Convince this beginner I shouldn't get a pair of Leopard Wrasse

[>>klong<<]

The fish supplier I've been getting fish from has gotten in a pair (I think) of Divided Leopard Wrasse (Macropharyngodon Bipartitus). I've done a little bit of reading on these fish and it seems that they are difficult because of their diet, which includes a live critters for them to hunt. I started my tank 3 months ago with dry rock, so I don't have a ton of pods or other creatures for the wrasse to hunt yet.

I've also read that they will take frozen foods. Every fish I've gotten from this supplier has hit the tank and immediately eaten anything I've put in - pellets, frozen, nori - whatever. If the wrasse are eating throughout their QT process and are eating frozen foods, would it still be unwise for a beginner to purchase these fish?

If there's anything else besides diet that that I should be concerned with, I'm all ears. Should I go for it or pass?

 

[Bepis]

A fish like this no matter what you feed will need many feedings a day. You need to ask yourself will you commit to this and depending on your tank size you may need a refugium. What size is your tank, how many times a day do you plan to feed frozen, and will your tank be able to support a fish that is a constant forager and practically requires a healthy population of pods?

 

[EakTheFreak]

The fish supplier I've been getting fish from has gotten in a pair (I think) of Divided Leopard Wrasse (Macropharyngodon Bipartitus). I've done a little bit of reading on these fish and it seems that they are difficult because of their diet, which includes a live critters for them to hunt. I started my tank 3 months ago with dry rock, so I don't have a ton of pods or other creatures for the wrasse to hunt yet.

I've also read that they will take frozen foods. Every fish I've gotten from this supplier has hit the tank and immediately eaten anything I've put in - pellets, frozen, nori - whatever. If the wrasse are eating throughout their QT process and are eating frozen foods, would it still be unwise for a beginner to purchase these fish?

If there's anything else besides diet that that I should be concerned with, I'm all ears. Should I go for it or pass?

Here is a thread I ran. Not sure if this seems advanced to you. I’ve been researching and reading about this hobby for years. I’ve had my tank for about 1-1/2 years. The 3 Blue STARS are getting big and still doing great in my DT. I have a decent POD population but I think if you seeded your tank with a decent sized order from Algae barn and kept them in QT and got them eating what you wanted you could make it happen.

Quarantine Experience with Blue Star Leopard Wrasses

Good Evening, I wanted to document my first attempt at quarantining BLUE STAR LEOPARD WRASSES. Did days of research with direct communication with @Humblefish . Ended up matching my salinity to what Live Aquaria told me on the phone which was 1.018-1.020. I set my 29 Gallon QT tank to...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[CMMorgan]

If you are willing to jump in to the commitment, I say go for it. The tank is young to support a pod population, so I'd consider if you are willing to get auto shipments from @AlgaeBarn to keep the wrasse fed. +1 @Bepis on the fuge. That is a good way to build up the pods.
At the end of the day... if it makes you happy and you have no other fish conflicts - be happy.

 

[vetteguy53081]

HOW CAN YOU SAY NO ?????

 

[>>klong<<]

@vetteguy53081 is not helping with my impulsiveness.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Leopard Wrasses would seem to be the ideal reef fish. Not only do they not bother sessile reef animals that reef keeper’s prize, but they are considered beneficial. BUT . . . . . . the Leopard wrasse is a mid sized wrasse that is difficult to keep in the home aquarium. They are easily stressed out, reducing their survival rates in new tanks. Unforgiving with changes in the water parameters, only those with extremely stable tanks and a trusted store to purchase this from should consider the Leopard Wrasse.
The Leopard Wrasse is not a danger to any inverts bigger than a few centimeters. They should not harm any cleaner shrimp, feather dusters or small crabs. Likewise they are not a threat to any corals in the tank.

 

[Bepis]

@vetteguy53081 is not helping with my impulsiveness.

Lol. But considering @vetteguy53081 has a 660g tank that’s a little unfair. ;Happy

 

[>>klong<<]

. . . . . the Leopard wrasse is a mid sized wrasse that is difficult to keep in the home aquarium. They are easily stressed out, reducing their survival rates in new tanks. Unforgiving with changes in the water parameters, only those with extremely stable tanks and a trusted store to purchase this from should consider the Leopard Wrasse.

That's more like it.

 

[RBZ]

I'm don't ever tell anyone that they shouldn't do something.
With that said, maybe think of it this way.
First it says "Expert Only" generally most people want to try something even though it say that. You have been in the hobby 3 months and have a lot to learn that you may not know about after a year in this hobby. My take is Don't be selfish and take on something you don't have the experience or confidence in since you are asking us to talk you out of it. Lastly, I'll leave you with this. Think of the fish and how long of a life span they possibly can have with an Expert caring for them an the life span they might have from a beginner. Do it for the fish and stay away until you have the confidence and know how to take on the challenge. Just say NO.

