Chiseltooth Wrasse

Salty1962

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Has anyone ever kept a Chiseltooth Wrasse or Pseudodax moluccanus? Any feedback is appreciated.
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ReeferBee

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I kept one for a week or two. Very cool wrasse! That is until he started eating my acros. I got very lucky and he jumped into the overflow and back to the LFS he went.
 
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Salty1962

Salty1962

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I kept one for a week or two. Very cool wrasse! That is until he started eating my acros. I got very lucky and he jumped into the overflow and back to the LFS he went.
Ouuuch!! I haven't read where they went after SPS or LPS. That's why I'm trying to learn about them. The adult male coloration is pretty nice!
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ReeferBee

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I had an adult male and their coloration is beautiful indeed. I wondered about his odd shaped jaw and teeth but not enough to do my research before I bought him lol. He would scrape the acro and was able to get individual polyps. Very specialized eater, and it took a few days before I caught him in the action. Not a whole lot of info on them but apparently they are a type of cleaner wrasse as juvenile and switch to sps polyps later.
 

eatbreakfast

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I haven't had that issue with Pseudodax molaccanus. I've found them to be peaceful and reef- safe.
 

ReeferBee

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Was yours a juvenile by chance? I'm trying to find pics of my damaged acro. At first I couldn't tell what the heck was going on, the bite marks looked like nothing I had seen before. Like the corralites were well chiseled off..
A Google search will show there are many other people that have had the same issue, mostly with the adults.
 
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eatbreakfast

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Mine started off as a juvenile and was a 6" adult when I got rid of it. I also kept it with sps.

As an adult it eats a lot of algae. There are other algae eaters, most notably foxfaces and rabbitfish, but also on rarer occassions tangs, that will nip at corals for the zooxanthellae if they don't have enough algae in their diet or aren't fed frequently enough.

Their dentition can do significant damage if it does decide to eat algae on or near a coral, or even if it is hungry enough to go at the coral itself.
 

ReeferBee

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Yes indeed.

My tank was and is algae free, except for my fuge and nori. I fed a couple times daily and mine was a pig, eating anything and everything I threw in. He knew how to get the polyps for my acropora even with his fat belly.

Fish don't always go by the rule book, but this is one I will not try again. I got extremely lucky mine went in the the overflow
 
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Salty1962

Salty1962

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.

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Robojam

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I have 2 chisletooth wrasse in my tank, bought them as a pair at a lfs. They were sold to me as purple wrasse but later found out they were chisletooth.

They have both been amazing fish,

One is about double the size of the other now but they were the same size when i bought them. Hoping its a male and female but havent been able to find any info on sexing them.

Super calm never had an issue with any other fish besides my blue strip cleaner wrasse kept attacking the smaller chisletooth. I removed the blue strip and put him in my frag system.

These chisletooth did an amazing job at getting rid of my flat worm issue, they were way over populated and now i have a hard time even finding one. Also its super cool these fish hunt as a team with my lawnmower blenny, the blenny munches on the rock and algae and the pods / bugs get launched up in the water where the chisletooth are waiting right above the blenny. Super cool to watch, i have noticed a few tips of sps been munched on which im sure is the chisletooth but it hasnt happened again since. I also have soooo many copepods and amphipods that they are never hungry so im sure that plays a big part in them not munching more coral.

They are both still in the juvi stage but starting to change red and loose the blue striping.

Also they sleep in the sand bed at night by darting them selves into the sand.

Heres some pics of them

15083589348991801510372.jpg


1508359070821808863428.jpg
 

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I've just picked one of these up

2018-11-21_02-28-01 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Sold to me by my LFS as a "tri-color" wrasse, but it's obviously a juvi pseudodax. I'm slightly concerned as I have an SPS dominated reef, but I guess I will have to keep my eye on him. He does look cool whizzing round the tank with all the others though
 

davidcalgary29

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They're certainly one of the more interesting fish in my tanks, and (to me) a surprise nori eater, especially as the rundown on LiveAquaria posits them as carnivores. It spends as much time at the nori clip as a tang!
 
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