What Fish?

Pat24601

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
I wonder what makes it expert care? It's diet? The small invertebrates looks a little intimidating maybe, but the frozen mysis and brine doesn't.

"A 50 gallon or larger aquarium with well established live rock and a layer of live sand is recommended. They will do best when introduced in groups of three or more. It eats small invertebrates (foraminiferans and amphiopods) that grow on live rock.

The Leopard Wrasse diet should include vitamin enriched frozen mysis shrimp, vitamin enriched frozen brine shrimp, and other meaty foods along with a high quality marine flake and marine pellet food."
 
Coraljunkie

Coraljunkie

Well-Known Member
The fish I pictured, will it change color and pattern at all or will it stay that way? What species is it? I've read that it can hurt itself while in transit
 
Coraljunkie

Coraljunkie

Well-Known Member
Is it possible to buy a female leopard wrasse macropharyngodon meleagris and she will stay a female? I'm still confused about the whole sex change thing...
 
nanoreefing4fun

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
not sure about leopard wrasses, but in the fish would, if I remember right from what other RS members have said.... , fish that change sexes - like clownfish as one example, are all born males & if needed, they can convert to female :apple:

See what others can advise... :crowd:
 
Coraljunkie

Coraljunkie

Well-Known Member
After doing a good amount of research I'm going to try the leopard wrasse meleagris. I spoke with the owner of the store that I usually go to and he has about a dozen of juveniles in stock and he said they're all eating pellets. I'm gonna go inspect them and watch them eat tomorrow.
 
Oxylebius

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
Okay, you still seem hesitant and justifiably so. This fish can be hard to transition to new tanks for a number of reasons. Both @PSU4ME Byran and I bought multiple fish b/c it is widely known that many don't make it. Indeed, not all of ours survived. This is not a fish for the less experienced. Agree watching them eat at the lfs is recommended. Look for stringing poop from their anus, indicate intestinal parasites. Also look for damaged mouths.

Articles to read:
http://animal-world.com/encyclo/marine/wrasses/LeopardWrasse.php
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/macropharyngodon.htm
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/3/aaeditorial

All of the Leopard Wrasses are born as females. If there is no male present, one female will become male and the color pattern changes. If you have two or more, the largest will become male and the others will stay female.

meleagris: Adult male patterning is more streamlined; having an orange-red body with dark green spots, lines on the head, and a dark 'ear' spot.

Information:

Shipping and at lfs, what to look for:
  • They don't ship well. They can damage their mouths while shipping. Also since they need to eat often they can starve or weaken their immune system while being shipped, since they aren't getting food as often as they should.
  • Their mouths sometimes get damaged when shipped or if they are kept in tanks with less than 2 inches of sand, thus examine the mouth for any abrasions or cuts or any damage at all.
  • A damaged mouth can prevent the poor fish from eating and possibly lead to starvation.
  • When scared the fish dives fast into the sand bed, if there are any large piece of rubble mixed in the sand, large granule sand, or a shallow sand bed the fish can damage its mouth. Sugar fine aragonitic substrate is ideal. Sharper, larger grades of sand can cause stress, damage, secondary infection and death.
  • If the fish is thin, It can take several months to bring this wrasse up to normal weight.

Jet-lagged:
  • Yup! If it was recently captured and shipped to you or a lfs, at first the fish will be on a different time zone and will take time to acclimate to the hours that you have the tank lights on for.
  • Don't be freaked out if your fish dives into the sand and stays there for several days up to a week or more w/o you seeing it.
  • Hopefully it will come out eventually and start to eat. Seriously, I've had three. One came out after a couple of days and another didn't come out for a week. I remember @PSU4ME Byran mentioning that one of his stayed in the sand close to a month before emerging.
  • Also, anytime you move this fish to a new tank, the fish will dart straight down into the sand bed and may not be seen for a couple of days.

