seabird wrasse eating snails/crabs?

[dkode]

I just bought 3 mexican turbo snails and a dozen blue legged hermits to find that as soon as I put them in the tank my seabird wrasse (ID?) was picking them up and smashing them against the tank to break open the shells.

if this guy eats snails and crabs how can i put a cleaning crew in my tank? kinda stinks, but i guess live and learn

any pointers would be appreciated. thanks!

[graphixx]

Sean, buddy that sucks to hear!!!! I know some wrasse are pretty aggresive little buggars, I am gonna go ahead and say you got one of them. the only thing I would suggest is getting rid of the wrasse. your gonna need some sort of cleaning crew in a 92 gallon tank.

[Reef_Angel]

Hi Sean! I don't know much about that kind of wrasse. Do you possibly have a picture to share with the group so other members don't make the mistake of buying one. Good Luck and Thank You! ....Angel :angel2:

[dkode]

here is the two best pics i could get of the wrasse thingy, he's fluroescent blue and has a long snout:



on a side note, there seems to be some sort of fungus growing on my sailfin, its very light on the left side of his body and on the bottom part of his sailfin fin. i couldnt get a very good pic. pics below:

[dakar]

Though the pictures are kinda blurry, the wrasse looks pretty sharp, too bad his preferred diet could get rather expensive to maintain. Sounds like a good canidate for another tank if you are particularly fond of him, or a good critter to trade in for more snails/hermits....

Don't feel bad, getting good fish pics are generally a matter of pure luck, the best success we've had is to take pictures from farther away (so your shutter speed will be faster) and then cropping the fish out of the full image.

Difficult to tell anything about your sailfin, is this a new addition to your tank?

[dkode]

this was an up and running tank, i recently moved the tank to my house (this past saturday). the fish guy to just keep him under observation as he might just be stressed from the move.

I'm not perticularly fond of the wrasse, he hardly comes out from under the rocks, if i take him to the local shop will they usually trade for different types of fish?

[dakar]

this was an up and running tank, i recently moved the tank to my house (this past saturday). the fish guy to just keep him under observation as he might just be stressed from the move.

Very likely what we call 'shipping stress', tangs are easily stressed.

I'm not perticularly fond of the wrasse, he hardly comes out from under the rocks, if i take him to the local shop will they usually trade for different types of fish?

Most of the respectable LFS's will give you some sort of store credit or exchange for healthy animals... The larger chain type of shops generally tend not to do much of anything in the way of helping.

[dkode]

thank you for the help and pointers. greatly appreciated.

I actually saw a lovely yellow tang today at the shop that I was drueling over. I would like to see if he is willing to trade for the wrasse.

I hope soon enough I can gain enough knowledge to help others on this forum as everyone is very helpful on this site thus far!

sean

[unleashed]

i have a pair of bird wrasses in my reef and yes they periodicly beat the clean up crew to death(i find it costly but amusing none the less) if you feed them a good diet daily they will slow down on the beatings.the only thing i found they are realllyyyy bad with are clams... picked mine clean
so no more clams in that tank. i do feed my tank 3 times daily 2 times with pellets (spectrum thera +A ) then frozen prepared foods in the pm bird wrasses are carnivores and need meaty foods.and will eat smaller fish if hungry enough.along with your clean up crew..ps they also control fire and bristle worm populations

[unleashed]

here are pics of male and female bird wrasse ..male being the green/blue female red/brown