Wrasse still hidding after 2 weeks

I have a beautiful solorensis fairy wrasse about 4-4.5 inches long. It seems to only hide. it only has 1 other tank mate a very small maybe 1 inch ocellerus clown. he eats twice a day and is a very active eater, but seems very shy. It is the only time I get to see the fish. after he eat he generally goes back to hiding in his cave.

I thought solor fairy wrasses are suppose to be active swimmers? am I mistaken. I don't want to add any more fish until he his comfortable.

please advise.

thanks,
Joe

 

It may take a while. So long as he's coming out to eat, I wouldn't be overly worried just yet.

How large is this tank?

 

I have a 55g

 

Alright, two thoughts came to mind, but the size of the tank was important for one of them to be the more likely situation:

1) Your clown is bullying the wrasse, keeping him in hiding (more likely if the tank is smallish)
2) Your wrasse feels vulnerable when it comes out, as there's no other fish for a passing by predator (think wild reef here). This situation is pretty likely in a larger tank.

I'm guessing it's more of case #2, but I can't for certain say case #1 isn't possible. Have you seen any aggression between the two fish? If no, then I'd say this is one of those situations were adding another fish or two will actually help your situation. Anything that's a peaceful, open-water swimmer should work.

 

the clown seems to completely ignore the wrasse and is generally near the top of the tank usually on complete other side of the tank. they seam to ignore each other.

I was thinking there might not be enough hiding spots for the wrasse. the cave he choose is probably the only true cave in the tank with rocks on 3 sides. I think I might re-scape the tank and see if that helps.

If that doesn't help then I will add some open water swimmers a pair of fire fish good? Do you have any suggestions?

I am willing to wait a few weeks if needed. I'm in no rush.
thanks for the help

 

Evolved is the expert on wrasse, but I would say from my experience fish take a couple weeks to learn a new environment and become comfertable.

 

I figured as much. I just see if I could do anything to make him feel more comfortable. he is just such a cool fish I feel bad that he seems to hide in a cave all day and seems like such a beautiful swimmer when I feed him.


also a atm I am only feeding him frozen miso shrimp. He seems not to care for the flake I feed. should I feed anything else?


Thank you for your reply

 

My wrasse and tangs (3 of each) take more and more different foods every single day.

 

In that case, I'd suspect the wrasse is too scared to come out. He'd be an easy target for anything that'd pass by... In time, he'll most likely learn he's in a protected environment without any threats, but right now he's in an empty ocean, in his mind.

More hiding places might help, but really shouldn't be necessary once he's settled in. Wrasses will be out and about 98% of the time in a closed system if anything is going as it should.

Fire fish would be fine.

Mysis is a good choice. You could try pellets as opposed to flake, if you want to ofter a non-frozen food. I imagine flakes will be fine once your fish has fully settled in.

 

thank you for all the great reply's you are truly knowledgeable. I did a quick re-scape he can out from hiding for like 30 seconds to check everything out and went to a new cave. he seems to me moving between caves atm.

I will get some fire fish and see what he does.

Thanks again,
Joe