Saltcorner
By Bob Goemans
By Bob Goemans
Not Reef Tank Suitable
Likely Fish-Only Tank Suitable
Range: Indo-West Pacific Ocean: Philippines to Samoa, north to Southern Japan, and south to the Great Barrier Reef.
Size: 5 inches (12 cm)
Natural Environment: Inhabits edges of reefs and sandy areas and usually found at depths between 6 – 25 feet (2 – 8 m) where it feeds mainly on crustaceans.
General Husbandry: Occasionally seen in the trade with males and females having similar coloration with orange red bodies having numerous reddish and green horizontal lines. Juveniles and subadults have two black eyespots on the dorsal fin, which fade when becoming an adult.
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 by first bashing them against hard objects, then consuming the pieces, and also snails, tubeworms, sea stars, cucumbers, urchins, crabs, and shrimp, also bashing them if needed to be consumed. 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, those in this genus, depending upon their size, are not often recommended for reef aquariums.
Preferable tankmates are those that are larger and somewhat aggressive, e.g., groupers, angelfishes, hawkfishes, and moderately aggressive triggerfishes.
Requires a meaty diet, including fortified brine shrimp, mysis, and other meaty type marine-based frozen for fresh foods, and should be fed twice daily.
Taxonomy:
Order: Perciformes
Suborder: Labroidei
Family: Labridae
Genus: Halichoeres
FYI: Upon first entering 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.
One male per aquarium.
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: Larger, active and moderately aggressive
Minimum Tank Size: 60 gallons
Temperature Range: 74 - 82°F (23 – 27°C)
Specific Gravity: 1.020 - 1.026
pH: 8.0 - 8.5
