Redheaded Fairy Wrasse (Cirrhilabrus solorensis)

Redheaded Fairy Wrasse

Redheaded Fairy Wrasse

Cirrhilabrus solorensis

Difficulty

Moderate

Min. Tank Size

208 Litres (55 US G.)

Size

11.4-12.7cm (4.5-5 ")

sg

1.020 - 1.025

pH

8.1 - 8.4

Temp.

25 -28 °C (77-82.4°F)

Water Hardness

8-12 °d

Stocking Ratio

1:1 M:F

Availability

Uncommon

Diet

Omnivore
Pellet Foods
Flake Foods
Live Foods
Other (See article)

Life Span

5-12 years

Habitat

West Central Pacific

Family

Labridae

Additional names

Red Head Solon Fairy Wrasse, Tricolor Fairy Wrasse, Redheaded Fairy Wrasse, Red-eyed Fairy Wrasse, Blueside Wrasse

Sexing

Mature males will be most vibrant in colour and usually show a dark shading or band along the end of the gill cover.

Diet

The most important consideration is the food you should feed the fairy wrasses. Generally, fairy wrasses will eventually learn to accept most any food offered even though they are zooplanktivores. Initially when Cirrhilabrus spp. livestock are obtained they can be choosy eaters and should be installed into a quarantine tank along with lots of well fed live tanaids. Enriched mosquito larvae or live brine shrimp can be used as the first food offered to the initiates, as well as Mysis or other live plankton. This installation of your livestock into quarantine is your chance, while they are in a small space and still very hungry, to teach them to eat amphipods.

Live amphipods are one of the easiest to get a high quality larval food preparations and yeast based feeds into any of your livestock, though both fish and amphipods may be adult specimens. Larval feeds are very fattening and that’s just what’s needed by newly transferred livestock. Also, amphipods eat benthic morphs of micro-algae as they are omnivorous detritivores and are great scavenger for the marine and reef aquarium. Benthic species of algae can be cultured in treated tap water using f/2 with the Melodina II culture medium modification in a controlled environment, thus preventing the transfer of harmful ciliates and at the same time making the alga very nutritious and cheaply loading the food chain with highly beneficial colloidal minerals. To my knowledge, amphipods don’t do much in the way of positive trophic modification within the food chain as harpacticoid copepods do, but amphipods can eat a large amount of feed in a short amount of time and are easily transferred from their place of culture to area of your livestock; the process is called “gut packing” of food animals. Zooplanktivores the size of dragonets and fairy wrasse have a natural fear of eating anything the size of the even the smallest adult amphipod. So Cirrhilabrus spp. must be trained to recognize amphipods as food, go after and attack them for food.

Usually, a healthy specimen of any Cirrhilabrus sp. will consume any commercial foods within a week or two of arriving into your aquarium, but tanaids and harpacticoid copepods are a natural food source, will be consumed instantly. These food animals can remain the staple of their diet, but they will eventually accept any of the other various frozen, freeze-dried, flaked, live or pelletized foods on the market. Once installed into the aquarium prime, your fairy wrasse will supplement its diet by eating the fauna from off the aquarium walls and on live rock. Use caution when mixing this Cirrhilabrus spp. with other predators of benthic food animals as in any aquaria since they will compete with each other for food animals and quickly decimate the supply. None the less, if you’re going to do that, it’s probably best to culture amphipods.

Identification

A striking and attractive fish who's colours may change depending on mood. Males in breeding condition are the most vibrant. It's body is predominantly blue with bright red running along the spine and the face is vibrant yellow-orange while the belly is a paler yellow.

External links

• Fishbase (Mirrors:
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• Live Aquaria