Neptune Aquatics

Has anyone experienced this before: six line killing mystery wrass

I have a mystery wrass who is full sized when I got it at the beginning of this hobby 3 years ago, and she is close to 5" now. For those who have seen my tank, you know I also have a six line wrass which was pretty big. Recently, the six line grew even more, and it is between 2.5" and 3" now, and super fat. The mystery has been zooming around while being perfectly peaceful with the remaining 16 fish in the 120g tank (I know it is a little crowded, but I like fish in my coral tank, even though I have to deal with algaes recently). The six line has always picked on my mandarin but nobody else, even not the fire fish. Two days ago, when I feed the fish, I did not see the mystery, which usually is the first waiting at the food drop zone. Yesterday, after i fed, I saw the mystery stuck its head out of the rocks, looking really nervous. It then darted out for a piece of shrimp, and the six line immediately chased it. The mystery ran away as fast as it could and never came out. Today, before feeding, I looked for the mystery, and found it hiding below a rock, looking super nervous. When I fed, I could see it wanted to come out for food, but dare not. My tank is too crowded to get either the mystery or six line out. At this rate, I think the mystery will be dead in a couple more days :(.

I know six line can be aggressive, but I also know mystery is not easy either. Given the mystery is almost twice as large as the six line, I would never expect it to be so scared of the six line like it's seeing ghost, especially after they live together perfectly peacefully for the last two years. Has anyone experienced anything like this before?
 
My six line had to be moved from the tank with my fire fish. He would constantly cruise and launch pecking attacks against the fire fish. He leaves the naked perc, scooter blennie and Bangai cardinal alone.

He is a real BUTT-HEAD! |(
 
seminolecpa said:
My dream tank .....

20 varieties of birdsnests and a dozen sixlines.


[the preceeding message was brought to you by sarcasm]
Have you found the birdsnest I sneaked into your tank?
 
I've seen sixlines kill fish 5x their size. They simply rip out the guts!!! meanest worst addition to a reef tank ever!!!
 
FourlineWrasseWMW_Ap8SW.jpg


Do I have to worry about putting this guy in my tank?
4 liner in QT now.
 
Yup and they get larger then a sixline.

4 line = 8 line = 6 line = stay away
 
sfsuphysics said:
My 6 line was a model citizen... but then again his tank mates were a blue damsel and a tomato clown.... and it was a 115g tank!

The sun shines on a dog's bum once in a while but it doesn't mean the dog's bum always has sun shining on it :)
 
sfsuphysics said:
My 6 line was a model citizen... but then again his tank mates were a blue damsel and a tomato clown.... and it was a 115g tank!

my tank is a 210 and the 6 lines has no problem killing his tank mate ... I think that fish should be on a leash ..LOL
 
The mystery is still hiding under the same rock, not coming out for food :(. I am thinking more about it, could it be that she is getting too old to reach the end of the candle, and the sixline just smelled it? The mystery was very much full sized when I got her 3 years ago. Sad to think this way, but everybody gets there :(.
 
tonggao said:
The mystery is still hiding under the same rock, not coming out for food :(. I am thinking more about it, could it be that she is getting too old to reach the end of the candle, and the sixline just smelled it? The mystery was very much full sized when I got her 3 years ago. Sad to think this way, but everybody gets there :(.

Dude those fish can live much longer then 3 - 5 years, I'm fairly certain age has zero to do with it. Little fish can bully bigger fish and it happens daily. Sharks and dolphins attack and pester sharks yet they not only are smaller, they are also prey for the shark,
 
Yes, I had my 6 line kill a brand new Mystery Wrasse I got from Live Aquaria... Lucky for me, they have a warranty.

So I trapped the 6 line wrasse, moved it to my frag tank, and got me a new Mystery and he's now in the display tank.
 
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