Wrasse questions. Lighting questions.

[ruab]

I am considering a group of fairy wrasses for my new 185G reef. The most likely candidates are Scott's fairy wrasses (C. scottorum) or Solar fairy wrasses (C. solorensis). I have a few questions about these two fish.

First, I know they are jumpers, what I am wondering, is how much clearance they can get. I have an open top canopy, but the top opening is about 11" above the water line. All four sides of the canopy are closed, although one has two fans which I will need to put grills on. Is this sufficiently high that they would be OK, or should I still cover the top of the tank?

Second, assuming I am going to be trying to keep a group of these wrasses (all from one species, not a mix), do I need to make sure I get 1 male and many females? I have seen area LFS keep many male Solar fairies in a single tank, but wasnt sure if that would induce fighting.

As for a lighting question - I have a Hamilton lighting fixture which is 3x250W MH (10k), and 2x 96W Actinic. The fixture came with EXTREMELY loud fans on it, which rendered it pretty much unusable. I have since replaced the 2 fans that came with it with much quieter fans (2 in the light, and 2 outside of it blowing against the side and below the light). The rated CFM of the original fans was 100 CFM, the new fans are at 91 CFM). The light still gets quite warm. Is this considered normal? On the heat exhaust end of the light, the metal is hot to the touch. I can place my hand on it, but it must be removed after a few seconds. Should I be concerned about this, or is this just part of running halides? On the air intake side of the lights, the metal is still room temperature to the touch.

Also, the bulbs are currently about 8 inches above the water line (about 7 inches above the metal and glass center brace - bottom of the light is about 3 inches from the brace). I was considering raising them about another 2 inches. Is this too high? Too low? Just right?

Thanks again for all the help... The folks at reefs.org have proven to be an invaluable resource.

--Jason

 

[Len]

11" is a good height but they can clear it if they are really jetting. I've seen wrasses hit reflector which were a good foot away. But most of the time, they only skip a little out of the water. Scotts are excellent jumpers, better then Solerensis. If you can seal the canopy like I do, it's the safest approach.

For multiple specimens of the same species, get one male and multiple (or one) female. If healthy, two males will fight. I know this from many years of experimenting That said, they do tend to settle down and become accustomed to one another over the course of a several months. However, there is a very real possibility the stronger male will cause serious damage to the lesser male. I've had this happen two times (where the lesser male is seriously harmed or stressed until he dies).

Yes, it's normal for your halide fixture to get that hot. Halides are simply ghastly hot things. No concern at all ... the fixture is designed to withstand this type of heat.

8" is the minimum I would use for halides for most reflectors. 10-12" is more ideal. This, again, depends on the reflector design, but 10" is safe. I'd raise it the 2" you were planning on.

 

[ruab]

Thanks for your help Len. After spending some time looking around and reading alot, I am wavering a bit on doing the harem of one species of wrasses idea. Instead, I was considering doing a variety of different fairy/flasher wrasses.

My question is, if I stick with no more than one male per species, will they get along acceptably well, or is keeping a variety of species going to incite fighting, and add stress to the fish? I have seen tanks set up with multiple species of wrasses in it, but I wanted to make sure that was considered an acceptable practice. I had not really picked the specific species I had planned on included yet, are there specific types that work out better or worse than others for a group tank? As I said above, this is a 185G (60Lx30Wx24D).

Thanks,
Jason

 

[Anonymous]

Sure, you can have multiple males of different species in a 185. I currently have two males of different species, Cirrhilabrus solorensis and Cirrhilabrus rubripinnis in my 60 gallon. I have seen much larger groupings of various fairy wrasses in larger tanks.

Curiously, my Cirrhilabrus rubripinnis is often picked on by the midas blenny, but I have seen no aggression between the two Cirrhilabrus.

If you wanted to have both fairies and flashers, I would add the flashers first, and then them get comfortable, before adding the fairies. Flashers are more sensitive and even more docile that the fairy wrasse, in my experience at least.