kiss my wrasse

[fishfreak]

Hi y'all-
have not been in here in a while, but here's my question:
I have a wrasse problem. Over the last 3 months, I have lost 3 wrasses. I mean LOST. They have vanished withing 1 or 2 days of being introduced to my 115 gallon reef tank. All the other guys are doing well, including 3 different types of Gobies, 2 Cardinals, a Flame Angel, a Long-Nose Hawk, a Royal Gramma, and a Mandarin. I also have 3 Cleaner Shrimp, 3 Pepermints, 2 Emerald Reef Crabs, and one unwanted pink crab, + a zillion hermits.
What gives? Is there something unique about wrasses that make them vulnerable to something that isn't getting to everybody else?
Any ideas?

 

[pufferlover]

First thing need to know is what types of wrasses are we talking about? Without knowing I would say with a lot of crabs and if these were bottom burying wrasses the odds are they were ambushed while sleeping. Wrasses sleep deeply and would be vunerable to things like lots of carbs foraging at night in the substarte.

 

[jimi]

As mentioned need to know what type of wrasses. They are jumpers are you sure thye are not laying outside the tank dried up?

 

[fishfreak]

2 Six-Line wrasses, and one Dragon Wrasse.
They are not jumping.....I have a glass top on the tank. The overflow wier (that feeds the sump) doesn't have wide enough slits to allow them to get "sumped".
I've been trying to get the pink butt-headed crab out for a while...

 

[pufferlover]

Having 6 lines I know they are small fish. The Dragon if a baby would be small also so I think the answer is the crabs. I believe the 6 lines tend to hide in rocks and I know the Dragon is a sustrate sleeper (have had a few of those along the way myself). I would not try any more wrasses till you cull the crabs a bit.

 

[rmdavis]

saw where ya'll were discussing the crabs eating the fish while sleeping... is this more a problem with the emerald or will the hermits do it also?
thanks
Robert

 

[fishfreak]

Not supposed to be a problem with Emeralds....they are supposed to be reef & fish safe. However, the little pink crab with his beady little eyes and his evil little black-tipped claws HAS GOT TO GO.
Now for an update: I think I've found my criminal. Last night, I dropped some shrimp chunks in and came back later with a red-lens flashlight. Five, count `em, five 4 to six-inch bristle worms crawling around on the food. While I was watching, one started to try to sneak up on a sleeping fish. When it moved away, the worn started chasing it (slowly, of course). That went on for about 5 minuets, until the fish woke all the way up and went to another part of the tank.
If a wrasse is sleeping in his little slime-cocoon, I'll bet the worm catches him.
Next question. Anybody had any luck getting them out?

 

[youbetyourwrasse]

I doubt the bristleworms are the culprit; but the would explain the lack of a body!
They are superlative scavengers who earned a bad reputation waybackwhen because of their accidentally "irritating" delicate corals with there bristles during their nightly forays. Most aquarists today are re-evaluating the blanket condemnation once heaped on all bristleworms. Let's face it, some of these corals are so sensitive they'll shrivel up for a wekk if you look at them "funny!"
I have around 16,732 of them in an 18G that includes 2 of the smallest Gobies known to man. I too have seem them poking everywhere for food. I have seen them touch the fish as they sleep in their burrows under the LR. No fish has ever come to harm in this tank. I credit the bristleworms (and fan worms, sponges, tunicates, copepods, hermits, tiny snails, Caulerpa and limpets) for maintaining a healthy environment.
In fact, IMO this "mini-fauna" is as important to the vitality of a mature system as the "cycle" is to a new system.
Sometimes fish just don't acclimate. Big fish are typically collected as juveniles. But smaller species could be of any age, and the oldster of even a hardy species might not have the strength to endure such change. Juvenile Dragon wrasses are notorious diggers, and often are victims of shifting LR, especially when there is a DSB and the LR is placed on top, with no other support.
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