Hi all, i have been out of this hobby for a while, and i was wondering if all six line wrasses will attack motile inverts. Im asking this because i used to have a six line wrasse in my tank, and when i introduced a couple of peppermint shrimps, it immediately rushed over and attacked it, killing all of them. However, my lfs and the sources tell me that they are reef safe. so I was wondering, was i just unlucky with an overly aggressive wrasse? any help will be appreciated. I would love to keep one of these beautiful fish in my home safely with inverts.
six line wrasses really reef safe? or with caution?
- Thread starter fish guru
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It isn't incredibly common, but not unheard of, either. I think yours was just a bad individual (mine was).
Catpicklesdog
Hindsight is a wonderful thing!
I never had a problem with mine being reef safe - it never touched my corals. However it wasn't fish safe - it kept beating up my other fish and caused my dragonet to jump
(well I'm blaming him
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(well I'm blaming him)
The Pseudocheilinus hexataenia or sixline wrasse is a good reef wrasse with caution. Their adult size is ~2.9" and at their adult size they are known to eat ornamental shrimp. It is also common for them to bully more docile fish in the aquarium. While an attractive fish, it should be the last one you add to your system to minimize agression based on territoriality. If you have leopard wrasses or other peaceful wrasses like a fairy wrasse then I would not suggest a Sixline.
I've never had a problem with sixlines being not-reef-safe Kept one in each of a couple tanks and they never bothered anything, even as adults. Fish are individuals though and some are bound to break the rules. I had a flame angel that's supposedly reef-safe that wasn't.