What's your favourite wrasse and why?

mattsilvester · #1 09/11/2006, 01:48 PM

As the title says, what's your favourite wrasse and why? And what's the worse thing about your favourite.

Mine is probably the lunare wrasse - because they are so active and interesting to watch, and the colours are fabulous - and the down side - they eat snails!!!

Matt

EdKruzel · #2 09/11/2006, 02:23 PM

So many fish, so many favorites; I like to copy Scott Michael and start each viewing of any species as, "This is my favorite fish".

But if I had to select one as my favorite aquarium species, I'd have to go with the Royal Gramma.
Brightly colored, very hardy and fits most any aquarium size or with compatibilty amongst species.

I always have one in a system...

One of many in a friends 600gal display.

mattsilvester · #3 09/11/2006, 03:19 PM

Hey Ed,
Sweet pic - is that the same 600 that the majestic is in?

Torno · #4 09/11/2006, 03:38 PM

I thought we were talking about wrasses here? A royal gramma is a basslet, no?

My favorite is the leopard wrasse: active and an absolute beauty.

mattsilvester · #5 09/11/2006, 04:40 PM

good choice torno - reasonable size, nice markings, apparently peaceful.......

EdKruzel · #6 09/11/2006, 07:53 PM

Not the same tank as the majestic is in; and yes it said wrasse, I was just too stupid to catch it.
I was thinking favorite fish and never paid attention.

Favorite wrasse in groups would have to be several of the flashers, but as single species hands down... Macropharyngodon meleagris.

BTTRFLYGRL · #7 09/12/2006, 06:45 AM

Iridis Wrasse!! I love mine!!

I like the fact that they are a 'community fish'...very peaceful. and I love the colors!!

I also think the Dragon Wrasse is awesome....but I would NEVER own one

joe 09 · #8 09/12/2006, 07:23 AM

i have a yellowstreak(yellow band)cirrhilabrus luteovittatus.it has many colors and very active.it is a rare fish.

EdKruzel · #9 09/12/2006, 08:05 AM

Joe,
That is a very nice fish and not exactly cheap, but rare it is not; it is actually becoming one of the more common of the flashers and fairy wrasse available today.

danorth · #10 09/12/2006, 02:50 PM

The healthy one!

I've had/have:
coris wrasse (2",3",12")
bird wrasse male
jansen wrasse
banana wrasse
lyretail hogfish (wrasse)
Harlequin tusk
lunare wrasse
yellow flanked fairy wrasse

All are easy to care for. The lunare and banana are by far meaner than the rest. The banana wrasse would attack my blue line trigger, both were about 6.5" at the time.

The big coris, lyretail, and tusk are all currently kept together and with a scallop and cleaner shrimps.

If I could generalize, the Thalassoma family has the meaner of the wrasses IME.
No specific favorite, but they are all beautiful and some are much meaner than others.....all seem very easy to keep.

mattsilvester · #11 09/12/2006, 03:55 PM

nice choice Joe.

danorth - you seem to have kept quite a few of the larger species. i would agree about the lunare - beautiful, but tough!

mattsilvester · #12 09/14/2006, 03:51 PM

ane other takers?

blface · #13 09/15/2006, 10:09 AM

Rhomboid is my fav!!

frogguy1 · #14 09/15/2006, 10:14 AM

I loved my lime green wrasse

emperora · #15 09/15/2006, 06:31 PM

matt i have to go with you on this my favorite wrasse is definately a lunare ,the only downside i see besides eating snails is they can get a little aggressive ,the one i have has a bad habit of pulling the algae out of the algae clip then going about his business

mattsilvester · #16 09/16/2006, 02:00 AM

I had a lunare that used to do the exact same thing - rip it out of the clip, rip it to bits, and then go about its business......... my one also murder a couple of fish - although that was my fault for incorrect introduction order, and bad choice of tank mates (during the "early days").

For me though, the snail eating is the only thing I could not live with. In previous tanks, the rocks just get so manky looking with snails to keep them clean - I don't think I could ever have tank without snails purely for that reason. Now, I don't know if the rocks were manky because of my bad maintenance and relatively poor circulation - or if it was because nothing was there to graze on the rocks.