Reef Discussion

[Dean Lovett]

Three weeks ago we purchased a six line wrasse for our tank and he was great, really inquisitive and active, never bothered anything. But unforetuneately he had an issue with his swim bladder 4 days after we got him and he died.



So the fish shop order another one in, free of charge and we got another one. He also too is great, but heres the problem.

He has killed a hermit crab and now all the other inverts in the tank (crabs and shrimp) are hiding and seem to be scared and I HATE THAT.

The last thing I want in the tank is for animals to be frightened in a place that they call home.



What can I do?

 

[Savage Henry]

There' nothing worse than having a problem with your wrasse, Dean.

I did a little reading about the six line wrasse as they are pretty damn cute, but I came to the conclusion that they are very temperamental and can be very picky towards other small fish and inverts etc.

I have only had experience with wrasse from the smaller members of the Halichoere wrasse family, which I highly recommend.

I don't know how mature your tank is, but I wonder if when it be more established with copepods and worms etc that your wrasse will concentrate more on hunting them down from then troubling your crabs and shrimp.

This is the most useful part of my post: Does your wrasse go to bed at lights out? If so, perhaps your crabs and shrimp will quickly learn to hide during the day and come out to eat at night. You can of course feed a little extra after lights out to feed them. Maybe then when your copepods and worms become better established the crabs and shrimp will then be able to venture out during the day.

Since I sold my wrasse my copepods and worms venture out in the day time like never before.

Interestingly, only just this week, I have observed that my pair of clown now hunt copepods. I recorded some never-before-seen-footage of my female clown picking through clumps of algae seeking out large copepods (up to about 7mm).

 

[Dean Lovett]

There' nothing worse than having a problem with your wrasse, Dean.

I did a little reading about the six line wrasse as they are pretty damn cute, but I came to the conclusion that they are very temperamental and can be very picky towards other small fish and inverts etc.

I have only had experience with wrasse from the smaller members of the Halichoere wrasse family, which I highly recommend.

I don't know how mature your tank is, but I wonder if when it be more established with copepods and worms etc that your wrasse will concentrate more on hunting them down from then troubling your crabs and shrimp.

This is the most useful part of my post: Does your wrasse go to bed at lights out? If so, perhaps your crabs and shrimp will quickly learn to hide during the day and come out to eat at night. You can of course feed a little extra after lights out to feed them. Maybe then when your copepods and worms become better established the crabs and shrimp will then be able to venture out during the day.

Since I sold my wrasse my copepods and worms venture out in the day time like never before.

Interestingly, only just this week, I have observed that my pair of clown now hunt copepods. I recorded some never-before-seen-footage of my female clown picking through clumps of algae seeking out large copepods (up to about 7mm).

Thanks for the detailed reply!

Yep, he sleeps from about 9-8:30. even if the light is on at 9, (if i get home late) he packs up and goes to bed.

The tank did have a high population of pods, but I did some minor reefscaping and their numbers on the glass have dramatically decreased... I think i must have disturbed them.

I am just hoping that if we keep him well fed, itll allow the pod population to sky rocket again and then he wont bug anyone... otherwise, he's going to be shafted! haha.

interesting about your clowns! I saw mine picking at the rocks the other day and I didn't think anything of it... but now i am wondering if they are engaging in similar behavior to your female!

 

[RobbieMVFC]

Unfortunately that is what they do , and to top it off they will overturn rocks if they can to get to the small critters.
Good looking fish however they can be a pain.

I decided long ago that peppermint shrimps were more valuable than Wrasses so I returned mine.

 

[MagicJ]

...itll allow the pod population to sky rocket again and then he wont bug anyone...

Unfortunately, this will never happen whilst you have a six-line wrasse in your tank.

I once read an article which listed the top 10 fish that a beginner should never buy - the six line made the list. Not because they were overly aggressive, although they can be, but because they will quickly decimate the biodiversity in the tank, including worms, pods etc.

They are constantly looking for food, and not just for the few hours a day when you are home to feed them. In a relatively small tank such as yours, once they have cleaned out all the easily accessible pods etc they will start to look elsewhere ...

Personally, I would return the wrasse to the LFS however, catching it might be easier said than done.

 

[MagicJ]

This isn't what I was looking for, but the information is pretty much the same...

