Mystery Wrasse not reef safe

[24aqua]

few months back i ordered a big clean up crew and after a few weeks all i saw was empty shells,i have a large fire shrimp that he wont mess with but the othe day i saw him turning snail and crabs oner and eating them!!!Yesterday i put a large cleaner shrimp in and only lasted a few seconds.Anyone else have this problem before?

 

[jackri]

Sounds reef safe to me.... just not Invert safe -- sorry for your losses!

 

[hlcroghan]

Most sites will tell you that they are not safe with inverts but are safe with corals. There a lot of other beautiful wrasses out there that will not harm your inverts. Perhaps turn him in for store credit and get a different one?

 

[spanko]

Mine ate a peppermint shrimp and a pom pom crab, have not seen him mess with my snails and hermits though.

 

[ryancw01]

These wrasses are very smart and opportunistic. If you add them last you typically won't have a problem, but any new inverts that you add they will try to pick on a little. I have a Hawaiian Flame Wrasse that I just added about 2 weeks ago and he gives a little special interest to my cleaner shrimp when they are molting, but he leaves them alone normally. He wanted to sneak up on my Harlequin Shrimp and followed him around for a bit, but the shrimp wouldnt have any of it and batted him off pretty quickly. He now leaves him alone.