Largest aquarium wrasse

[RoyalGramma001]

Hi everyone what is the largest aquarium trade available wrasse in the trade

[Tired]

Dragon wrasse get at least a foot long, IIRC, and so do coris wrasse. I don't know if anyone is selling humphead wrasse, but I've seen them bigger than my torso. 

[RoyalGramma001]

Is it legal to keep a hump head wrasse?

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

One of my LFS has a red breasted/banded maori wrasse, that's got to be nearly a foot long. They've had it for about a month or so. 

[Tired]

Humphead wrasse get well over 3 feet long, and are very solid. What kind of tank do you have that you plan to put a fish bigger than a human's torso in it? 

[RoyalGramma001]

Just dreaming but I was wondering if they are legal to keep

52 minutes ago, Tired said:

Humphead wrasse get well over 3 feet long, and are very solid. What kind of tank do you have that you plan to put a fish bigger than a human's torso in it? 

 

52 minutes ago, Tired said:

Humphead wrasse get well over 3 feet long, and are very solid. What kind of tank do you have that you plan to put a fish bigger than a human's torso in it? 

 

[mcarroll]

"Coris wrasse" is usually the Red Coris, aka Clown Coris, aka clown wrasse.  Up to 16" if properly kept.

[Tired]

I have absolutely no idea, but I wouldn't suggest getting one. They aren't really like most wrasses anyway, they're almost more like a grouper. Very solid. I learned about them because the Atlanta Aquarium has some in their whale shark tank. You can dive in said tank. I did, and a humphead wrasse decided to aggressively come up to my face. The divemaster had to shove it away with a camera- pretty sure it was trying to get my mask. I have a picture somewhere. 

 

Dragon wrasse are beautiful. If you want to dream, dream about them- they could go in a tank of a couple hundred gallons or so. Something a home aquarist could actually keep, potentially. As opposed to, well- here's a humphead wrasse pic from Google. They get bigger than I thought. 

[mcarroll]

Yeah, I've seen pics of them man-sized.  (You pic isn't showing for some reason...getting a placeholder.)

[mcarroll]

Humphead (aka "Napoleon") Wrasse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphead_wrasse

Says up to 2 meters/180 kg!!!  Whoa!   Could about EAT a man!

 

Rock Mover (aka "Dragon") Wrasse:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novaculichthys

Says up to 12".

 

Clown Coris (aka Twin Spot Wrasse, aka Humphead Wrasse):  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clown_coris

Actually says up to 48in. here....which sounds more in line with what I've read before.  I'd expect 16" to be a solid minimum adult size.  

(juvenile)

 

(adult)

[sublunary]

There's a listing on KP Aquatics for Puddingwife wrasse.  Had to google it because it's such a weird name - looks like they get up to 20" long.  

 

Now looking at the post above me: one of the facebook groups I'm in had someone post pictures of their new wrasse - which quickly caused a bunch of uproar once people realized it was a clown coris.  I don't know what county they are in, but apparently they do make it into peoples tanks sometimes.

[mcarroll]

11 hours ago, sublunary said:

quickly caused a bunch of uproar once people realized it was a clown coris.

That juvenile form is irresistible if you were to see it for sale.  The white background is very striking and it's NEVER shy.  It's not usually realized until later on that it becomes a giant – and completely changes color.

 

There's a lot more info generally available now, so I'd hope that mistake is a lot more rare these days.

 

(Off-topic...)

Still happens with the "Blue-finned Damselfish" though....I got one as a rescue out of that kind of mistaken identity situation.  "Blue fin" is straight-up misleading for a name though....would be like naming that Clown wrasse a "White Speckled Wrasse".   

 

The proper NON-misleading name is the Black Damsel.  (Looking at YOU retailers and wholesalers!!) 

 

It changes from this as a juvenile...

 

to this as an adult...

 

Mine is still about 4" and mostly still has the juvenile look.  My hope is that he grows up (6-8" max.) to become the soft coral-eater that he's reputed to be and that he goes on to wipe out all the mushrooms in my tank.  (I've never been able to succeed.)  He's my only hope vs them.  LOL

[Snow_Phoenix]

My LFS sold a 1' long Napoleon wrasse once. Not sure who the buyer was, but the price must have been pretty high. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

--Removed--

[RoyalGramma001]

Just now, Snow_Phoenix said:

Here, @mcarroll - you might need a FB account to see this (hopefully you don't need to, and the link can be copy-pasted here directly), but this was the fish my LFS sold last year:

 

 

That's definitely a Napoleon wrasse how would someone have a tank big enough for one they get huge?

[Snow_Phoenix]

7 minutes ago, RoyalGramma001 said:

That's definitely a Napoleon wrasse how would someone have a tank big enough for one they get huge?

Some people keep shark/ray ponds here. Or extremely large tanks with enough room - I've seen a few videos of local reefers with such set ups. (They're all usually very rich though)

[RoyalGramma001]

I thought it wasn't legal to keep them?

[Tired]

I don't see any reason why it would be illegal, they aren't endangered. The problem is that you'd need a tank the size of a room. And, again, it's not very much like a wrasse anyway. I assume you want the slimmer kind that swoops and bobs around all nicely? Napoleon wrasse don't swim like that when they get big.

[RoyalGramma001]

31 minutes ago, Tired said:

I don't see any reason why it would be illegal, they aren't endangered. The problem is that you'd need a tank the size of a room. And, again, it's not very much like a wrasse anyway. I assume you want the slimmer kind that swoops and bobs around all nicely? Napoleon wrasse don't swim like that when they get big.

I've always been fascinated with Napoleon wrasse I know they act more similarly to groupers I was just wondering because they are listed under endangered on the icun red list

[Tired]

Ah, my bad, I was thinking of something else. It would probably depend on your area's guidelines about owning endangered species, and whether someone can legally import them to your area. Though I'm inclined to say, if it's endangered, maybe you shouldn't have one. 

[RoyalGramma001]

Yeah I was interested since they are such cool fish.

45 minutes ago, Tired said:

Ah, my bad, I was thinking of something else. It would probably depend on your area's guidelines about owning endangered species, and whether someone can legally import them to your area. Though I'm inclined to say, if it's endangered, maybe you shouldn't have one.