Wrasse for 40 gal breeder

[homer1475]

I wouldn't be afraid to add a leopard to a 40b breeder with a mandarin. I have 5 pod eating wrasses as well as a fat mandarin in my 80G cube. All fat and happy, and my mandy eats nothing but pods(no prepared foods).

You want the secret sauce to it all, feed live phyto daily to bolster the pod population. Just like your fish, and corals, your pods need to be fed too. When I change my filter socks every couple days, I wash literally hundreds of pods down my sink when rinsing out the sock.

 

[Saltyanimals]

I wouldn't be afraid to add a leopard to a 40b breeder with a mandarin. I have 5 pod eating wrasses as well as a fat mandarin in my 80G cube. All fat and happy, and my mandy eats nothing but pods(no prepared foods).

You want the secret sauce to it all, feed live phyto daily to bolster the pod population. Just like your fish, and corals, your pods need to be fed too. When I change my filter socks every couple days, I wash literally hundreds of pods down my sink when rinsing out the sock.

Very interesting to hear this perspective on the leopard wrasse. I have a 3 inch one in a 180 that has been in there with a red scooter for 7-8 months now. Leopard eats everything I feed the tank mostly dry food and always hunting. Scooter came in very skinny after QT, but has quickly fattened up over the past couple months. I added a mandarin a month ago and is a bit skinny but constantly on the hunt. Mandarin was added last so I was concerned the leopard and scooter is wiping out the pod populating leaving little left for the mandarin. Glad to see you're able to have that many pod eaters in an 80G.

 

[i cant think]

Very interesting to hear this perspective on the leopard wrasse. I have a 3 inch one in a 180 that has been in there with a red scooter for 7-8 months now. Leopard eats everything I feed the tank mostly dry food and always hunting. Scooter came in very skinny after QT, but has quickly fattened up over the past couple months. I added a mandarin a month ago and is a bit skinny but constantly on the hunt. Mandarin was added last so I was concerned the leopard and scooter is wiping out the pod populating leaving little left for the mandarin. Glad to see you're able to have that many pod eaters in an 80G.

I manage about 6 pod eaters in my tanks:
Two Halichoeres wrasses (4’x2’x2’ tank)
CBB (4’x2’x2’ tank)
Blue Star Leopard (Max Nano - TEMPORARY!!)
Pink streak wrasse (Max Nano)
Black Clown Goby (Max Nano)
None of them are skinny and all eat pods aggressively. I have owned a Possum in a 15g with several pod eaters and it never got skinny either. Wrasses don’t demolish pod populations as much as dragonets do. I find that a lot of the time people over exaggerate most species in this genus (Macropharyngodon). I find yes Choati may be more of a pod eater, similar with the Anampses genus.

 

[MrDeathKills]

I wouldn't be afraid to add a leopard to a 40b breeder with a mandarin. I have 5 pod eating wrasses as well as a fat mandarin in my 80G cube. All fat and happy, and my mandy eats nothing but pods(no prepared foods).

You want the secret sauce to it all, feed live phyto daily to bolster the pod population. Just like your fish, and corals, your pods need to be fed too. When I change my filter socks every couple days, I wash literally hundreds of pods down my sink when rinsing out the sock.

My only issue was the sand bed. We really didn’t want to go deep sand bed in this so this 40B only has 1in of sand. Some day when we go to a 180gal we will go a nice 4in sand bed for the whole tank and get all the nice fish. For now the Ruby Longfin Fairy is what we are thinking.

 

[MrDeathKills]

Everyone is saying a flasher wrasse but personally I wouldn’t go with any and here’s my reason. They dive into things in small tanks when they flash so I wouldn’t put them in anything less than a 4’ tank. Fairy wrasses good for the tank include anything from the lubbocki complex, these stay around 3” (sometimes smaller) and aren’t very aggressive. I’d look at most of the wrasses that stay below 3”, it would probably be pushing the tank for a wrasse that can potentially hit 4”

I feel yea. We are probably going to go with the Ruby Longfin Fairy. It stays at 3” probably won’t touch pods and definitely doesn’t need the sandbed. Its overall what we are looking for in the 40B.

 

[Zionas]

It’s a pity because some of the wrasses in the same genus as the Six Line are very pretty and more interesting than the average Fairy or Flasher, but their temperament is a huge downside.

 

[Zionas]

One thing that’s kept me away from Flashers is their short lifespan and the fact that they are a bit more fragile than the average Fairy or Halichoeres wrasse.