question about melanurus wrasses and pinkface wrasses

[gzsick]

hi, does anybody have experience with pinkface wrasses and if they're hardy and if they're aggressive. I have a flame angel, a bi color and a coral beauty all 3 inches and soon 3 butterflies all at 3-4 inches. I know how big they get and how fast wrasses swim but could I keep one that's 4 inches with these fish in my 86 gallon and sump?

[BlueTang<3]

I kept the Thalassoma quinquevittatum (pinkface wrasse) i had kept an my reef tank he was a devil of a fish. Moved him into a smaller tank and he was very active swam a lot but also calmed down until feeding time. In my opinion unless you have a fowlr with large fish i would steer clear.

[Lance]

Thalassoma species can be a PITA. They are usually not reef safe and are very aggressive feeders. They tend to spit mouthfuls of sand all over everything and will rarely tolerate any other Wrasse. My Lunare splashes water all over at feeding time and usually gets most of the food as it is fast as lightning. Although beautiful fish I would take a good hard look at the tankmates it will be kept with. Non-aggressive eaters are going to suffer and may get to bullied.

[whatcaneyedo]

Would they pick on sharks or eels? Thats a strange question... I don't know about pinkface but I have had a little bit of experiance with melanurus. Unless you have a very small species of eel like a gold dwarf theres a very good chance the eel will eat the melanurus. My snowflake only left a 3" Halichoeres chrysus alone for 4 months before making a meal out of it. I'm pretty certain a shark would eat one too.

[Ian]

My melanarus wrasse has been a model citizen in my tank. no picking at anything and actually fairly shy. One of my favorite fish in my 90 gallon.

[intarsiabox]

You might want to stick with a more docile wrasse than a pinkface if you plan to add butterflies. My solor wrasse gets along with everyone, rarely hides and is very active.