Melanarus or Six line wrasse??

[bsharpe]

Okay so I have flat worms don't want to use chemicals, but the new target mandarin, who is great and eats food and pellets does not seem interested in the worms, so the question is Melanarus or Sixline. Will they eat my small starfish that live in the rock? Will they get along with the others:
McCoskers Wrasse
Cleaner Wrasse
Tang
firefish
manderine
Royal Gramma
Emerald crab
blue hermits
narcissus snail
Black Clowns

 

[drtymnky]

go with the mcoskers wrasse thay are a bit shy but mine gets along with everything he wont eat the little starfish and i dont know if he would be interested in flatworms but thay are a great wrasse

 

[SteveT]

6lines are pretty notorious for being jerks and might try to take out your mandarin or firefish. However I have a 6line that hasn't been too mean, it just depends. I love my Melanarus in my 75G, one of my favorite fish.

 

[djkms]

Hi Betsy,

6 lines can be risky, especially with other wrasses and even more so in smaller systems. Mckoskers are cool but they won't help you with your flatworm problem. I would say Melanurus all the way. However they can potentially go after your snails, not common but they are known to. Either way you decide we have both a six line and a Melanurus at Premier. The Melanurus' we got in are really cool, they are the pinstripe Melanurus, bit different coloration and from Australia, which tend to be a bit more hardy and a bit more expensive. Shoot me a PM if interested.

Not the greatest picture, we just got the shipment in when I took the pics and no actinics over the quarantine tank...

 

[chrislorentz]

+1

 

[Wicked Color]

Melanurus, the reason I suggest this is body mass. Flat worms are toxic, and fish can eat them, but not in abundance, and the smaller the fish, the greater the risk.
Also 6 lines are pushy lil bastages.

 

[bsharpe]

I have a McCoskers and he is a favorite, will he get along with the Melanurus?

 

[Wicked Color]

I dont think so Tim.

 

[bsharpe]

Velvet nudibranch?

 

[Wicked Color]

Not if you have any flow.

 

[bsharpe]

Please expand on this.

 

[djkms]

Nudibranchs get blown around real easy and can get sucked into a powerhead pretty easy as well.

 

[themooga]

My six line is a bastiche. My pair of maroons won't leave their RBTA because of him.

 

[bsharpe]

Update,
Here is what I am trying, I purchased a small sixline from Elite that had jumped into another tank with another sixline and they were being really cool with each other, so I took it as a sign and brought him home. Yesterday i rigged a syphon with a clear plastic tube attached to an air hose and sucked about 2 thousand or so flatworms out of the tank. This was advice from a reefer that I met at Elite. I am going to continue to syphon every other day and will let you guys know how things go. The sixline is busy running away from the tang right now. When the six line gets bigger and if he turns into a jerk, off to the frag tank he will go. Thanks for all the help.

 

[bsharpe]

Update, sixline getting along with everyone except Royal Gramma who likes to chase sixline off if he gets too close to his favorite spots. noticing a large drop in visible flatworm. I also added 2 peppermint shrimp to head off small aptasia, tired of aphasia X.

 

[Wicked Color]

they will eat your acan lords