Halichoeres hortulanus

[Jacob D]

Anyone keep this wrasse? I realize they get fairly large I'm wondering if anyone has experience with them in a reef and if so have they caused any problems?



The other thing I'm curious about is the color variation I've seen. Is this a juv/adult change, male/female, variations by locale? Live Aquaria states that they become silver and black as adults.


Philippines



PNG



Indian Ocean



Indonesia



Fiji (possibly)

[skibum9884]

Sign me up for a Papua New Guinea specimen if it's a geographical difference in color.

I bet that happens to be a terminal male, however.

[SDguy]

Yeah, commonly sold around here as checkerboard wrasse, white and yellow coloring. I had no idea they can get so pretty!

[Jacob D]

The fish in the PNG shot and the Indonesia shot are both striking. I figured the same, probably terminal males. I would take either in a heartbeat... depending on their demeanor at that size. They would probably be close to a foot long ($5 footlong! yeah! probably not )

[curlykid]

i believe this to be just like any other haleo wrasse, eats snails, shrimp, etc. and still eats all the bad pests. I want that New Guinea, you know where they supply them?

[tcmfish]

I prefer the whiter variations. This has always been one of my favorite wrasses. I prefer the whiter ones because so many similar wrasses are green, pink, and blue, but not many have that white and black pattern. Very cool fish. I'd be leery of shrimp in a reef with it, but I doubt corals would be on the menu, maybe someone with first hand experience could comment.

[Jacob D]

Tim, that's true... but still! I do hear ya though. The first shot from the Philippines is a nice compromise. Reminds me of a pair of vans I had in the early 90's with neon checkerboard. Possibly a transitioning male.


I am a little concerned about the shrimp being eaten... but it might be a livable compromise. Have you kept this fish at any time? I have a Vrolik's wrasse and was considering adding one of these.

[Recty]

I've had a checkerboard wrasse, it was a great fish. Mine was about 4" long and had the coloration of the picture you posted from Live Aquaria. At most it grew an inch while in my care and the coloration never changed... I'm not sure at what size they start getting the terminal male coloration but I'd suspect it's above 8" if they grow to a foot long in total size.

Mine was with two cleaner shrimp and never bothered them, the shrimp were established before the wrasse was introduced. I QT'd the wrasse with a 3" purple tang, I actually have a video of it on YouTube somewhere, just search for quarantine checkerboard wrasse and you can find it. I might even have two videos on there of the QT, and maybe one of my full tank videos still has the wrasse in it too.

[iamwrasseman]

very nice coloration variant of a checker board wrasse and they will slowly eat your CUC even if you feed the tank well . they usually wont really hurt "eat" your corals but they are very boisterous flipping them looking for critters on the underside of them . they are semi-aggressive but if you have other semi-aggressive fish in the tank they will usually be good citizens for years to come .
i would suggest that you make sure if they move corals that they can't get aggressive corals on top of ones they will sting and kill .

[Luiz Rocha]

There is a color difference between Indian and Pacific oceans (and a small genetic difference too, I am investigating that), but PNG should be the same color as Philippines and Fiji. I think the fish from the PNG looks more colorful just because either the photo was processed more (easy to do in the age of digital photography), or because the fish was in some kind of dispute with another wrasse.

They do get very large and swim A LOT on the reef, I think they have one of the largest home ranges of any Halichoeres and can swim hundreds of yards searching for food in a single day.

[Jacob D]

Thanks for the insight Luiz. Interesting about the genetic difference between the Indian and Pacific ocean variants. The Indian Ocean version does look a little different in shape, at least from the photo above. Wet Web Media mentions that the Indian Ocean variant is more colorful.

BTW, I agree with you that the PNG photo looks a little over saturated.

[Jacob D]

Off topic... Here are a couple other interesting Halichoeres I came across while searching for info on the hortulanus. Has anyone ever seen either of these in the trade?


H. melantonis (from Clipperton among other places)



H dimidiatus (Atlantic Ocean)

[Luiz Rocha]

I never saw H. melanotis in the trade, they are not nearly as pretty when they become adults and that may be why. As far as H. dimidiatus goes, it used to be common in the trade, but Brazil passed a new law forbidding the export of all of it's endemic fishes (and this is one of them). However, it is very similar to the Caribbean H. cyanocephalus, which is easy to find.