Feeding fairy/flasher wrasses

[RobertK]

Greetings,
I am wondering how often you all are feeding your fairy and flasher wrasses, and how long they've survived in your tanks. Scott Michael's book says to feed them at least 3 times a day, but it also says that about several other fish I've kept a long time on once daily feedings. I've lost a few small wrasses (two Carpenter's and a Lubbock's) in my quarantine tank and feel really bad about it. I was feeding them once or twice a day. Those are the only fish I've ever lost in my Q-tank in 7 years. I'd like to try again but am a little reluctant now.
Thanks,
Robert

[AquaticFins]

Ideally, half a dozen times a day with varied meaty foods.

Since I'm far from perfect and life is busy, I usually only end up feeding my tanks about four times a day.

What I really need to do is get an automatic fish feeder so I can feed frozen thrice a day when I'm home and let the feeder do its thing for another three feedings of dry food.

It's definately true that more often is better. I doubt fairy/flashers would do any better long term with being fed once a day than anthias do.

[RobertK]

Six times a day? You must have a lot of time on your hands. Maybe that's why they died in my Q-tank. My fish are lucky if they get fed once a day. If what you say is true, I will definitely stay away from these beautiful fishes.
Thanks,
Robert

[AquaticFins]

Like I said, the more often you feed them, the better.

I generally feed mine about four times a day and they've been doing well - my oldest have been with me about four years.

I'd hate to discourage you from keeping fairy/flasher wrasses, but that's been my experience. I'd definately say that three times a day would be the minimum.

These fish are quite active openwater swimmers. They eat food pretty much exclusively from the water column. Unlike some of the other wrasses (or most other aquarium fish), they really don't browse the rockwork for little critters to much on - all their food has to come from you. Feeding fairy and flasher wrasses is essentially the exact same as feeding anthias.

[Flame*Angel]

All fish do better with frequent small meals instead of one large one. Fish with high metabolisms absolutely need this. Flasher and fairy wrasses are definitely in this group, as well as anthias and butterfyfish. An automatic feeder is a good idea, there are some good quality digital ones available now that are well worth the investment.

[RobertK]

OK, thanks for the tips you two. I'm feeling pretty stupid now, I should have checked that out first. I'll cross those fish off my list, there's no way I can feed that often, even with an automatic feeder.
Thanks again,
Robert

[Flame*Angel]

I admire you for choosing not to keep this type of fish rather than doing it anyway and allowing the fish to suffer. I wish everyone in this hobby had your reefkeeping ethics.

[RobertK]

Well, thank you for the complement Susan, but you may recall from my first post that I've already killed 3 of these lovely fish. If I had done all my homework first they might still be alive somewhere. My fault.
Thanks again for your help.

[MadTownMax]

any chance of using a crushed-coral refugium to produce copepods and the like to supplement feedings?

[AquaticFins]

They really don't eat copepods.

As I mentioned little ways up in this thread, they're primarily planktivores. They hang out just above the reef's surface and graze on whatever floats by. They take food from the water column with relish, but I rarely see any fairies or flashers going after anything on the rocks.

Now, if you could catch 'pods and drop them into the water column, you might be on to something...

[bronco7777]

I have found this mix to be the best for my fairy wrasses:

Cyclop-eeze with Mysis Shrimp and Garlic

I do a good feeding in the morning before I go to work and I do good feeding when I get back in later in the day. In the meantime I have a small automatic feeder that provides small "snack" feedings while I'm away at work.

Just remember to keep up with your water quality and have a good skimmer running at all times.

By the way, I have found that while fairy wrasses don't exclusively go after copepods, they will occassionaly take some if they see them available. I also have a mystery wrasse in my tank that does hunt copepods throughout the day and sometimes the fairies pick up on this and do the same.

Still phytoplankton and mysis shrimp are the best for these fish.

[MadTownMax]

Originally posted by AquaticFins


Now, if you could catch 'pods and drop them into the water column, you might be on to something...

Well, that's the idea, using coral rubble in a fluidized-type filter (such as life-reef's - I think the phos-ban/aqua medic filters would be too small for this effect) hooked up to a pulsing wash of water from a powerhead on a timer, or similar...in order to "flush" a few of the bugs (sorry for my use of copepods as a general example, but I assumed they met the criteria of "Varied meaty foods") through every minute. This would effectively put them into the water column.

Unless you think that it would be more adventageous to use a deep sand bed for the proliferation of smaller prey - which I can see as more natural, but probably much less mass generated than the coral rubble and therefore less effective at keeping a fat happy wrasse.

Just trying to offer a solution here, instead of saying "no, you can't keep these animals if you have a day job"

I already feed a combination of shredded shrimp/mysis/squid/and cyclops eeze to my tank 2X a day, but I don't like feeding that much as the ability to control feeding such a concentrated source of nutrients such as cyclops to a tank my size is quite challenging.

[AquaticFins]

Yeah, that could work. At the very least, it would help.

Something like an in-tank refugium or a brine hatchery plumbed into the main tank could help out as well. And, of course, there's the aforementioned automatic fish feeder.

Absolutely you can keep these fish if you have a day job...it just requires creativity.