Wrasse Aggression

fishfinn · Mar 6, 2016

Question:
Is it bad to have 2 wrasses in one tank? I have a 300g tank with about a 5" banana wrasse and I just added a cleaner wrasse today. My understanding was that 2 wrasses in one tank is fine if they don't have the same color, which they don't. The banana wrasse is showing pretty strong signs of aggression I guess, he chases around the cleaner any chance he gets until I hit him with the algae scraper. Any ideas as to if this will stop eventually or what I should do will be much appreciated, thanks

4FordFamily · Mar 6, 2016

I've never had those two disagree before but anything is certainly possible. What other fish are there? If there aren't a lot of fish present then they may continue to disagree.

I will say this, I break many rules with my wrasse, and banana wrasse are pretty aggressive - but I have a large Hawaiian banana with a pinkface, red coris, and cleaner in with several large angels and a few tangs without much issue. Banana just expects the other wrasses to stay out of his direct path. At first I thought I would need to separate the pinkface and banana but now they seem to get along. The key IMO is lots of fish to spread aggression and distract the aggressors.

fishfinn · Mar 6, 2016

i have a good amount of fish, tangs, triggers, an eel, a grouper, 2 soldierfish, id think theirs enough going on where he wouldnt even notice the cleaner practically. the banana chases the cleaner around and then ill see the cleaner cleaning the banana, then the chase begins again

4FordFamily · Mar 6, 2016

finnq86 said:
i have a good amount of fish, tangs, triggers, an eel, a grouper, 2 soldierfish, id think theirs enough going on where he wouldnt even notice the cleaner practically. the banana chases the cleaner around and then ill see the cleaner cleaning the banana, then the chase begins again

Ok that sounds like he's pulling things off that hurt the banana - I've seen that behavior before. Cleaner wrasse sometimes irritate their host when they pull things off and hurt them inadvertently and then get chased off viciously for a minute. Pretty normal day in the life of a cleaner wrasse

fishfinn · Mar 6, 2016

4FordFamily said:
Ok that sounds like he's pulling things off that hurt the banana - I've seen that behavior before. Cleaner wrasse sometimes irritate their host when they pull things off and hurt them inadvertently and then get chased off viciously for a minute. Pretty normal day in the life of a cleaner wrasse

thanks, i guess ill just have to wait it out and see what happens tomorrow

eatbreakfast · Mar 7, 2016

Thalassoma wrasses rarely do well with other wrasses. Sometimes with other large aggressive wrasses they will be ok, but even then not always. It will be tough on the cleaner as the only other wrasse in a tank with a Thalassoma.

Salty1962 · Mar 8, 2016

My cleaner would be cleaning my Purple Tang and he'd nip too hard and the tang chased him all over the tank, then the process continued until the wrasse stopped cleaning the tang. I have 6 wrasses in my tank and the only real problem I have is my Mystery wrasse chases my female flame all the time.
There is always one in the group that is aggressive.

jetmaker · Mar 8, 2016

Might try the mirror trick a few days.

eatbreakfast · Mar 8, 2016

But remember, Thalassoma wrasses are notorious for their continued aggression toward smaller, more peaceful wrasses.

fishfinn · Mar 8, 2016

ok thanks all, I'm just going to try and catch him and give him to a friend, i got him for free and i like the cleaner more imho. any tips on catching him? besides the bottle trap, i already have that set up with so far no success

eatbreakfast · Mar 8, 2016

finnq86 said:
ok thanks all, I'm just going to try and catch him and give him to a friend, i got him for free and i like the cleaner more imho. any tips on catching him? besides the bottle trap, i already have that set up with so far no success

A small hook with a piece of mysis always works.

jetmaker · Mar 8, 2016

I have actually caught them by putting the net in the tank and squirting mysis in it and they jump right in lol .

jetmaker · Mar 8, 2016

Just put what ever else jumps in back in the tank lol

4FordFamily · Mar 8, 2016

My bananas have never been as bad as described but I may be lucky. I've had three for several years until I sold them (one jumped out actually). Anyway mine are aggressive but I think due to crowding and a little luck I've been able to keep them as community fish.

My Hawaiian male is very blue and beautiful and I don't know if I could have a tank without them. I've had at least one for the entirety of my time in this hobby. I have found them to be less aggressive than my lunare wrasses. My pinkface and banana rarely have any trouble surprisingly. I've always kept my banana with a melanarus wrasse without trouble in fact I had a lime green wrasse that beat on my banana and was 1/2 his size. This is probably the exception though and not the norm based on what I hear. That lime turned in to a super male which I sold to make room, I regret selling it was neat

jetmaker · Mar 8, 2016

I had small carpenter super male I had to remove for bad aggression

Mfreddy · Mar 8, 2016

4FordFamily said:
My bananas have never been as bad as described but I may be lucky. I've had three for several years until I sold them (one jumped out actually). Anyway mine are aggressive but I think due to crowding and a little luck I've been able to keep them as community fish.

My Hawaiian male is very blue and beautiful and I don't know if I could have a tank without them. I've had at least one for the entirety of my time in this hobby. I have found them to be less aggressive than my lunare wrasses. My pinkface and banana rarely have any trouble surprisingly. I've always kept my banana with a melanarus wrasse without trouble in fact I had a lime green wrasse that beat on my banana and was 1/2 his size. This is probably the exception though and not the norm based on what I hear. That lime turned in to a super male which I sold to make room, I regret selling it was neat

I'm getting ready to add a lunare to my tank. Currently have clown trigger, dalmation puffer, and purple tang. Wrasse will be added with niger trigger, emporator angel and snowflake eel. Hopefully will not have wrasse aggression issues?

eatbreakfast · Mar 9, 2016

Mfreddy said:
I'm getting ready to add a lunare to my tank. Currently have clown trigger, dalmation puffer, and purple tang. Wrasse will be added with niger trigger, emporator angel and snowflake eel. Hopefully will not have wrasse aggression issues?

No, that's a good mix for a Thalassoma species.