Supplement raw meaty marine flesh with some type of herbivorous food such as a flake food formulated for herbivores (e.g. Sea Veggies Flakes) or seaweed strips (like Sea Veggies or nori). Nearly all flasher wrasses will readily take commercially prepared pellet foods, frozen foods, and food mixes like Blue Zoo Mix.

Flasher wrasses have a high metabolism and should be fed several small meals a day rather than two large meals. Alternatively use a refugium as part of the system’s filtration. This will provide a constant food supply of small live foods (e.g. copepods).

Expect male filamented flasher wrasses to display their colors and finnage (“flashing”) to other males and available females. To ensure the male does not lose its color, keep one male with two or more females, or keep two males of different species of flasher wrasses in the same sufficiently large aquarium.

To learn more about flasher wrasses, see the article on genus Paracheilinus in the resources section of the Blue Zoo website.

Flasher wrasses are a great substitute for harder to keep anthias.

This is a new format for livestock descriptions, and we welcome your feedback. Would you like more information? Less information? Different information? If you have ideas, please let us know by e-mailing the editor at editor@bluezooaquatics.com