Thinking 3 stripe's were a bad idea.

steveo9043

steveo9043

New member
So I put two lubbocks wrasses in my tank yesterday. Both were doing fine. The female however went into hiding and haven't seen her since.

The male was out but being shy. About 2 hours ago I saw one of the 3 stripe damsels chasing the male. Saw him dart into the rock work and haven't seen him since.

Moon lights on now I guess I will see what happens in the morning. Not seeing the female in over 24 hours is concerning me.

Any advice or opinions?
 
Way back in the day I had a couple of three stripes. They immediately started beating on my clown trigger when I first added him. About a week later I think the trigger figured out that he is a couple levels up the food chain from them. They literally disappeared overnight! If I were you I would get rid of them. I can't recall which of the damsels has a nice personality, but three stripe and dominos are not very nice and if you want other fish they will become extremely dominant. I've even read that they attack scuba divers! Lol!
 
Lovely! I hope I didn't just lose $50 of fish from 2 $10 fish. Only reason they are in the tank is because my mom wanted them.

Is there an easier way to catch them besides a net?
 
See if a fellow reefer can lend you a fish trap, I know a few reefers have had good luck in catching fish with traps. Good Luck!
 
What seems to work for me is to have two nets and use one to kind of chase it into the other. Or another method is to use something clear, like what they use at the pet shops to place the fish in after they catch them. I believe the correct term is specimen container. Third option is to use a large fish bag, open it wide and use the net to push the fish into the bag.

I think the most genius thing I've seen is some guy created a trap that was made out of egg crate. It was the exact width and height of his tank and he cut a small door into the egg crate. The small door was fastened on one end by fishing line or something like that. He tied the free swinging end of the door to another piece of fishing line. He threw some food into the trap, cracked a beer, and waited until the fish swam in and pulled on the line to close the door.

Hopefully that made sense lol! I wish I had a link for you because I though it was brilliant!

Good luck Steve!
 
I'll see what happens the next couple days. If I don't see either of them by Monday I'm going to assume they are both goners.

Moms suggesting I just don't add anything else to the tank. She really likes the 3 stripes and she has taken a bigger interest into the tank then I thought.

Side note: still on topic of 3 stripes, I'm watching one of them go to the bottom of the tank and then flaps its tail really quick throwing up sand. Never seen that before. Any ideas? Just playing?
 
I like that idea!

The male wrasse is out but getting chased again.

If I took Rock and sand and some water out of my tank and put it in my biocube I have sitting around. Would it be safe to put fish in right away? Or would it still cycle?
 
Well I think I just confirmed the female wrasse being dead. Looked into a cave and saw a small ball of small bristle worms. I'm all itchy now lol.

The male is slowly venturing out further. Whenever a 3 stripe chases it or comes near it, my chromis or clowns go between the two. Pretty interesting to watch.
 
yeah, those damsels are all so enticing, but such a bad idea...lol the blues and yellow tails are bad, but the domino and 3 stripes are worse, they will take the tank as their territory and attack all fish and even the owner once they get big enough!
 
I don't think the wrasse is taking the crap from the 3 stripes anymore. Just walked in and saw him swimming around the tank and the 3 stripes getting out of his way.
 
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