Yellow Coris Wrasse (Halichoeres chrysus)

The Yellow Coris Wrasse (Halichoeres chrysus), also sold as the Canary or Golden Wrasse, is a solid banana-yellow reef fish that never stops moving. It flits through the rockwork all day hunting for food, then dives straight into the sand to sleep, which is the single most important thing to know before you buy one. Hardy, peaceful, reef safe, and genuinely useful: it hunts the pest snails and flatworms that plague reef tanks. One of the best beginner wrasses in the hobby. Browse the rest of our saltwater livestock and supplies to build the tank around it.

Care Guide

• Sand bed is mandatory. This wrasse sleeps and hides buried in the substrate, so it needs at least a 2 inch bed of fine sand like CaribSea Fiji Pink or Seaflor Special Grade. On bare bottom or coarse gravel it has nowhere to rest and does poorly. If you do not see it for the first day or two, it is under the sand, which is completely normal.
• Tank size: 50 gallons or larger. They are active, fast swimmers that use every inch of a tank.
• Lid required, no exceptions. Wrasses are notorious jumpers and a new one will bolt at the first scare. An open top tank is how these fish end up on the floor.
• Water parameters: 72 to 78°F, pH 8.1 to 8.4, salinity 1.020 to 1.025. Hardy and forgiving once settled.
• Feeding: carnivore. It grazes the rocks for pods and worms all day, but still needs regular meaty foods: PE Mysis, SFBB Mysis, and a marine pellet such as Hikari Marine-S.
• Pest control: a working benefit, not just decoration. It actively hunts pyramidellid snails that prey on clams, plus flatworms and bristleworms, which makes it one of the more useful reef fish you can add.

Specifications

Compatibility

Peaceful and reef safe, an easy fit in most community reefs. It sits well alongside the Premium Picasso Clownfish, Banggai Cardinalfish, Royal Gramma, Flame Hawkfish, Bicolor Blenny, and tangs like the Purple Tang. It also pairs naturally with our other reef wrasse, Naoko's Fairy Wrasse.

The invert caveat. It is completely coral safe, but it hunts small worms and snails, which is exactly the trait that makes it useful. Ornamental snails and tiny shrimp can be at risk, though a Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp is large enough to be safe. Do not add one to a tank where you are trying to breed micro-inverts.

Other wrasses. Halichoeres wrasses generally coexist if added together and the tank is large, but adding a second sand-diving wrasse to an established one can cause friction. One per genus is the safe rule in a normal display.

Recommended Foods & Supplies

• Piscine Energetics PE Mysis, the staple
• SFBB Mysis Shrimp Cube
• Hikari Marine-S pellet
• Xtreme Marine PeeWee Pellets
• CaribSea Fiji Pink Sand for a proper sleeping bed

FAQ

I just added it and it vanished. Is it dead?
Almost certainly not. Yellow Coris Wrasses dive into the sand to sleep and to escape stress, and a brand-new one will often bury itself for the first day or two while it settles. Give it time, keep the tank calm, and it will emerge and start patrolling.

Do I really need sand?
Yes. This is the one non-negotiable. Without a soft sand bed it has nowhere to sleep and will be chronically stressed. A bare bottom or crushed coral tank is the wrong home for this fish.

Is it truly reef safe?
Corals, yes, completely. The nuance is that it eats small mobile invertebrates, which is a feature for most reefers since it targets pests, but something to weigh if you keep ornamental micro-snails or are culturing pods.

Will it jump?
Given the chance, yes. Every wrasse is a jumper. A tight lid or mesh top is essential, especially in the first few weeks.