got along just fine.

 

[gflat65]

I need an acclimation box... Both flashers were killed by the female yellow patch the first day. Then she turned on the rubriventralis. The rubri is doing fine now, but she chased him relentlessly for at least three days. We left town for the weekend and I was pleasantly surprised to see the rubriventralis swimming around, even near the female yellow patch. It's out in the water column frequently now and I've not seen it chased at all today. Killing the flashers kinda surprised me. I'll definitely find an acclimation box before I get more leopards (love leopards and have had pretty good success getting them acclimated-until my mystery killed three in the first week after he went in...). Mystery is gone and the one leopard i was able to save (male ornatus I've had for two years now -maybe three?) has been back in the tank for 9 months and is fat as can be. Mystery lives in my frag tank, but if I could catch him, he'd be gone. Killed all the baby Banggais I had and haven't seen a single baby in the last nine months... I've been anti 6 line since one almost killed my first mandarin 15 years ago (6 line was quickly removed and mandarin lived another 5 years before a rock crab got him). Should have known the mystery would be a terror...

 

[btkrausen]

If you want to keep flashers and fairies, 6 line and mystery are ones to avoid. They will turn aggressive on the more passive wrasses and the result won't be good.

Advice to you and others reading: Get rid of Mystery or Six Line wrasses before trying Flashers/Fairies.

 

[Brad Syphus]

If you want to keep flashers and fairies, 6 line and mystery are ones to avoid. They will turn aggressive on the more passive wrasses and the result won't be good.

Advice to you and others reading: Get rid of Mystery or Six Line wrasses before trying Flashers/Fairies.

Agreed!!!!!!!!!