Cheilinus trilobatus

Lacepede, 1801

Tripletail Wrasse

Range: Indo-West Pacific Ocean: East Africa to Tuamotu and Austral Islands, north to Southern Japan and south to New Caledonia.

Size: 18 inches (45 cm)

Natural Environment: Inhabits lagoon areas and seaward reefs and usually found at depths between 3 – 100 feet (1– 30 m) where it feeds on benthic hard-shelled invertebrate.

General Husbandry: Rarely seen in the trade having a olive to brown body with a pink and pale blue-green line on each scale and pink dots on the head. Juveniles have three dark spots running down the middle of each side.

Best maintained in large fish-only aquariums, which should provide hiding places and lots of open swimming area. More a public aquarium species, as it get quite large.

As to diet, products such as marine fish and crustacean flesh, clams, and other marine meaty foods should make up the majority of their diet and be enriched and chopped into fine pieces and fed until it no longer consumes the food, then not fed again for two to three days.

May be difficult to feed in the early days in the aquarium and if so, (if small live marine fish are not available) live glass/grass shrimp, small crabs, e.g., fiddler crabs and/or live guppies/mollies may be needed to sustain the fish.

Taxonomy:

Order: Perciformes

Suborder: Labroidei

Family: Labridae

Genus: Cheilinus

FYI: Will eat smaller fishes, snails, tubeworms, ornamental shrimps, crabs, brittle stars, sea stars and urchins.

Usually sleep in caves and crevices.

Hardy species. One per aquarium

Will disturb sandbeds by blowing jets of water into it to find buried prey.

A consumer of large amounts of food at one time and can go days without feeding again.

Experience Level: Intermediate

Temperament: Semi-aggressive

Diet: Carnivore

Coral Safe: Yes

Fish Safe: With caution

Invertebrate Safe: With caution

Acclimation Time: 30 minutes+

Aquarium Environment: Fish-only aquarium

Tankmates: Moderately aggressive

Minimum Tank Size: 300 gallons

Temperature Range: 72 - 80°F (22 – 27°C)

Specific Gravity: 1.020 - 1.026

pH: 8.0 - 8.5