Ninong's Wrasses

[almostdiva]

I may post a separate thread with new pictures to discuss my three fairy wrasses -- two Cirrhilabrus scottorum and one C. lineatus. There have been some very interesting developments there that contradict the conventional wisdom.

Ninong -- what is up with the wrasses??? it's been since OCTOBER and "enquiring minds want to know"

PLEEZ -- got pics?? They are such good looking critters!

[Ninong]

Ninong -- what is up with the wrasses??? it's been since OCTOBER and "enquiring minds want to know"

PLEEZ -- got pics?? They are such good looking critters!

Rebecca,

I haven't tried to take any pictures yet with my sister's newest camera. It's a bit late now to document what I was hinting at. My newer Scott's (the replacement supermale) died from complications from an apparent lymphocyst on his lower jaw.

What I wanted to take pictures of was the two Scott's fairy wrasses canoodling together on the sand bed in front of the cave that the original one uses to sleep in at night. They would often just lie there together on the sand bed resting in front of the entrance to that little cave on the far left side of the rock structure. The original one would rest there frequently during the day but what was new was the fact that the newer one had joined in.

As a refresher: I received a pair of Australian variant Cirrhilabrus scottorum in December 2003. The female survived but the supermale did not survive the stress of shipping. He was dead within hours after being added to the tank. I discussed this with the vendor (The Marine Center, Dallas) and they promised to send me a free replacement for the dead supermale from their next shipment.

It took about a month for them to get in a new shipment of these fish from Australia. After extensive research on Reef Central, I decided to order a pair of C. lineatus to be shipped with the replacement C. scottorum. My research was limited to reading reports from three or four other hobbyists who said they were keeping more than one species of the genus Cirrhilabrus in the same tank. Some were keeping four or five different species. Most had tanks larger than mine but a couple of them had tanks about the same size as mine.

I decided to take a chance that I could keep a pair of C. scottorum and a pair of C. lineatus in a 120-gal tank. That was a VERY big mistake!

It was exactly five weeks from the day that the female Scott's was placed in my tank until the day that I received the replacement for the supermale plus a pair of Lineatus. I acclimated all three of the new fish for several hours and introduced them to the tank very late at night after the lights had been off for at least two hours.

The new female Lineatus was placed in the tank first. An hour later I added the supermale Lineatus. And about an hour after that I added the new supermale Scott's. The following morning, five minutes after the lights came on, all hell broke loose. The "female" Scott's chased the new supermale Scott's non-stop for a good two minutes constantly biting him on the top of his head near the base of his dorsal fin. Finally he wedged himself into a crevice in the rock structure for safety.

Sometime after that episode, the supermale Lineatus made his presence known and the "female" Scott's took after him. This chase lasted no more than 20 seconds before the supermale Lineatus disappeared somewhere in the rock structure at the left rear of the tank. He was never seen again.

The "female" Scott's continued to attack the new supermale Scott's at every opportunity. During the next night he moved into a new cave at the right front side of the tank where he remained for a full 10 days. He did not eat for at least 7 days. The "female" kept him pinned down and refused to allow him to leave the cave.

On the morning of the tenth day, I happened to look over at the tank around 10 a.m. and I noticed that both Scott's fairy wrasses were now swimming around in the tank. The "female" had allowed the new supermale to leave his cave and "she" even allowed him to feed when I fed the tank. His dorsal fin had been chewed off all the way down to about 1/4" from the base. There was practically no dorsal fin left. It did grow back in full over the next few months. And it came back with the original supermale coloration. The "female" had actually chewed off every bit of the navy blue supermale coloration from the dorsal fin of the newcomer. Sort of a ritual castration.

During this period, the female Lineatus was swimming around the tank from the very first day because she was faster than the "female" Scott's.

During the next nine or ten months the three wrasses coexisted but the "female" Scott's, who had changed to a supermale, was obviously the dominant wrasse in the tank. During the five weeks that she was in the tank without the controlling influence of a dominant male, she had changed sex from female to male. She had started to change from typical female coloration to male coloration about three weeks after she was placed in the tank. That was about two weeks before the new wrasses arrived. During the next three months or so she completed the transformation in coloration but it was very obvious that she was already a male when the new fish were added.

The break in the usual behavior took place after about ten months. Up until that time, the previous female (now dominant male) chased the new male whenever "she" felt like it but the chases were no longer violent. They were more ritualistic than anything. Then all of a sudden I started to see brand new behavior. The two Scott's wrasses were engaging in carouselling. That's when they swim in tight circles nose to tail. This was not aggressive behavior. It was more like courtship behavior. They now took turns "chasing" each other around the tank in what could be likened to the O.J. freeway chase. It's was a very slow motion chase. They would reverse which one was in the lead from time to time. There was no aggression at all. Then I noticed that they were resting next to each other on the sand bed with their bodies touching. All of a sudden they were very lovey dovey.

That's about as far as I can take it. I can't explain it. I can only describe what I saw. I have been told by several people that a terminal phase male fairy wrasse cannot change sex back to female. (There was one exception to that: The vendor told me that male fairy wrasses can and do revert to female under the influence of a more dominant male.) I am 100% certain that the new wrasse was a supermale. I am 99% certain that the original wrasse had completed the sex change from female to male. "Her" coloration had changed gradually from typical Australian variant adult female coloration (bright yellow dorsal fin) to typical Australian variant adult supermale coloration (navy blue dorsal fin). BTW, I emailed pics of both Scott's fairy wrasses to Rudie Kuiter in Australia and he said that they both appeared to be supermales to him.

I'm not sure what happened to my new supermale Scott's. He developed a dark growth under his lower jaw that grew to some 3/8" in width and height over a period of three or four weeks. During the last two days that I saw him swimming around the tank, his gills were puffed out and he appeared in distress and had stopped eating. I didn't see him again after that. There were no visible ectoparasites and no other medical problem that I could see other than what was probably lymphocystis.

The tank now has two fairy wrasses, a supermale Cirrhilabrus scottorum and a C. lineatus that wants to be a male. The Lineatus avoids the Scott's. The Scott's tolerates the Lineatus. They are definitely not pals. It is very difficult to distinguish a female Lineatus from a male because both are brilliantly colored. The surviving Lineatus was definitely a female when I first got her some 14 months ago but I can't tell you if she's still a female or not. Maybe.

[almostdiva]

Ninong,

Very sorry to hear about the loss of your supermale Scott's.

It SOUNDS like your "male" changed back into a female...

Not going to try to push you luck again with another linneatus eh? I wouldn't either.

(do post some pic though, when you get a chance!)

[Ninong]

It SOUNDS like your "male" changed back into a female...

I don't know. And even if I were to assume that that is what happened, I can't tell you which one changed. Both retained typical supermale coloration.

Not going to try to push you luck again with another linneatus eh? I wouldn't either.

I'm not going to add another fairy wrasse to my little 120-gal tank, that's for sure. Right now I have one Scott's and one Lineatus and they tolerate each other.