Wrasse Hog Fish

The wrasse family is far more difficult to encompass than other families. Some of the wrasses grow to only 5-7.5 cm (2-3in), some grow to 60cm (24in); some are ideal in an invertebrate system, others would destroy the same set-up; some need to bury at nights, some need a cave, others require neither. So really the only way to examine the wrasses in a balanced way is to describe examples of each of the most popular groups.

Another marine is the birdbath (Orpheus). While the female is a brown, drab 10cm (4in) fish with a small snout, the male is a 15-18cm (6-7in) bottle green, dolphin-shaped beauty - the star character in any large tank. But the truly amazing feature of these fish is that they are hermaphrodite, bandit is quite possible to observe the drab, uninteresting females transform themselves in a feud, days.

Hogfish are closely related to the wrasses. There are half a dozen torso of this subspecies, and two or three of them are quite commonly seen. The Cuban hogfish (Bodkins) is imported either at about 5cm (2in) in its juvenile markings or, more often, asa I 5 cm (6in) adult. It is usually quite inexpensive. Although hogfish are suitable companions for virtually any other fish, they will soon mess up an invertebrate system.