My Dragon Wrasse and the tang that things he is a dog

[adrinal]

Hey first post here. I did a search on Dragon Wrasses and everyone says that they get ugly... Does any one have a picture of their ugly form.
Granted they look cool when they are little... but I sure think this fella is nice. I think in the adult form their eyes look even cooler.

This fella is about 6" give or take an inch... I'm not really good with the size thing... at least my wife seems to think I exagerate

 

[Len]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Your wrasse is in a transitional phase and is showing a lot of its adult pigmentation already. Be aware that this species gets HUGE (several feet) and isn't suitable for captivity due to their size and aggression disposition; they can literally reaquascape your tank by turning over large rocks when they're mature. 8O This type of stuff LFS really need to be informed about so they can pass on the knowledge to the hobbyist

Here's a pic of a true juvenile:

Here's a pic of a fully mature adult.

It's not surprising people love these things as juvies

 

[Anonymous]

They are cool fish, but have a taiste for mobile inverts. I had a juv some time back and it ate all of my snails and hermit crabs in short order. They fall into the grounp that burries themselves in the sand to sleep. Freaked me out the first time I saw nothing but a head sticking out of the sand.

 

[adrinal]

That adult photo of yours and my wrasse are exactly the same (just my photo is nicer ). Well if thats ugly i guess i think ugly is beautiful.


About the size thing... a few feet???? I've done a fair... alot of checking around. I've always seen 8-12" tops. Do you have a link or a book reference to where you saw multipule feet on these dudes? That is a bit worrysome


Any one have more "ugly" photoes...if this is their final stage of coloration I'm quite happy
If they get feet long 8O 8O 8O Then I'm screwed

 

[Anonymous]

FYI, scott michael's guide has the dragon wrasse maxing out at 11.8" (30cm).

 

[Len]

Oops. My bad. For some stupid reason, I recalled 30 inches 8O 12" is still a pretty big fish nonehteless

 

[Anonymous]

Perfect panfry size. :mrgreen:

 

[adrinal]

THANKS MY EYES ARE BLEEDING FROM RESEARCHING THE NET

Ya most I saw was reports of 12"

I did a lot of reasurch before picking up the fella.
I'm quite happy with him... only he likes to nap after feedings and all night... But he is up and begging every morning and the Y-tang thinks he has a new girl friend! :wink:

Any how if this is as "ugly" as they get... I'm quite happy.
Guess beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.

 

[Anonymous]

When in doubt, my friend, go to http://www.fishbase.org
The best thing since sliced toilet paper, I tell ya.

 

[adrinal]

Thanks! It has CHinese too

I've gone everywhere to get info exept forums, thought I would give them a try... I really was just interested in more pictures to find out about this so called ugly form. I already got the specs on the critter... I'm by far a buy first find out latter lad.

Still thanks again for the link :lol:

 

[Terra Ferma]

Len,

I have heard of ones big as 18"...my friend saw one that size several years back, and now every week he tries to order a "show" dragon wrasse from Hawaii. Alas he has never gotten one larger than 14", despite the diver's assurance that it is a solid 20". But the point is the do get very large.

 

[Terra Ferma]

BTW...the sizing given in the Burgess and on Fishbase is frequently inaccurate.

 

[skylsdale]

I have always read around 12" for adult size. The coloration in the pic (which some refer to as ugly) is actually pretty cool, IMO. I like it better than the juv. coloration, anyway.

However, I hope you've got it in a HUGE tank. To be honest, I would consider anything short of an above ground swimming pool to be too small for this fish--even something like a 300 gal Rubbermaid stock tank would be cramped for an adult dragon wrasse. These are ACTIVE fish that spend all day flipping rocks over looking for inverts to crush, and at night they need a nice soft sandbed to burrow down into. I'm sure your extensive research has revealed this all to you...and you're taking appropriate actions to house it properly.