As of right now, no confirmed males. I'm reasonably sure I've got two females, the other two I'm just not so sure on. I purchased a total of 4 small juveniles/females based mostly on size. Honestly, they seem a little bit on the large side since they were suppose to be between 1 and 1.75 inches, but /shrug, could just be me.
They are actually Red Tail Flasher Wrasses (Paracheilinus rubricaudalis) from Drs Foster and Smith. I'd actually waffled pretty hard on which species I wanted to get (I think I've actually wanted each of them at one point or another) it finally came down to a simple mater of watching a male McCosker flashing in the display tank in my LFS. Then I found out that almost no one seems to EVER have female flashers... much less female McCoskers. This led me to try taking a risk on the DrsF&S order since I'd had my LFS looking for females for me since I got my tank set up about 2 and a half months or so ago.
For gobies, I'd like to find either a Amblyeleotris or preferably, a Stonogobiops. My dream would be to actually find a pair of Dracula gobies with a pistol shrimp, but I'll probably just get a Hi-Fin type, either the black fin or the yasha, depending on what I can find.
As far as covers go, I've been using egg crate. I'm kind of hoping that the high amount of current in the upper part of my tank helps to dissuade them from jumping since atm they theoretically might fit through the holes if they were flawless in their aim.
One quick question though, I'm looking for advice on food and feeding. Right now I'm feeding twice a day, before and after work (about 8 hours in between). I've started feeding Omega One's "First Flake" in the morning and I generally feed frozen mysis in the evening since I have the time to thaw out the cube without totally forgetting to feed in the rush to get ready... or going to work smelling like seafood. (BTW, cause I know the question would be asked, Yes, I thaw the mysis in a container of tank water and then rinse it off in a net with a little tank water before feeding.
I've been using the first flake for a few reasons. The first reason is that it's suppose to be a good introductory food for new fish. The second reason is that it's a high fat food (which according to one of the articles on
wetwebmedia, "
Fat content should ideally be below 10% to avoid fatty liver disease, except in the case of juvenile fish, which require fat as an immediate energy source in order to spare the much-needed protein for building muscle.") I don't actually know if it's true or not, but I feel that right now it can't hurt to much. Finally, and the worst reason of all... my LFS gave it to me for free. They apparently get a large container of it free with every order so they've been using it as cricket food and said if I wanted to try it they'd give me all I wanted from a fresh canister. The owner also has a huge box of the Omega One marine flake with garlic that he's going to let me have some of to try (I really wanted the pellets of it, but I'll try the free flake first.) Anyway, I'm sure it's a huge factional can of worms, but I just figured I'd pose the question to any of y'all out there with exp with flasher wrasses.
(man, i gotta make some fish friends in RL to talk to... my posts are way longer than they need to be.)