Potters Wrasse - Need some closure

B

BrianG

I have attempted to keep a Potter's Wrasse twice now. I have failed, twice now. I was literally choked up this morning when I found him dead. Especially because I know it will be harder to secure them in the near future due to Hawaii's legislation. (If I am understanding it correctly) Does anyone keep a Potter's Wrasse? Any tips? Any info at all? I have a very healthy aquarium and I do 20% water changes every 9 days. I have been really staying on top of my aquarium lately. Please help me out. Thanks!
 
It was eating at the fish store. It lasted overnight. It was in a 55 gallon. The tank mates were a pair of 3" true percs, a 7" solare wrasse, a 2" sixline wrasse, and a 1" orange/purple damsel. Water paramaters are perfect. Temperture 77 degrees.
 
How did you acclimate it? It might be getting bullied by the other fish especially the wrasses. I know potter wrasses are very shy non-aggressive fish.
 
I put the bag in the tank let it float till the temp was the same, then I used an air line to drip acclimate 1 drop every two seconds for about two hours. Water was exactly the same when I introduced the fish.
 
if he died from being picked on, i would suspect the 6 line. they are VERY aggressive. i took mine out when i wanted to add another wrasse and currently have a 4 line instead. also, these fish are very active and need a good food source, PE mysis with selcon will help get them fattened up when newly introduced, as long as he is eating already of course.
 
+1 on the sixline, ours is very nasty to any new Wrasse that is added. I would give him away free to whoever can catch him, but we have a lot of rocks and that is where he spends most of his time even when the tank is being feed.

We added a Hawaiian Flame Wrasse last winter and he went after relentlessly for days until one day the Flame pushed back and everything has been fine since then. In other words they now get along.
 
I forgot to add that I find it funny how a fish knows that he is not wanted and become very hard to catch....
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What i would do is Qt him, get him eating well, make sure he is fat and healthy, remove the 6 line, rearrange some rock, then introduce him
 
Did you happen to compare the bag water SG to your display's SG? A two hour drip acclimation is good, but if you are going over 0.002 of SG difference, in my experience, the fish could get stressed enough to kill it outright, or make it weak enough to be victim to bullying. All fish stores that I go to (not sure about online) keep their water at 1.020 or less (have seen SG as low as 1.017 at Neptune's Cove), and it would take much longer than two hours to acclimate from this.

In my opinion, the idea of QTing is important not so much to make sure the fish is disease free, but more so that you can acclimate the fish slowly over several days, leading to a healthier fish in the long run.
 
it would allow you to add the 6 line back and will help limit any aggression that might be caused by territorial nature. to the fish it looks like a new area, so no one has territory yet.
 
Holy crap batman! That makes sense!!! The fish I have in this tank right now were never happy together until I set up this tank and threw them all in at the same time.... Thanks!
 
it also helped you that you threw them in at the same time, i always make it a point to add fish in at least pairs, if not 3 at a time (smaller fish anyways).
 
btw, there is a potters wrasse on divers den at live aquaria right now. that would be a very good option to try as they take incredible care to make sure the fish are healthy. they are also guaranteed eating. you can read their process here, Kevin Kohen (director of la) spoke to our club about their facility and how they handle the animals before, and i must say i was impressed.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/ItemDisplay.cfm?c=2733+3&ddid=137578


stuff sells on there quick tho, they updated the fish at 5pm and i checked it at 504 and still missed the copperband (eating frozen brine btw).
 
there's a potter wrasse for sale at Petorama in mansfield.. They also have a bunch of different wrasses... Leopard wrasse, christmas wrasse, etc..
 
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