 

[>>klong<<]

I'm don't ever tell anyone that they shouldn't do something.
With that said, maybe think of it this way.
First it says "Expert Only" generally most people want to try something even though it say that. You have been in the hobby 3 months and have a lot to learn that you may not know about after a year in this hobby. My take is Don't be selfish and take on something you don't have the experience or confidence in since you are asking us to talk you out of it. Lastly, I'll leave you with this. Think of the fish and how long of a life span they possibly can have with an Expert caring for them an the life span they might have from a beginner. Do it for the fish and stay away until you have the confidence and know how to take on the challenge. Just say NO.

Thx. The title of the thread was a bit of snark - it does sometimes take something extra to get noticed especially during prime time. I gotta say that the thread title got some good attention. And some good feedback. The reason I'm asking is because I want to know "why" the species is difficult. Is it ONLY diet? Is diet potentially overcome by conditioning the fish to take other foods, or, as others have mentioned, dosing pods regularly.

vetteguy's response helped a lot. Super stable water params are not where I am at. I learned something from his response. I really like R2R because there are a lot of people that are really generous with sharing their knowledge with new reefers.

 

[Sam816]

you don't want to start your journey with burden of dead fish on your mind. you know your tank can't support them why are you even considering this? there are many equally stunning alternatives. especially in wrasse family. most of them work as worm terminators as well.

 

[ca1ore]

The reason that the various leopard wrasses are considered to be expert only is because they ship very poorly and require a gentle acclimation - ideally into their own reef tank where they can become accustomed to the foods you offer. They do not require live copepods, like the mandarin, but are easily intimidated until fully acclimated. I typically keep new leopards in my 29 gallon acclimation tank for a couple of months until they are feeding well and have adopted to my time zone. Assuming they survive shipping, the vast majority take to frozen brine and mysis. If you buy from LFS, make sure they don’t show pinching behind the head. This means they are starved and almost never survive.

 

[CMMorgan]

HOW CAN YOU SAY NO ?????

Dang @vetteguy53081 ... now I want him. LOL Too bad my LFS told me my six line would go ballistic. Too bad they are such an ornery bunch because a tank filled with different wrasse would be amazing to see.

 

[Sam816]

The reason that the various leopard wrasses are considered to be expert only is because they ship very poorly and require a gentle acclimation - ideally into their own reef tank where they can become accustomed to the foods you offer. They do not require live copepods, like the mandarin, but are easily intimidated until fully acclimated. I typically keep new leopards in my 29 gallon acclimation tank for a couple of months until they are feeding well and have adopted to my time zone. Assuming they survive shipping, the vast majority take to frozen brine and mysis. If you buy from LFS, make sure they don’t show pinching behind the head. This means they are starved and almost never survive.

Completely agree with you
I have a kuiter's wrasse. It's expert only according to live aquaria fish profile page. My lfs didn't sell it to me till it started eating. Even after that he told me to take a Naoko he was houses with. Lfs sales guy told me that kuiter will be more comfortable with the Naoko and follow him and eat whatever Naoko will eat and true enough he eats everything including hikari seaweed extreme pellets.
But the leopard wrasse OP wants are way more trickier since they eat small portions and prefer smaller bite size food.

 

[OrionN]

They are beautiful wrasse. Once acclimated, they will eat everything. Flakes, Pellets and frozen. I love mine.
They are some what difficult but not impossible to get establish in a mature reef tank.

 

[sergifed91]

I got a pair. Myself. But I waited to get 2bof them. I dosed pods from algea barn twice a month for 6 months. Then got a mated pair of wrasse. Then qted them for 30 days. While still dosing pods 2 more times while they were if qt. By this time I could see my sump, fuge and dt with a huge amount of pods. So now I don't worry about it. Although I still dose pods it's really not as frequent as before. More like every couple times of months. If I have to take cheato out then I'll shake it on the dt and hope I got most of the posa out of the cheato before I take it to the lfs or give it away to local reefera.

 

[OrionN]

For me a few days I already got my new pair of Leopard to start to eat pellets. They are growing fast getting feed by my automatic pellets feeder

 

[HB AL]

I would just go down tomorrow and buy them

 

[OrionN]

I acclimated my difficult fish in a 40 gal reef that are full of fauna and flora as seen in the video above. Even in daylight, I see lots of mysis swim around and lots of amphipods and copepods. As long as the fish arrive to me healthy, I usually get them to eat in there.
If you plan to QT in a sterile tank with PVC hiding place and plan to treat them with medication or doing tank transfer, you likely will not get them through QT alive most of the time.
The other wrasses are dither fish. They are very aggressive eater, but not aggressive fish, and will excited the Leopard into eating, when they go after the food. It is away easy to teach fish, especially young fish, to eat certain food with other fish that eat essentially the same thing. They see the other fish eat something and learn that these are food. The two Leopards shown in the video, were both around 1.5 inches when I got them from @galactic_coral in Houston.