Saltcorner
By Bob Goemans
By Bob Goemans
Not Reef Tank Suitable
Likely Fish-Only Tank Suitable
Range: Indo-West Pacific Ocean: East Africa to Marshall Islands, Tonga, Great Barrier Reef, and north to Southern Japan.
Size: 7 inches (17 cm)
Natural Environment: Inhabits sandy and rubble areas in lagoons and seaward reefs and usually found at depths between 6 – 50 feet (2– 15m) where it feeds on benthic invertebrate, usually hard-shelled invertebrates.
General Husbandry: Rarely seen in the trade with the male having an overall green body with wide sidebars on the back and sometimes an area of pink on the sides and a blackish area on the belly. Females are also green with narrow pale and blackish bars on the back and a black eyespot on the dorsal and pink bands on the head.
Best maintained in fish-only aquariums having a fine sand bed, (0.5 – 2.0 mm) and at least 4 inches deep, along with several rocky crevices to hunt and also open swimming areas. Those in this genus will not only rearrange bottom dwelling corals in its search for tasty bottom dwelling invertebrates, as it will eat smaller fishes, snails, tubeworms, sea stars, cucumbers, urchins, crabs, and shrimp that it can find, it will also quickly burrow into the sand bed if frightened or for sleeping at night. This diving into the sand bed will cause clouds of sand particles to be dispensed into the water, and would cause various corals harm, therefore, as mentioned above, those in this genus are not often recommended for reef aquariums.
Preferable tankmates for this species, which is one of the least aggressive in this genus, can be peaceful species such as various damsels and gobies.
Requires a meaty diet, including fortified brine shrimp, mysis, and other meaty type marine-based frozen or fresh foods, and should be fed twice daily.
Taxonomy:
Order: Perciformes
Suborder: Labroidei
Family: Labridae
Genus: Coris
FYI: Upon first entering into the aquarium, may stay buried for days. Simply await its decision when to emerge. Once established, it will go to sleep under the sand and arise the next morning at almost the exact same time every day!
The aquarium should have small pieces of rocks for the wrasse to ‘play’ with in its daily search for prey.
Can greatly stir bottom sandbeds creating large clouds of sand being dispensed in many directions.
Slow swimming tankmates cannot compete with this wrasse at feeding time.
One male per aquarium.
Hardy species.
Experience Level: Intermediate
Temperament: Moderately peaceful
Diet: Carnivore
Coral Safe: Yes
Fish Safe: With caution
Invertebrate Safe: With caution
Acclimation Time: 30 minutes+
Aquarium Environment: Fish-only aquarium
Tankmates: Peaceful
Minimum Tank Size: 60 gallons
Temperature Range: 72 - 82°F (22 – 27°C)
Specific Gravity: 1.020 - 1.026
pH: 8.0 - 8.5
