Giving up on wrasses

Silly clownfish

Silly clownfish

New member
I came home from vacation to my red head solon (solar) wrasse dried up on the floor. I have a full glass canopy, but had a small openning for my auto feeder (the openning covered by a funnel with a 3 inch long 2" wide pice of pvc to allow the food to sink before getting swept into the overflow.

My previous wrasse (McCoskers) spent his entire time with me trying to jump out before apparently squeezing through the foam around my return flow pipe.

I'm currently trying to figure out a replacement. I want an open water swimmer. I currently have an ocelaris clown, flame hawkfish, randall's goby, one spot foxface rabbitfish, and mandarin. Plus mixed corals, maxima clam, coral banded shrimp (too large for flame hawk or similar to eat). And serpent and brittle star. My biggest compatibility concerns are the mandarin and clam. It is a 75g with 20g sump.

I briefly considered a yellow candy hogfish, but in addition to being apparently a type of wrasse, a number of folks say they are very agressive (contrary to books or LA).

I would love to get a dwarf angel, but am concerned it would nip my clam, same for a butterfly. No room for a tang with the foxface in residence.

Any other ideas?

Kim
 
yellow candy hog fish, usually do get aggressive! I really like wrasses but you need to cover all openings, like you found out they are easily startled and jump! I have my mine covered with 1/4" netting. Does your flame hawk ever go after your wrasses?
 
The flame didn't go after the wrasses. The McCoskers used to jump hard enough to bang the glass at least once a day. The openning he made it through was less than 1/4" since I had foam jammed around the pipe. He must have hit the foam hard enough to squeeze around it.

I used to put mesh on the bottom of my feeding funnel, but it collected food and got gross. I would come home from vacation to the house stinking of the rotting food. I didn't think culturing bacteria in the tank was a good idea.
 
I have an orchid dottyback in my 30g with my Valentini puffer. I have thought of moving her to the 75g. She hides a lot (mostly from me, not the puffer) and I think the activity in the 75 would intimidate her more. I bet she would be a challenge to catch, but I have a trap (that I needed to use to get the McCoskers out of the overflow a few times...)

I do like cherub angels and have had 2 over the years - one for 2.5 years, the other for over 7. Neither bothered the corals I had at the time (LPS and mushrooms), but I am worried about my clam which I didn't have then. Plus if I get an angel I would probably want something different than a cherub (having had them in total for almost a decade. Maybe a coral beauty or flame angel.

hmm...
 
Yeah, that's why I was staying away from dwarf angels.

I have kicked around the royal gramma idea many times but somehow never decided to get one. They seem to be one of the few fish with no significant vices.

Thoughts on a small butterfly with the clam? It seems that some are mainly a threat to inverts, not corals and clams. My hawk has already limited inverts to the CBS.
 
Last edited:
Silly clownfish said:
I have an orchid dottyback in my 30g with my Valentini puffer. I have thought of moving her to the 75g. She hides a lot (mostly from me, not the puffer) and I think the activity in the 75 would intimidate her more.
Click to expand...

I have a diadem dottyback whose colors I like slightly more than Orchid's. Strangely mine is also shy and spends 60% of her time in and around her cave. My Cherub and true percs definitely higher than her in the pecking order yet these dottyback have a reputation of being super mean.
 
Silly clownfish said:
Yeah, that's why I was staying away from dwarf angels.

I have kicked around the royal gramma idea many times but somehow never decided to get one. They seem to be one of the few fish with no significant vices.

Thoughts on a small butterfly with the clam? It seems that some are mainly a threat to inverts, not corals and clams. My hawk has already limited inverts to the CBS.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear about the loss of your wrasse :(

I would definitely try a royal gramma. I love mine. He bullies my leopard wrasse during feeding, but otherwise he's a model citizen. I would strongly recommend them, as they look fantastic under actinics, and are pretty darn cheap.
 
Silly clownfish said:
...
I have kicked around the royal gramma idea many times but somehow never decided to get one. They seem to be one of the few fish with no significant vices.
...
Click to expand...

Royal Gramma is a quite peaceful fish with no real bad habits (only one is that they are quite prone to ich, but there's a fix for that). The only fish my Grammas intimidate are the stupid yellow ORA Assessors (I found those to be real wimps, wile the wild ones are rather fearless.)

I would suggest to get a group of 3 (or more if you have the space) little Grammas.
 
