Six-line wrasse savaged my mandarin!

[mikerobart]

I did not expect this! I have read that the only fish to bother a mandarin is another mandarin, usually one of the same sex. Well, I have a pretty fat healthy mandarin... plenty of pods... I started seeing some hair algae so I have been cutting back feeding. My theory is that the wrasse (who is also plenty fat) noticed the mandarin also eating the pods that he likes for himself... and got pissed off.

The attack was savage... he would not leave the mandarin also.. attacking to the gills for even 30 seconds at a time... I finally managed to net the mandarin and he is *hopefully* recovering in the fuge ... I imagine he will be happy in there with the massive number of pods... but might decimate the population a bit.

Has anyone ever seen wrasses go after mandarins like this? I might be able to get him in my empty 29 which has tonnes of pods (has been fish free for some time) but don't know if this is viable long term... I wish the two could get along in my 90g display... the wrasse has ignored the mandarin for all of about 3 weeks and just decided to attack yesterday. Hopefully the mandarin recovers.

[kole18]

six line wrasse so brutal killed my royal gramma, yup everybody say this fish is very peaceful. yah right!  its good for pest in your tank or those flat worms. but its really mean fish , i would not recomend this fish if you have royal gramma or mandarine they don't like each other.

[mikerobart]

Well it leaves my gramma alone ... so far! What an evil fish... his little red eyes make me think he is the devil in fish form now... I don't like him anymore.

Unfortunately no way I am catching him unless I either take all the rock out or maybe I'd get lucky with a fish trap!

[Hookup]

I agree 6line is not peaceful..... HOWEVER, I've heard that if you add the 6line LAST, he is acceptable... but how do you add a LAST fish?

[Vincenzo.]

get a 4 or 8 lined. Much more peaceful, same effects as 6line

[Hookup]

get a 4 or 8 lined. Much more peaceful, same effects as 6line

I just got a 4 line yesterday..   for that exact reason.

[Vincenzo.]

i love the way the 6,4,8line move, they are awesome swimmers. and i like how they eat annoying crap in the tank. but i dont like that they chow down on the 'good' stuff. if you have a big tank its not a prob. but for smaller tank i would not advise. it's a 25g tank min i would say. they love to swim. even a 30g min..

[mikerobart]

Well the 6 line seemed happy in my 29, and he is absolutely loving the 90, he cruises so fast it's amazing he doesn't bump into rock as he fires in and out of tiny holes... he had never been a problem until now!

[QueensU]

I have a 6 line in my 36gal. He seems to have lots of room to swim. I just added two peppermint shrimp yesterday, to which he took an interest. He has never bothered my cleaner shrimp before.. but he will peck the peppermints every once in a while.

[bongo]

I gather from the above response that some of us have had no problem with their six line wrasse... just by curiosity how long did you guys have your six line wrasses?

[mikerobart]

I had mine for maybe 8 months in a 29 gallon, not a problem with anything at all (cleaner shrimp,  other fish, inverts etc etc.) ... about 2 months in 90g ..

[QueensU]

I've had mine for a couple months, never had a problem with him at all until the peppermints. I have two lg cleaner shrimp, and he has never bothered them at all.