bubble-building wrasse???

[hoosierreefer]

I have a six line wrasse that I found in a bubble. It looked like it had built the bubble around itself and it was lying still near the bottom of the tank. At first I thought he may be dead, but he was still flitting and breathing. I got closer to the tank and he shot right out of the bubble and starting swimming as normal. This was about a week ago and he is acting normal. This is the only time I have seen it do this and i have had it about a year...any ideas whats going on?

 

[bkv1997]

That is common.. Not sure if all wrasses do it, but mine does it and I use to also have a cleaner wrasse that will always do that when they sleep.

It almost looks like a clear jelly cocoon.

Hope this helps.
Brandon

 

[hoosierreefer]

Yeah, thanks. This is the first wrasse i have ever kept and i've never seen anything like it. Now i will have to watch and see if he does it more often. :D

 

[minireefer]

Hmm I am going to check mine out tonight

 

[bkv1997]

Pretty need scared the heck out of me when my first fish did it. They are usually in the rock so you never notice it. See below for some information on it.

The Fairy Wrasses: Cirrhilabrus spp. - Reefkeeping.com

"""They are diurnally active and sleep at night pinned within rockwork, protected by a mucus cocoon which they secrete around themselves. A similar cocoon in Parrotfish was demonstrated to protect the sleeping fish by masking its scent from the sensitive olfactory nerves of nocturnal predators."""

 

[frugm]

It`s funny i watched a program on the Discovery channel just the other day and it mentioned this. It showed several Wrasse asleep on the reef in there cacoon`s. Very interesting.

 

[hoosierreefer]

At first I was scared it was dead and it was the work of some other creature.... Next time, I need to try to get a photo.