I just got a few fairy wrasses and will slowly add to the small collection. I already had the mystery and have now added a male flasher, yellow fin, long fin fairy wrasse, labout's fairy wrasse, exquisite, and a solorensis. They all look great and are all getting along. However, these bastards spend 98% of the time under the rock work and I can barely tell they are there and alive. I also look at the floor around the tank every so often as if I am going to find one of them tile surfing.
I will be adding a few more as availability allows. This is my future get list:
-Red Sea eight line flasher
-male carpenter's flasher
-african royal flasher paracheilinus angulatus
-male fairy flasher wrasse p. piscilineatus
-temminck's fairy wrasse cirrhilabrus temminckii
-male japanese yellow flanked fairy wrasse c. lyukyuensis
-shoals fairy wrasse c. randalii
-orange back wrasse c. aurantidorsalis
-lubbock's fairy wrasse
-male lineatus
-diamond tail fairy c. rhomboidalis
-australian male scott's fairy
While doing some research on fairy wrasses, I found the following:
Solar Fairies
Scott's Fairies
Temmnick's Fairies
Blue Scaled Fairies
Black-finned fairies
Exquisite Fairies
All these fish tend to lose their colors a bit if they don'y have a harem of females. When I say they lose colors its primarily their beautiful nuptial or courtship colors. Obviously without a mate to court the darker colored fairies (blue's/browns/greens) tend to
fade.
The in-between group - this means they may fade a bit but not alot:
Rhomboid Fairy
Pyle's Fairy
Pink-Margin Fairy
Goldbar fairy
Yellow-flanked fairy
Here are the fish that tend to keep their colors well, regardless of wether or not there is a harem:
Labout's
Flame
Social Fairy
Conde's Fairy
Lineatus Fairy
Yellowfin Fairy
Lubbock's Fairy
Rosy-fin Fairy
Orange Back fairy
(It seems to me that the fish that have the red-orange coloration or the hot pinks & yellows tend to keep their colors better than the blues & greens)
Anyone have any
substantial experience with these fish that would care to add something?