Wrasse Only Tank Help

[jcrow]

I have an Oceanic 110 Reef ready tank w/ Oak Reef ready Stand and Canopy an Oceanic 150 Trickle Filter.
I have been out of keeping marine fish and reef for about 4-5 yrs. I am thinking of starting back up with small 29 gal reef (Kaelini Rock) and 110 fish only (Wrasse) system.

I am planning on building a Wrasse only tank, need advise on the Aqua-scape to build sand or crush coral bottom, Rock (base rock) or decorative coral (blue ridge, branch, ect.). Care and feeding (how to make/ breed home made food) reed that they eat feeder shrimp, mysis, mollusks, crabs, bristle worms, ect. Suggestions on compatibility of Wrasse (listed below), and what other fish, shrimp (coral banned, cleaner) to add, and best place to buy. Last any ones experience with this type of set-up good and bad, and pictures please.

Below is list of Wrasse I am planning to buy small to medium / juvenile-

Banded Possum (Wetmorella sp.), Carpenter’s Flasher (Paracheilinus carpenteri), Conde’s Fairy (cirrhilabrus condel), Dragon (novaculichthys taeniourus), Filamented Flasher (paracheilinus filamentous), Flame (cirrhilabrus jordani), Harlequin Tusk (lienerdella fasciata), Leopard (macropharyngodon meleagris), Lightning (halichoeres cyanocephalus), Picta (coris picta), Pink Margin (cirrhilabrus rubrimarginatus), Red Head Solon Fairy (cirrhilabrus solorensis), Scott’s Velvet (cirrhilabrus scottorum), Twin Spot (coris aygula), Velvet Multicolor (cirrhilabrus lutovittatatus)

If unable to help please advise of site I can visit for help

Thank you

My Wrasse Only Tank

[Ninong]

The wrasses are an extremely large family and you are considering some with different feeding habits. All of the flasher wrasses and fairy wrasses are planktivores (which makes them reef-safe) but the Harlequin Tusk and the Coris wrasses will munch on crustaceans and molluscs.

Have you considered limiting yourself to a more narrow selection, such as just flashers and fairies, to keep the feeding habits and sizes similar?

As far as the substrate is concerned, I would favor a sand bed for a tank with wrasses. As far as food is concerned, you can make your own or buy commercial foods. For the planktivores you would want to go with lots of enriched brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, bloodworms, finely chopped fresh seafood (shrimp, squid, clams, etc.) and perhaps some high quality flake. For the others, pretty much the same thing except larger size particles.

I don't know what will happen as far as the interaction in a 110-gal tank between so many different species of wrasses. You might want to see if you can find someone with exerience doing that. Some of the more aggressive species may cause problems and even some of the more docile species might present a problem if you have more than one supermale of similar species. Yes, you can keep several species of flasher wrasses and fairy wrasses in a tank if it is large enough but I just don't know how things will work out in a 110-gal tank. Maybe you should start out slow and see how it goes?

As far as rock structure is concerned, it should be open enough to provide lots of hiding places and sleeping places. Some wrasses sleep at the interface of the rocks with the sand bed and some sleep wedged in the rock structure above the sand bed. And I suppose you already know that you will have to enclose the top of the tank to prevent jumping by the flashers and fairies.

Good luck,