Friday Fish Facts - Exquisite Fairy Wrasse

The Exquisite Fairy Wrasse (Cirrhilabrus exquisitus) is an excellent reef aquarium fish that flashes metallic blue when displaying, and sports a dramatic color spectrum. Hailing from the Indo West Pacific regions, the Exquisite Fairy Wrasse can grow to a maximum length of 5 inches, however in the aquarium hobby most tend to range between 2.5 to 3.5 inches. The minimum recommended aquarium size for this fish is 55 gallons.

Exquisite Fairy Wrasses should be fed a diet of meaty foods such as brine and mysis shrimp, as well as pigment enriching flake foods, at least twice per day. This wrasse, like most wrasses, is a jumper, and care should be taken when keeping in an open top system. The Exquisite Fairy Wrasse is a mostly peaceful fish, however they are known to chase after chromis and firefish. It is best to keep only one male per tank, however in larger aquariums, several females may be kept with one male, and are known to thrive under these conditions.