almost time to add a wrasse or three

[Bigtom802l]

My new 125 gallon 5 foot long tank is looking and great and I think its time to add a wrasse or three to the tank.  As background I have a few piece of soft corals and want to keep this a mixed tank reef so I have been looking at the reef safe wrasses.  I currently have a maroon clown, kole tank, yellow tang, flame angle, and a cleaner wrasse.  I have been going back and forth between fairy wrasses and flasher wrasses.  I like the idea of getting 3 McCosker wrasses (2 female and a male or three females) but i also though about getting 2 fairy wrasses like a red velvet fairy and a whip fin fairy, or a hooded fairy wrasse.  My concern is keeping multiple wrasses in my 5 foot tank.  The tank has ~120 pound of live rock with many holes and caves to hid in.  What has been peoples experience with keeping multiple wrasses together.  Say like a flasher wrasse with a fairy wrasse?  I have heard if a flasher wrasse is the sole wrasse in the tank it may loose some of its color any truth to this?

[Sonnyred]

Personally I like a trio of leopard wrasses. They are hard to keep but if you have a deep sand bed and a big mature tank then chances of survival is higher. With the specie I don't even worry about qt because they don't usually make it out of qt. they are delicate fish but also great colors. And when getting in groups is better than singles. Just my .02

[mrfish183]

I've had mixed results with multiple wrasses in my 180.  I envisioned having a rare wrasse dominant tank similar to ones shown on RC and utube.  However, I've encountered so many issues with fighting, sex changes, personality changes, and carpet surfing that I'm beginning to question my strategy.  Here is my story: 

I first added a cheap six line wrasse to get things started, which was a no no.  My second wrasse was an absolutely beautiful supermale Australian Scotts Fairy.  He carpet surfed on day two despite having a six inch high barrier around my tank.  I thought to myself, "wow, that was unfortunate and could never ever happen again!".  My third wrasse was a large supermale Red Velvet Fairy.  He carpet surfed on day three (so much for it never happening again!!!).  The tank was then covered with a mesh.  My fourth wrasse was a mystery wrasse.  He was endlessly attacked by the ultra aggressive six line.  I got rid of the six line to keep the $100 mystery wrasse.  My next set of wrasses were a trio of flame wrasses including a supermale and two females.  The male never paid attention to the females, which resulted in both females turning submale.  The new submales attacked the supermale.  I had to get rid of the supermale.  After which, the larger male killed the smaller male.  My next wrasse was a cute little clown fairy.  Clown fairy's are known to be timid (keep this in mind for later reference).  At about the same time, I obtained two supermale red velvets from LiveAquaria.  One carpet surfed while in quarantine despite having a tight fitting top ().  The other made it to the big tank.  After adding the clown fairy and red velvet to the main tank, the mystery wrasses started attacking both.  The mystery wrasse was moved to my frag tank.  Now, the clown fairy has started to attack my red velvet.  I'm trying to catch the clown fairy as I construct this message .  I also added a supermale lineatus.  He is doing well so far and appears a perfect addition.

Rules of thumb I have learned on wrasses -->

1.  The least expensive & least desirable wrasse will always be the bully.  Remove the bully and the next least expensive fish will become the bully. 
2.  Never purchase rare wrasses from low priced sources. 
3.  If you purchase multiples of the same species, then just purchase females.  They are cheaper, can develop their own hierarchy, and live longer.
4.  Add a bunch of wrasses at once instead of one at a time.  I think the wrasse dominant tanks on RC survive because of the inability to pick on individuals.  The aggressors can always find multiple fish to pick on.
5.  Wrasses are individuals and have their own personalities.  Despite personality trends being available, one can never predict how a wrasse species will behave.
6.  Perhaps be happy with one nice male wrasse and avoid all the problems I've encountered 

Note: I'm still learning and haven't given up yet.  I just added two new female flames to my quarantine.   
       

[Bigtom802l]

So I think I have narrowed it down to a couple of wrasses I like.  I am debating between a whip fin fairy wrasse or a red velvet fairy wrasse or a mccosker flasher wrasse.  My tank is 125 gallons ish and five feet long.  I have a maroon clown, a regular clown fish,  ( surprising the two get along great), a kole tank, 3 yellow tangs, and a flame angle.  I would like all three but not sure about that.  I also would like to get a firefish and mandarin goby.  I am a concerned I might be headed to a overstocked tank.  Does anyone have any experience with the above listed wrasses?     

[volcano]

I like the fairy  and flasher wrasse too.   They are very pretty fish!  Like sonnyred said, they rarely make it out of a qt.  At least in my experience that is.