Feeding a Banana Wrasse

[Nafe]

I got my first fish 2days ago.

Its a very healthy young Banana Wrasse.

Just wondering what you guys succesfully feed yours with. He definately isnt interested in any kind of Marine granule food, and spends most of his time hunting for live food in the tank.

Today im getting some frozen brine shrimp, are there any other foods they really take a liking too?

[manderson0805]

I think they'll eat any frozen, meaty foods. But I don't think they're reef-safe fish. Whenever I see a cool Wrasse, it always ends up being bad for a reef....guess it's a reason to set up a FOWLR

[Nafe]

The frozen brineshrimp was an instant success.

Im not 100 percent sure on the species it is. It was sold as a Banana Wrasse, and it closely resembles Halichoeres trispilus, which is sold under the name Four-Spot Wrasse or banana Wrasse. Except mine only has 3 spots and is completely yellow. Could be a subspecies but more probably hasnt attainted adult colouration yet.

Every source i have read rates them as very safe with invertebrates, and a great community fish. So far he hasnt gone anywhere near any of the corals in the tank, and is sticking to hunting small live food.

I know that many wrasse species can be problematic in a reef tank, but this one is fantastic so far.

[Awestralian]

Its a Banana Wrasse Nafe, we've got one too.

Ours eats almost everything, mainly flake food, but anything else we put in;- frozen brine, frozen 'blend', etc.

His 4th spot will probably develop in time.
Ours has never attacked corals, or any other fish.
Freaked us out the first night when he disapeared into the sand.... Still dont understand how wrasse survive all night in the sand...

[Nafe]

Yeah there sand diving is pretty interesting.

I had read lots about Wrasse doing it so i was ready for it to dissapear for a few days. But i was lucky that it felt at home straight away and appeared the very next day after getting it.

What other stock do you have awestralian? got any pics?

[Awestralian]

Hmmm, ill probably get blasted for 'overstocking' here but, in our main tank, which is about 110 litres, we have:
2 Preminus Clowns (Yellow banded)
2 baby blue tangs (i think our U.S. buddies call them Regal tangs?)
1 Lawnmower Blenny
1 High Fin blenny
1 Bananna Wrasse
1 Juv. Coris Wrasse
1 Cleaner Wrasse
1 baby chromis
1 baby yellow spotted boxfish
2 coral banded shrimp
1 blue linkia starfish
and a few snails.
There is a torch coral, a bubble tip anenome one of the clowns hosts in (the other is showing signs of getting in on the action now - we only just paired the clowns up) and a damaged cup coral that seems to be coming along well a ? ive forgoten the name... lol ive forgotten the name of the major coral in our tank..

Anyway ive borrowed a digital camera this weekend, so ill take some pics of all our tanks and put a thread up tomorrow.

Also we have a 30 litre nano, with 2 small Oscellaris Clowns and a bi colour blenny, and a leather coral and a hard coral.
Also i just set up a small cube to house the small mantis from the tank i set up at work. We've just added a very large electric blue damsel to that tank.
Also ive just last night set up a 40 litre cube thats about to cycle, it will be a seahorse/mandarin tank.
Plus we have fresh water tropical tanks, and gold fish in a 4 foot tank, also walking fish, and a mudskipper and crab tank.
Plus some breeding tanks...
We have about 11 or 12 tanks running at the moment i think...

[iamdickie]

Originally Posted by Nafe

The frozen brineshrimp was an instant success.

Im not 100 percent sure on the species it is. It was sold as a Banana Wrasse, and it closely resembles Halichoeres trispilus, which is sold under the name Four-Spot Wrasse or banana Wrasse. Except mine only has 3 spots and is completely yellow. Could be a subspecies but more probably hasnt attainted adult colouration yet.

Every source i have read rates them as very safe with invertebrates, and a great community fish. So far he hasnt gone anywhere near any of the corals in the tank, and is sticking to hunting small live food.

I know that many wrasse species can be problematic in a reef tank, but this one is fantastic so far.

not reefsafe

[Nafe]

Sorry dickie i will have to disagree with you there.

So far it has been a great communitiy fish, and hasnt harrased any of the corals, feather dusters and other creatures in the tank.

It is also perfectly behaved with my lawnmower blenny and Ornate goby.

I think though that it was probably unwise to purchase a wrasse as my first fish mainly because of the effect it has had on the pod population and bristle worm population in my tank.

Since introducing it i have barely seen any pods, worms etc which were quiet common during the cycle. Although the hitchhiker crabs could also be partly to blame for reduction of bristle worms, i saw one attacking a live bristle worm a few nights ago.

If you have an established tank, i would recommend Banana Wrasse highly. They are very friendly and bright fish.

[Phishnoob]

I hope they are a lot different than my bird wrasse. That is the meanest most aggressive fish I ever owned. He killed my big goby on the drop in and ate my clean up crew.

[Hi-Rise Reefer]

Yeah, Before I knew anything a long time ago, I saw a green bird wrasse zipping back and forth in a tank, thought he would be cool. Wrong! Any coolness factor he had was lost by his hyper-agressive nature...If you have a BIG reef, like multiple 100's of gallons, then MAYBE... Id be careful.

[Nafe]

Banana Wrasse are nothing like the larger wrasse species, they remain small and have a great nature.

Unfortunately it seems alot of people lump all wrasse into the "Aggresive territorial" group of marine fish, just like many write off all species of angels just because the majority have a tendency to pick on corals.

The fairy wrasse species are fantastic aquarium fish, dont discount them just because there larger brothers/sisters arent quiet as nice

[Awestralian]

Banana Wrasse are completely and totally reef safe.
We have had two and neither have ever harmed any corals, shrimp, cukes, snails, stars, etc, etc.