QT or not to QT:
  • You are going to get mixed opinions on QT'ing this fish. There are pros and cons to both. The fish can be hard to acclimate to your time zone, hard to get to start eating, they need a deep sand bed, and they known to have intestinal worms. You can do all this in a QT. But, it may mean extra work on your part.
  • If the fish at the lfs are already eating readily, then I recommend a good QT and treat for worms. As many as 75 to 85% of these wrasses arrive with intestinal worms. If the fish is not eating readily the argument against QT is that the it will learn to eat from example of other fish and the stimulus of a community feeding frenzy.
  • Treating in QT: you can treat with 250 mg (.0089 ounces) of Piperazine, praziquantel, or levamisole per 100g of food (3.5 ounces) each day for 10 days. Another option is niclosamide at 500 mg (.0176 ounces) per 100g of food (3.5 ounces) for 10 days. You may have to gut load live foods to administer the medication. These recommended doses came from this article. Always double check the recommended doses on the label of meds.
  • I opted to try out Dr. G's medicated fish food, ordered online, I got the anti-parasitic caviar fish food. It may not eat it at first. I fed the main tank and all the other fish eating it got this fish to start to eat it. I ran extra carbon and changed it more frequently. The risk was to my sps. All was fine. This was last Sept - Dec.
  • The fish needs SAND! Even in the QT. If you don't have sand in the QT, then use a good sized plastic container (disposable Glad tupperware) and fill it with sand for the fish. After QT, since meds are used, dispose of sand and tupperware container since they are now contaminated with meds.
  • Need to completely cover the top of the system, not just have the water level down a few inches; as these fish can really launch themselves out of systems w/ small-enough openings topside.

Eating Behavior:
  • They forage and eat all day long. Feeding a couple times a day, small amounts works best for them. They have an unusually high food budget and they must be fed a lot.
  • Having extra pods and repopulating your pod population often helps this fish get enough food. The fish will devour your pod population in your main tank. Adding new pods quarterly (every three months) to your main tank will help the fish stay healthy and well. Add pods at night, when lights are out, and all fish are a sleep. This will help the pods find rocks to hide/live in w/o your fish picking them off when first introduced.
  • At first this fish will only eat live food, transitioning it to mysis or black worms can take time and a lot of effort and patience, thus best for the more experienced aquarist. If the lfs has them eating, make sure you see them eat before purchasing. Buy the food they are eating, and later on you can transition them to other foods.
  • The fish also may not eat for days after being moved to a new aquarium. So don't freak out. Giving them the food that they are already used to eating (at the lfs) will help get them eating in the new tank. You can transition after that.

After QT:
  • After the quarantine period transfer the wrasse to its new aquarium. Do this at night using a couple nets to capture the wrasse.
  • Do not use a a container for capturing as you do not want your just awoken wrasse darting into the sides and damaging it's mouth. Either keep in the net or transfer to a bag.
  • It will be under the sand and generally they pick one favorite spot. Use one net to probe on one side of his spot and the other to catch the fish as It dashes out, away from the probing net in panic.
  • Once netted, transfer it to the main aquarium. If the two aquariums are not the same temperature, you may need to temperature acclimate the wrasse first. To do this, deposit the fish into a plastic bag. Float the bag in the main aquarium for about 10 to 15 minutes, then release the wrasse into the aquarium.
  • The fish will dart straight down into the sand bed and may not be seen for several days.

Habitat in Tank:
  • Lots of rocks to support a pod population.
  • A good sized sand bed is best for them. A minimum 2" sand bed is imperative, and more is even better.
  • These fishes are avid burrowers, hence the need for finer, rounder (not angular like silicates) sand. Sugar fine aragonitic substrate is ideal. Don't have sand that is larger grades, this causes stress, damage, secondary infection and death.
  • They will sleep in the sand at night.
  • And dive into the sand when scared.
  • Don't house with semi-aggressive or aggressive fish.
  • Using a tight fitting lid lid is a good idea as they may jump if semi-aggressive fish are in the tank.
 
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Coraljunkie

Coraljunkie

Well-Known Member
That's very helpful thank you all. I've been told that the juvenile if kept without another wrasse will stay female?? I know in your info it says otherwise. I'm still on the fence about this fish. I'm always up for a challenge and I have a qt setup and running. The part that makes me most hesitant is, and I know this sounds a little crazy given the difficulty of this fish, but I'd want a female due to the color and pattern...
 
Oxylebius

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
If you want the female color, then get two of them. There isn't going to be anything in the tank to stop it from transitioning. If it happens, it happens.
 
Coraljunkie

Coraljunkie

Well-Known Member
Definitely appreciated. I'm gonna save a life and decide to not get one. The search continues for a colorful fish that swims in the open... any suggestions will be appreciated.
 
NickF

NickF

Well-Known Member
That's excellent info from Oxylebius, I made the classic noob error of buying a Leopard Wrasse as an impulse buy when I'd gone to the lfs for another fish and they didn't have it in, but I saw the Leopard Wrasse & bought it before doing any research on it. I nearly took it back when I read it was difficult to keep and expert only but I've never had any problems with it eating, it eats frozen foods, flakes and pellets.
I've had it 10 months now and it's doing great.

Here's my favourite pic of it:



My lfs called it a Peacock Wrasse but I think they are also called Blue Star Leopard Wrasse.
 
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