Melanurus wrasse help
 

Wouldn't mind some opinions on what to do.

I've had a melanurus wrasse for quite some time now. He really kept up to his reputation of being a peacefull fish and was the gentle king in my 90 gallon. I recently added a yellow tang and a orange back Fairy wrasse and it seemed everything went according to plan. I had no issues for the first day or so. The two wrasses seemed to tolerate each other no problem. Then the orange back must have said something to the melanurus wrasse and things got nasty and it chases the poor guy all over.

I am trying to the pop bottle trap method tomorrow to try and get the melanurus out. My questions to you guys is whether you think it would work to put the melanurus in the quarantine for a couple of weeks and try and put him back in later or if he would be better to go up for adoption on canreef?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Tape a few small mirrors to the side of the tank facing into the tank. The Melanurus will be so mad at seeing "another Melanurus" in the tank he will probably forget about the Orange Back. Melanurus tend to be jerks when adding new Wrasses, but since the new one is a Fairy Wrasse they should settle it out ok.

I'm hoping you quarantined the Orange Back for at least a couple weeks so you could acclimate him to the new environment, new feeder (you), and new foods first. Quarantine for the purpose of acclimation is extremely important in my opinion - especially when it comes to adding new fish to an existing population.

Thanks for the help!

Mirror was a great idea and it seemed to work. For the time being I have moved the orange shoulder wrasse into the overflow until the weekend when I can set it up the quarantine again. I did quarantine but maybe I was a little overly optimistic as I only kept them in there for about a week.

You're welcome, good luck!