Wetmorella tanakai
| Difficulty | Easy |
| Minimum Tank Size | 10 Gallons |
| Diet | Carnivore |
| Water Parameters | 72-78 F, pH 8-8.4, Salinity 1.020-1.025 |
| Aggression | Peaceful |
| Size | 2" |
The Tanaka Pygmy Wrasse is a low maintenance, low profile wrasse with beautiful colors. They like to spend a majority of their time hiding in the rock work. Some are so elusive that the tank owner will only see them a few times a day, even when there are no predatory fish to frighten them.
Tanaka Pygmy Wrasse are more rare than most wrasse and make for excellent additions to peaceful tanks that cannot handle the aggressive temperament of most wrasse. Their small size also make them the perfect option for nano tanks.
Tank Specific Need
The Tanaka Pygmy Wrasse is a non demanding fish. Avoid any predatory fish, or else you will only see the Tanaka Pygmy Wrasse once or twice a week.
Be sure to have a good amount of live rock/plenty of decoration for the pygmy to swim around, as they live in rockwork in the wild. Giving them little to no hiding spaces will stress out the fish.
As with all wrasse you will want to keep a tight lid or mesh cover on the tank, as they can easily jump through small holes in the lid.
Tank Mates to Avoid
While the Tanaka Pygmy Wrasse is much less aggressive than other wrasse, they should still only be kept one male and multiple female Tanaka Pygmy Wrasse. Do not mix with other wrasse, as they will fight.
The Tanaka Pygmy Wrasse will not fight with other tank mates and can be prone to bullying. If there are any other aggressive fish you can expect the Tanaka Pygmy Wrasse to spend its days in secrecy. Peaceful to semiagressive tank mates are recommended.
The Tanaka Pygmy Wrasse will eat copepods, flat worms but not shrimp or snails. Do not pair the Tanaka Pygmy Wrasse with other fish dependent on copepods unless they are housed in a much larger tank.
If some of their tank mates turn out to be more aggressive than expected the Tanaka Pygmy Wrasse should have an easy time keeping themselves safe as long as the tank has plenty of rockwork.
Diet & Feeding
The Tanaka Pygmy Wrasse should be fed high quality fish flakes, frozen mysis or brine shrimp, finely diced fish and whatever pods the tank can produce.
This particular wrasse has been known to be a bit finicky when it comes to eating. Feed them with low to no flow in the tank, and start out with mysis or brine. They will often not accept pellets right away and are much more receptive of flakes.