yikai

errm. $5 is a rough estimate... its around there plus minus. paracheilinus carpenteri, filamentosus, angulatus (more uncommon than the rest, seen only once in CF), mccoskeri, flavianalis, lineopunctatus and cyaneus. these are easy to obtain from indo/phillipines so they don't cost much. the expensive and rare ones are P. attenuatus (seychelles), rubricaudalis (fiji/vanuatu) and octotaenia (red sea). you don't see them often. sorry for all this scientific jargon but the common names are rubbish for this particular family of wrasses. spend some time to familiarise yourself with these fishes if you are really interested, because they all look somewhat similar to a certain extent, and will make ID-ing very difficult unless you know how to differnetiate them. good luck!

yes you are very right. this is nowhere near his optimal yet. have seen my old P.lineopunctatus flash till his max and its gorgeous. have had flame wrasse and exquisite flashing before and the colours are really gorgeous. this is nowhere near yet you are right. this is my first time trying out a harem of wrasse. only thing im kinda worried about is the females going MIA, since they are quite small. bought 5 of them, but only see 4 most of the times. the 5th one makes her appearance more irregularly compared to the other 4...which is why i'm afriad they will go MIA 1 by 1. but so far so good, they are grouping together nicely.

coris flavovittata is very seldom imported.. the juvenile of this fish does not have the occelated eye spot on the fin above. am quite sure its the christmas wrasse. agree letting it grow out first is better. make sure to provide a sand bed, as this fish needs a sand to sleep in at night. (even if its a coris or a christmas wrasse.)

looks to me like a juvenile Halichoeres ornatissimus. sometimes known as the christmas wrasse. the fish will turn red as it age, and the final colour will be blue-green and red. 2nd picture shows adult, 1st picture shows IP phase and last pic shows juvenile.

The other 3 males prefer to stay on the outer edge of the harem, like a "perimeter", and observe from there, or do their own fishy business. but once inawhile, they will challenge the alpha male and all 4 males go into a flashing rampage. extremely spectacular sight but cannot capture due to the super fast movements and the uselessness of my P&S camera. out of the 4 flashers, the filament and the carpenter's is very alpha, while the yellow fin and mccoskers are not as terminal-phased. carpenter's look really sexy with the black tail highlighted by a blue rim. exactly like this photo, but its taken from google.

some updates on my harem. it seems that the male filamented flasher has recognised the harem as females of the same species, and is now starting to take action. he now leads the harem and periodically flashes for about 10 mins non-stop to them. Interestingly, he wards off the other flashers with his displaying fins and dazzling colours. the harem which was casually led by 4 male flashers; ie. filament, carpenter, yellow fin and mccosker, is now being dominated by a single and very flashy filamented flasher. here's 2 pictures of him displaying to the females

will likely eat other shrimps if they are too small.

lyretail wrasse, i am assuming it is thalassoma lunare? These are other wise known as moon wrasses or lunar wrasses. grows large, not reef safe as will eat inverts, but leave corals alone. Quite peaceful but may be abit aggressive as it grows larger.

PHE red ring, purple hearted zoas. very nice

can't help but feel like i'm advertising these fishes.................. before buying please do research and make sure ur tank is suitable for them.... tank size, occupants etc.

corals, SPS, shrimps, prata, clams, LPS, zoas but their favourite is the flesh of other fish. just kidding.. flashers are mid water planktivores and they are very easy to feed. mysis, flakes, pellets, brine shrimp etc..... if they are comfortable and not timid anymore, they can be very greedy fishes and are extremely easy to feed.

cf replenish new stock of flashers today. some of them quite big and "alpha", especially the carpenter's. females are uniform red, smaller, no patterns, no colours, and the fins do not have the filaments. they are very very seldom imported because they are very dull and boring. females look like juveniles too. u can see the picture of the harem of flashers i posted. all the small ones are females.

males are available almost in all LFS and very commonly found in indo,phillipines shipment. except mccosker's which is rare and only CF brings in these days. females and juveniles that i show in the pictures are hard to find. this is my first time seeing such small specimens so i took a chance and bought all. they are timid fishes so take your time to introduce them to your tank. i find betta boxing them for a few days works best if u have many fishes in your tank that might scare them.

they wont fight because in the wild, these fishes are haremic. 1 alpha male leading a group of subordinate males, females and juveniles. in my tank i tried to replicate it. it works so far. however, i do have 4 male flashers of different species. they don't fight at all, but they do display to each other. same goes to fairy wrasses. but i'm trying to create a harem of wrasses, and since flashers are cheap and readily available, i decided to start off with flashers. ideally, i would love to do it for fairies, but the females and juveniles are even harder to find as compared to flashers.

P. flavianalis X carpenterii.

wrong. CF sell them cheaper. around 1 green note. sometimes abit lesser

thank you. i read your old threads and i love your wrasse tank. big inspiration for me. i had a lovely collection of fairies, but lost some of them when i was overseas. so trying flashers now haha.. might go back to fairies again though. ups!

flashers are cheap. all below $10. for bigger alpha sized ones, $12 or $15 at different LFS. the small juveniles/females i got them at $6 each. kinda expensive since they're so small, but worth it IMO since u rarely see them at this size.

better pics of my flasher harem. this one showing only 1 male flavianalis. my new favourite "item" in my tank now <3 move too fast so my noob cam can only capture using flash!

platygyra from CF's aussy shipment. this is leftover from their debut shipment. sky blue inside, green+purple outside.

New batch of indo fish just out of QT @ CF large 4-5 inch temminckii faires at CF. 1 pink margin fairy. colour not fantastic... but will colour up nicely given time. new batch of assorted flashers. some very nice alpha carpenter with solid black/dark blue tail. lovely left overs from yesterday's australia shipment. plenty of golden torch corals too. this time coming in sizes ranging from large colonies, to medium sized with 3-4 heads, and even single frags of 1 head. colour seems to be better this shipment. the golden/yellow is quite dark in some specimens plenty of scolymias left, platygyra, favia, duncans, elegance and acans. velvet wrasses (cirrhilabrus luteovittatus) from previous hawaii shipments still there. very stable. cute marine betta. size is small. 3 inches or maybe sliiightly smaller. so tempted but decided to give it a pass.

flasher wrasses are extremely timid fishes. any form of aggression and they will hide and never come out. even your hand in the water will spook them into hiding for hours... sometimes days (my experience). make sure your six line is well behaved, otherwise your flasher is bound to be harassed to hiding and probably die of starvation.

not bad bro! thou is impressed! especially with your bleached prata and near death prata. good work!

the harem of juvenile/female flashers really really bring the tank together. currently i have 4 different species of adult male flashers. P. mccoskeri, carpenteri, filamentosus, and flavianalis. these 4 males are consistantly flashing at the harem of females to gain their attention. that said, its amazing to see so many species not fighting but flashing together. hope this maintains even when the harem grows bigger even though the females/juveniles are of different species lol.

haha!! wah that will really be awesome. always loved lionfishes....so graceful.. cheap flashers. affordable and nice