Anyone have a Hoeven's Wrasse ?

[christyf5]

Hey I have one of these. I've never heard it called a Hoevens Wrasse though, just a tailspot.

I got mine about...wow three years now I think. He was a trade in at the store, someone was taking down their tank or something. I got him pretty much fully grown and he's about 4.5-5 inches long I figure. He has grown in girth though

What a personable fish! He taught all my other fish to be social and to come out of hiding more often (and that when people stand out in front of the tank, theres a good chance you'll get fed ). I haven't seen him eat any shrimps or crabs but I haven't kept any in the tank successfully either. I did have a couple of peppermint shrimp in the tank when I first got him but they lasted about 3 months maximum and I haven't tried any since.

He's a constant hunter. He ferrets out pods from everywhere and particularly likes it when I move stuff around, he has his nose right in there and is totally unconcerned with where my hand is, as long as there are some tasty morsels under whatever I have moved. I do believe he eats stomatella snails, especially the little ones as I haven't seen one in my tank for quite some time and he gets the ones I move over from my nano before they've even hit substrate to hide under.

One thing, I did have some problems when I went barebottom. These fish love to sleep in the sandbed and mine would disappear about an hour before the lights went off. I even found him buried against the glass one night. Pretty freaky. After removing the sandbed he did have some problems adjusting as he would wedge himself under rocks and such in a diving motion (much like he would have done if there were sand). As a result, he had a pretty nasty gash on his gill flap that almost went right through to the underside (I could see gill through the thin cartilage). Eventually he figured it out and the patch healed up (with the help of my neon goby who kept it clean picking the nasty bits all the time). Now he still sleeps wedged under the rocks but at least he doesn't propel himself into them.

I hope that helps