Fish of the Day: Allen’s Wrasse, Allen’s Tubelip Wrasse / Labropsis allleni

[revhtree]

Allen’s Wrasse, Allen’s Tubelip Wrasse / Labropsis allleni

SCIENTIFIC NAME - Labropsis allleni

COMMON NAME – Allen’s, Allen’s Tubelip Wrasse

SIZE – 4 in (10 cm)

MIN. AQUARIUM SIZE – 30 gal (113.5 L)

FOODS AND FEEDING – Juveniles are facultative cleaners, while adults feed on coral polyps. If you can get them to eat frozen, they should be feed a variety of high quality marine frozen foods, such as enriched mysids, brine shrimp, squid, scallops, etc.

REEF COMPATIBILITY - No

CAPTIVE CARE – This fish is difficult to feed as a juvenile because it only eats parasites and dead skin off of other fish and it can easily starve to death in an aquarium. As an adult, the Allen’s wrasse eats the polyps of SPS corals preventing them from being considered reef safe. All wrasses are known jumpers so the top of the aquarium should be covered.

 

[wysiwyg]

odd looking wrasse

 

[GregAW]

odd looking wrasse

I agree and not reef safe by the sounds of it.

 

[BarbH]

Odd looking, but kind of pretty in it's own way. Wonder if anyone has had success in keeping one in a fo setup, definitly not a fish for a beginner.

 

[redlion1968]

i know this thread is a bit old but i thought i would update it based on my experience with this fish in case anyone else fancies giving one a go, .... i was told my my lfs that it was eating frozen, i dont normally insist on seeing it eat as it causes issues with it polluting th ebag, anyway i took a chance.
week 1 - i didnt see it actually eat anything that i put in the tank but it didnt look like it was starving. The most striking thing about it was its behaviour, it would locate itself in a small area under an overhang and didnt venture out of this are for a week.
week 2 it started swimming around a little more, but rarely into the other half of the tank, have seen it nibble at pavona polyps mainly, but also a monti cap that was damaged.
week 3 its moved onto a broader range of SPS but thankfully not some of nicer acros i have.

Thats about as fair as i got with it really, i decided to break of a bit of damaged monti, throw it in a trap and catch the fish ready to return to the lfs for a refund.

My fish was ~2 1/2", it had nice colouration, with its rather dull personality and diet of polyps its not a favorite of mine.