 

[Webb]

Unless you're running a refugium in sump, that 1 wrasse will easily deplete any pods and small worms in the tank.
Even a small refugium will work, my tanks only 2x1x1, sump is 50cm and the refugium is 30cm long. There are THOUSANDS of pods and small mysis like shrimp in there, the large liverock piece I put in there looks like its surface is crawling. They make their way up into the DT which keeps the wrasse well fed, but it'll still chase out any shrimp and occasionally bully the hermit crabs. Much as it's pretty, I wouldn't want it if it was going to attack everything.

 

[dimitri]

I did a lot of research before i bought my banana wrasse, I think you'll have trouble with almost all of them, they are hunters, a lot of people keep them in mixed reef but there was always an addendum attached to them, in nature they will hunt on certain things it's a risk you take, but putting a fish that is going to get between 10-12cm in size into a nano tank is probably asking for trouble.

I've caught mine eating worms, smacking them against rocks while in his mouth, has not touched my sexy shrimp yet or any other inverts, but the tank is large and he is well fed.

I'd say upG to a bigger tank and stick him in that! it's the perfect excuse really..

 

[ezza]

I could probably provide your wrasse with a home if you decide to replace it. I have been thinking about getting a new red-line wrasse if I can find one- 6 lines are similar in a way.

 

[potatocouch]

If you want yourself a very peaceful Wrasse, get Tamarin.

 

[ReeferRob]

6 line wrasses are hit or miss, they're either model citizens or they royal terrors! I personally won't own one, I sell probably 100 per month, but to keep one for myself? Never gonna happen. As others have said, they're hunters, that's what they do and that's ALL they do. I keep a few different wrasses in the runs to eat snails that hitchhike in on corals and they do a bang up job.

 

[Savage Henry]

I did a lot of research before i bought my banana wrasse, I think you'll have trouble with almost all of them, they are hunters, a lot of people keep them in mixed reef but there was always an addendum attached to them, in nature they will hunt on certain things it's a risk you take, but putting a fish that is going to get between 10-12cm in size into a nano tank is probably asking for trouble.

I've caught mine eating worms, smacking them against rocks while in his mouth, has not touched my sexy shrimp yet or any other inverts, but the tank is large and he is well fed.

I kept a banana wrasse together with a dusky wrasse (very similar habits) in an approx 65 G tank. I can't recall whether I actually saw any mysis shrimp in the tank at that time, but after lights were out there were still plenty of bristleworms etc. These fish never harmed my redline shrimp or crabs.

 

[dimitri]

I am happy with him, if he is going to hunt it's during the day, he is a bit of a grandpa for such a small fish, lights out at 6pm every day without fail!

I suspect I got a hit, not a miss on this one, time will tell though

 

[Agent M]

Did you see the wrasse kill the hermit? Just curious for more info about that.

I would see if the behaviour settles down once he has converted fully to prepared foods and is getting regular meals each day. Perhaps even once he has gained some weight. He is probably only just learning to shift from live foods to prepared.

 

[curly747]

I have a six line wrasse. Unfortunately he ate all the pods in my four foot tank pretty quickly after he arrived and the pods have never recovered. It hasn't bothered any fish and leaves the coral banded shrimp alone. The tank was well established when i introduced him and he really had no weaker creatures to pick on. I miss having pods but my wrasse is a great fish apart from that. Always active and the colours are great. I know others have had more problems with their wrasse.

 

[Susan Bates]

This isn't what I was looking for, but the information is pretty much the same...

I got one of these the coloured dragonet, what is the problems with him?

 

[dimitri]

I got one of these the coloured dragonet, what is the problems with him?

very difficult eater.

 

[Susan Bates]

very difficult eater.

mine has grown a lot since i got him, i feed him lobster eggs

 

[ReeferRob]

mine has grown a lot since i got him, i feed him lobster eggs

If you have him eating that, then there's nothing to worry about Susan. They are hard to get onto dead or prepared foods. Usually you need a good supply of pods to get them started eating, then you can start feeding them other foods.

 

[Paul Richardson]

I've had one in my tank from startup and it was fine with all of the other fish (Clowns, bicolour blenny, flame angel). Introduced a coral banded shrimp and he hounded it for two days before the poor thing finally packed it in and died. A voracious eater and I'm thinking about trading it in.