Damn! Damn! Damn! HELP!!! Scott's Fairy Wrasse!

[Rin]

Here's the scoop, I get home today at 1815 hours. There's a message on my door.

"Fed Ex dropped your fish off with us. -Ted"

"Oh that's cool, petwarehouse sent the rest of my drygoods."

WRONG!

Ted shows me the package. "I think they're still alive." He says.

It's from FFExpress.

"What the hell...I didn't order any fish...OH SH<bleep>!"

They sent the Wrasses I inquired about last week. At the time they told me that they didn't have any females. I now have 2 females in the bags--acclimation has started.

Big question...both of them have slimed up really bad...what should I do to properly acclimate them? Keep in mind that they have been in bags for over 24 hours.

I also didn't expect to have these fish right yet, I am still researching their care. Now I need a crash course.

They're FEMALES...my future male is going to look so good next to these babes.

Somebody save my @ss and their lives, please.

[Neal359]

did you pay for them??? and has your tank cyceld if not i would go to a good lfs and give it to then

[Rin]

FFExpress does have my Credit Card on file, so I probably did pay for them. But I didn't put in the order.

The tank is a 75 gal Reef that's been established for 6 months now. It has a purple tang, a percula, and one serpent star. (Plus the usual cleanup crew--hermits, astreas, turbos, ceriths, etc.)

The purple tang will have to go back to the Q-Tank while the Wrasses get set up.

[fishguy_8]

well i dont know what i'd do if they were all slimed up as you say i dont know if there is anything you can do if it were me id just use the regular routine you have been doing....but.....then again i have no experience w/ the "slimey fish" however i went and did some searching for you and found a little info on the wrasses for you to read while you acclimate the fish
enjoy...... http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin...?threadid=6990
and then there is this thread about them i found pretty interesting how the male loses color in absence of a female... http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin...s+fairy+wrasse
i'll keep looking you can get started w/ those.
Jon

[fishguy_8]

here is another...... http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin...s+fairy+wrasse
i hope these links are good enough for you......one thing i can say w/ 100% certainty is check your books if you have any....i checked my fav. book "The Con. Marine Aquarist" by Robert Fenner and he did a good job of summing up the whole wrasse scene.....he hit feeding, behavior etc.....if you dont have this book i urge you to nab one real quick it'll be the best money you ever spend. i consult my book constantly in hopes of ID'ing critters, helping me decide whether something is a good purchase or not. etc......there are tons of other books to get if you do have some go check them out real quick and see what information you can get from them and if you have more specialized questions come back and ask them im sure one of the reef guru's like our buddie ninong will be more than happy to field it for you.
Jon
p.s. keep us posted on the progress of your wrasse's.

[Rin]

Thanks for the threads. I've been bouncing between the tank to add more water to the bags and then coming here to see if there is any more information.

I don't have that particular book. The ones I have only speak generally about Wrasses and nothing about Fairy Wrasses. I wasn't really expecting to get a Wrasse for another month. I was just seeing what was available when I called FFExpress. Thankfully, none of the other places I called have my CC number. I'd probably be overrun with a shoal of Wrasses right now.

[fishguy_8]

yea a slew of wrasses wouldn't be the best situation to be in would it..... let me know if you have any particular questions i will check my book and see if Fenner hits any of your questions i'm more than willing to help ya out just let me know.
Jon

[Rin]

I know that the Fairies sometimes create slime cacoons when at rest. Does Fenner make any mention of slime coats in his book?

[ranaman]

If I remember right wrasses of the genus Cirrhilabrus make slime cocoons to sleep in. So the slime might be the fish trying to go to sleep in the bag. So if the fish are alive I'd might try to acclimate them a little on the fast side if the bag water is funky.

[fishguy_8]

i dont see any refference to it.....i'd take yours and ranaman's memory's they sound to be equal to each other so.....i'd say you are safe.
Jon
anything else?

[Rin]

Acclimation is 5 minutes away from completion and I'm getting a little nervous. An hour ago, both of these fish were pretty but drab. Now that they've had a chance to suck down some good water their coloration is getting pretty bright. If I've got a pair of males, I'm going to be royally pissed off.

I checked the invoice, it says 2 females.

fingers are crossed.

[fishguy_8]

time is ticking away....let us know how you "fair"
Jon

[Ninong]

Rin ~

Vasubandu has a pair of C. scottorum that he acquired about two months ago from North Coast Marines and he said that his female was very beautifully colored. He posted pics of them on the board but Scott Z. has misplaced the archives. I am pretty sure I archived that thread because I hope to get a pair one of these days.;;

Anyway, here is a description of female coloration from Scott Michael: "Females are not as colorful as males, and are thus less often exported. Like the males, their color can vary somewhat from one area to the next, but they usually have an olive-green back with traces of blue and purple, and a yellowish-white area below the pectoral fins. They also have a bright blue area on top of the head, a red tail and yellowish-orange dorsal and anal fins. Juveniles are similar to the females, but they have a dark spot on the base of the tail fin and rows of pinkish white spots along the sides."