I'm sorry for piggy backing your thread, but I'm in the same situation as you. Lost a Red Margin this past week. Tank is covered but one section has egg crate to cover a small gap. Came home to find it knocked off and fish behind the stand.
I have a 75g + 20g sump as well mixed reef with 2 T/P Clowns, Melanurus, Filamented Flasher and Firefish. I do have a clam so as much as I wanted to get a Flame Angel I don't want to chance it. Thinking about maybe a Tomini Tang or even a CBB, still researching and need to get my QT set up again.
 
Jd371,

I briefly looked at a tomeni or Kole Tang, but since I already have a one spot foxface, I don't have the room. But for your tank it might.

CBB, like all butterflies is questionable for a reef, plus they are notoriously picky eaters and apparently don't have a good survival rate in aquariums. Plus LA lists them as needing 125 gallons. The lemon butterfly is listed for 75g and also with caution for reefs. You might want to look at that. I was going to do more research, but then noticed how similar the markings are to my foxface.

I'm still mulling...
 
Hey Kim. I as well had some of the same issues with my wrasse. Love them but the Melanarus has been the only one to really stay put.

I switched over to anthias and haven't had a problem with them finding a way out. Currently have Bartletts and Lytetail. The colors contrast nicely with everything in the tank and don't have any aggression from them with my tankmates. Below is my current fish list in my mixed reef 210.

Bartletts (x3)

Lyretail (x2)

Purple Tang

Yellow Tang

Blue Regal Tang

Foxface

Blue Throat Trigger

Pyramid Butterfly

Ocellaris Clowns (x2)

Flametail Blenny

Green Spotted Mandarin



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lemon butterfly is not reef safe, it ate my mushrooms and lps. I have a copperband who is 100% reef safe. I have had him for almost 2 years. I would give him to you if you were closer.
 
I looked at anthias, but read that they need to be fed multiple times per day as they are always picking at pods in the wild. While I could go to using my automatic feeder all of the time, except for one feeding a day of frozen, I am worried that they would still be heavy pod eaters and compete with my mandarin. My mandarin does well on what is in my tank, but a 75g is not big enough to chance competition.

Hot dog - if I could be reasonable sure I could find a CBB like yours, I would try it, but I suspect yours is the exception.

Kim
 
There are wrasses that go to the sand when spooked - these jump way less IMO. Any of the leopards will work.
 
jda said:
There are wrasses that go to the sand when spooked - these jump way less IMO. Any of the leopards will work.
Click to expand...



The Melanarus being one of these. Pretty good fish to have. Looks good, fun to watch, and known to pick at some pests.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Silly clownfish said:
I looked at anthias, but read that they need to be fed multiple times per day as they are always picking at pods in the wild. While I could go to using my automatic feeder all of the time, except for one feeding a day of frozen, I am worried that they would still be heavy pod eaters and compete with my mandarin. My mandarin does well on what is in my tank, but a 75g is not big enough to chance competition.

Hot dog - if I could be reasonable sure I could find a CBB like yours, I would try it, but I suspect yours is the exception.

Kim
Click to expand...



I may get someone (or two or three...) who doesn't agree with me here but here is what I believe from what I've seen with my wrasse (I've had flasher, fairy, and melanarus) and anthias, and from what I've read. The wrasse are more known to eat "pods", and even peck the pods from the rocks. The Melanarus, 6 line, 4 line, and yellow coris are known to do this. They are also decent at eating pests.

The anthias on the other hand are now known to do so... at least not from peckin off of the rocks like a mandarin does. They are known to eat from the water volume so whatever pods come there way through there I'm sure they will grab if they are hungry. But because they don't forge off of the rocks and glass I don't believe that they will compete with the mandarin. The pod population that the mandarin has been eating will most likely continue to be the same as it is today. Also... as you probably know, there are many types of pods (and I don't just means copepods and amphipods). More likely they wouldn't even eat the same types of pods.

You are right however in saying that they need to be fed multiple times a day, but so do the wrasse so if you weren't doing it for them... shame on you. Jk! Pretty much any active fish you will want to feed multiple times a day. I think I have my feeder set to go off 5 times a day and then I randomly add a blend of something or frozen mysis soaked in garlic. Being that they eat often they also poop often so you'll want to be aware of your parameters and possibly increase you water changes. It may be a little different caring for your anthias and wrasse but the one thing I personally wouldn't worry about is your mandarin's pod population.... and that is if you are certain you have a strong pod population with a mature tank.

Don't take all of this for 100% but this is just what I've observed and found through research. It will be great to hear others chime in!


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