Ornate Wrasse

[edit] Overview

This much-loved species is ornately adorned with green tattoos on the red and white face, body and fins and readily acclimates to life in the home aquarium that has a sand bed where it can bury itself at night or when it feels threatened.

[edit] Feeding

Carnivore. Feed meaty foods, twice a day.

[edit] Aquarium Compatibility

This species is not overly aggressive toward other fishes, although large males may chase and bully similar wrasses or smaller fishes added to their homes. Keep only one male per tank. Females can be housed together or with a male. While they will not bother corals, larger individuals may attempt to eat ornamental crustaceans.

[edit] Breeding/Propagation

Egg scatterers that produce pelagic eggs, often in midwater mating rituals. Both eggs and larvae that drift with plankton in the water column and settle back onto a reef at about the time of metamorphosis. These are among the most challenging types of marine fishes to propagate in captivity.

[edit] Notes

This fish will move just over the substrate in search of food. When threatened and at night it will bury under the sand. It may leap from an open aquarium. When first added to the tank, it may take time to adjust to the captive day-night light regimen—they will often bury when it is night back on the reef where it was collected and come out when it would normally be light on its “home” reef. In time they acclimate to a captive day-night schedule.

Category: Species