I believe all fairy wrasses form a mucus cocoon at night. By enveloping their bodies in slime they may prevent olfactory stimuli from reaching nocturnal predators hunting nearby.

They are very shy and will likely hide for the first few days. Also, be sure that they cannot jump out of the tank as they are very likely to do that during acclimation. It would help if you have a tiny night light above the tank. One of those little Christmas tree type 8w things would work.

According to Scott Michael "they will aggressively feed on most frozen foods, although live foods, such as brine shrimp and black worms, may aid in getting reluctant individuals to eat. They should be fed a varied diet that included finely chopped fresh seafoods, such as shrimp, clam and squid. Brine shrimp is not a good staple food for this wrasse, or any marine fish, for that matter."



Ninong

[Ninong]

Originally posted by Rin:

They're FEMALES...my future male is going to look so good next to these babes.

Oops! I didn't see that part the first time I read your thread.

When do you expect to add the male?;;

These fish are protogynous hermaphrodites and in the wild it only takes three to four weeks for a female to change to male in the absence of another male. Of course, they are haremic, so if you were to add a male soon enough he would inhibit any sex changing taking place among any females in the tank. However, if one of the females has already started to change sex, the newly introduced male will attack her.

You should probably add a male to the tank within the next two weeks to avoid any potential problems. Otherwise, you will have a pair of wrasses before you know it and introducing a new male will be a big mistake.

Ninong

[Rin]

Well, they're in. They went straight for the sand bed and buried themselves fully. I could see them swimming under the sand as they made their way under the largest rock.

I hope they don't make a habit of that.

I may have a female and a male. One of them fits Ninong's description of a female very well, while the other has more red and yellow with a very bright spot on its flank. They're both between 3 and 4 inches long.

Wish them luck.

Thanks for your help, everyone. I'm still a little burned up at FFExpress right now. I wasn't ready for this.

[Elmo18]

Maybe they kinda figured they were on sale. I think it is much more expensive if it wasn't for sale.

I agree, it's not like Flying Fish Express to do this to their customers. I'd give them a call and see what's up. I've ordered 4 times from them, everything alive and live rock in good condition.

I'd like to see pics if you can take some.

Regards,
Ilham

Good luck!!

[coralman]

yea i'd call i would have been pissed

[Rin]

Well, it's been 6 hours now...no floaters. I see the 'female'. She's hiding between two rocks...real tight space. Nobody's getting to her there. I'm not sure where the other one is. I've got the night light set up above the tank.

I'm not too worried about jumpers, the canopy covers the top. It would be my luck that one of them will find the overflow box and get stuck, though. That would be grim. I've got eggcrate set up across the top of the overflow box to keep the snails from getting into the standpipe. I'm going to have to redesign that.

Pictures will be forthcoming...as soon as the Wrasses come out from behind the rocks.

They are lightning fast. I didn't even get a good look when I put them in the water. The next few days will be tough--for all three of us.

I'm going to give FFExpress a call and submit a polite critique of this shipment. I'm happy that I'm able to have a couple of females. I just wish they would have called so I could be here to pick them up. If not for the neighbors coming back from their vacation today, those fish would have been screwed.

[Biomanjcs72]

This is a little late, but when we would get "misplaced" shipments in at the LFS I used to work in, we would just dump the fish in the tanks, our theory was it was better to be stressed about a sudden water quality change than to be sitting in your own pee for an hour longer. (These guys had been trans-shipped and had usually been in the bags for 36+ hours and some were already dead, so we were cutting losses).
Hope everything works out OK, wrasses are generally fairly hardy, so they'll probably be fine once they get used to the tank.

[Rin]

Day 1: Well, the purple tang is being his usual brutal self. The Wrasses won't come out as long as he's prowling the tank. I practically disassembled the reef just to net him out. Actually, he made a wrong turn trying to flee the net and I nabbed him with my left hand.

Almost as soon as PT was out. The two Wrasses came out of hiding. Whew, those are some pretty fish--especially the male. And I'm sure he's a male. He's much more colorful than the female. And when they get close to one another, he flares his fins and struts in front of her--a great show of dominance. His spot really stands out. (Ladies, take notes. ;) ) She keeps her fins down and bows her back somewhat. She's not really interested in him and stays in the shadow. The female is about 3" the male is almost 4".

Once peace dominated the tank and they showed a little interest in coming out, I tried feeding them a little krill/shrimp/brine shrimp mixture. They like the brine shrimp (naturally) but didn't pay much attention to the rest--much to the delight of the cleaner shrimp.

They're still a little too shy to get a good camera shot.

I called FFExpress today to express my disappointment in the shipping fiasco. The person I spoke to (Don) was contrite and showed his concern over the fish. Were they OK...how do they look...do I have any questions about them. He also said to give him a call back if I started to have any problems with the fish. He apologized on behalf of FFExpress and offered a modest discount on my next purchase. Don was very professional. I will continue to conduct my business there. FFExpress is a class act.

I'm psyched.