keeping leopard wrasse

badstorm48

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I was just wondering about keeping these types of wrasse. I really like them and feel they would be a great addition to my tank. Just looking at advice at keeping these types of wrasse. At my lfs they don't get them in. He told me they are very hard to keep, but at the time I wasn't looking at them so, I didn't ask many questions about them. I would have to ask him to order one in so, I can't really look at them and watch them to see if they eat prepared foods. In my tank I have a red lined wrasse, vlamingi tang, tribal blenny, and ocellaris clown just one. My tank is very peaceful. Just want advice on keeping them and where the best place to get them from? Also what types are easier and harder to keep?
 

4FordFamily

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Red lines can be aggressive for halochoeres wrasse. They tend to do better in groups in my experience, but especially with a potentially aggressive tankmate.

They don't ship well and they'll hide for days to even several weeks after being added typically. They need to be treated for intestinal parasites with prazipro (reef safe) once eating.

The hardest to keep are the choati and kuiteri in my opinion. Ornate, melagris, negronesis, bipartisan are the " easier"species IMO.

Good luck!
 
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badstorm48

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Red lines can be aggressive for halochoeres wrasse. They tend to do better in groups in my experience, but especially with a potentially aggressive tankmate.

They don't ship well and they'll hide for days to even several weeks after being added typically. They need to be treated for intestinal parasites with prazipro (reef safe) once eating.

The hardest to keep are the choati and kuiteri in my opinion. Ornate, melagris, negronesis, bipartisan are the " easier"species IMO.

Good luck!

Thank you for the info. How are they with eating? Are they hard to get eating prepared foods such as flakes and frozen.
 
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badstorm48

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I've been looking at the bipartitus, meleagris, and geoffroyi. Especially the bipartitus also known as the blue star leopard wrasse or I like the geoffroyi as well known as the potters wrasse.
 

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Thank you for the info. How are they with eating? Are they hard to get eating prepared foods such as flakes and frozen.
Flakes pretty hard but in fairness I don't feed flakes to my fish.

They are more difficult than most wrasse but they find live blackworms irresistible.
 

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I've been looking at the bipartitus, meleagris, and geoffroyi. Especially the bipartitus also known as the blue star leopard wrasse or I like the geoffroyi as well known as the potters wrasse.
I hear the potters is difficult - mine has been hardy as a horse I've never had any issues. I hear they're not the hardiest though frequently.
 
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I hear the potters is difficult - mine has been hardy as a horse I've never had any issues. I hear they're not the hardiest though frequently.

I'll probably go with the blue star leopard wrasse then. You think there will be some wrasse aggression from my red lined wrasse?
 

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My M. geoffroyi has been very hardy. I've had him about 2 years. In QT I got him started eating with frozen blood worms and gradually got him eating mysis and LRS. I agree with 4fordfamily, I only feed frozen and nori to my fish.

Potters1%201%20of%201_zpsrz3tukf2.jpg
 
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Okay cool. If the blue star is easier to get to adapt and all that I'll probably go with that though I really like the potters.
 

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Okay cool. If the blue star is easier to get to adapt and all that I'll probably go with that though I really like the potters.
I've personally had horrible luck with female blue star, but great luck with males. Probably a coincidence as everyone else reports the opposite and says blue star are one of the easier leopards (although there is not a truly easy leopard wrasse).

To answer your other question red lined can be sassy at times, I wouldn't say they're aggressive, just that they're one of the most aggressive halichoeres wrasse (which is not an aggressive genus at all). You would be well served to get a social acclimation box for wrasse additions, although because leopards love to bury in the sand I'm not sure how much it would help here.

@eatbreakfast @evolved might be able to assist with that
 

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I actually find red lined wrasses, Halichoeres biocellatus, to be very peaceful, one of the most peaceful in the gwnus after H. chrysus.

Macropharyngodon wrasses don't handle shipping well and often have internal parasites. Once both of those problems are solved, leopards can be quite hardy. I finf bipartitus and ornatus are the easiest.
 

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My M. geoffroyi has been very hardy. I've had him about 2 years. In QT I got him started eating with frozen blood worms and gradually got him eating mysis and LRS. I agree with 4fordfamily, I only feed frozen and nori to my fish.

Potters1%201%20of%201_zpsrz3tukf2.jpg

Wow NICE looking fish. Where did you get it from? I'm looking to get one soon. I have a Potters Angelfish that's doing exceptionally well. Big, fat and very active fish with nice color.

IMG_1480352407.060487.jpg

 

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Such beautiful fish!
 

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Wow NICE looking fish. Where did you get it from? I'm looking to get one soon. I have a Potters Angelfish that's doing exceptionally well. Big, fat and very active fish with nice color.

IMG_1480352407.060487.jpg


I was lucky and found him at my LFS. He eats from my hand. Very active and personable fish.
 

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I've had success with a few different macropharyngodon species. My best advise is to ONLY purchase a fish from a store where she's been for at least a week, and you can watch her eat. You can get a lot of different species online, but getting them to accept prepared foods can be difficult, so give yourself a head-start by only purchasing a fish that's past that already.

Make sure you have a nice soft sand bed with at least 1.5" of sand. I don't QT my leopards, but do recommend an isolation box to introduce into your tank. This will give you the opportunity to observe them for a couple days, get them used to tank mates, your choice of food, and your light cycle. A lot of times, if you just toss them into the display, they'll disappear under the sand, and you may or may not see them again. I usually just put some macro-algae from my fuge in the iso-box with them so they can pick pods between feedings, and they can burrow underneath it if they're feeling shy. For food, I would recommend PE Calanus. It's a frozen zooplankton that all my wrasses have loved, even if they haven't been interested in other frozen foods.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...4c2j31aNaMZv74BDQZ38ZDP2lDJvFs94--RoC2pHw_wcB

I've successfully introduced bipartitus, geoffroy, ornatus and chaoti in this way. Here's my chaoti chilling in her iso-box.

20160111_172022_zpsuufyw73h.jpg

20160111_172047_zps6ycai6mg.jpg
 

ca1ore

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The trick with leopards is to get them to the point that they will take most frozen with enthusiasm. This is difficult to do in a community tank. I keep a 30 lomg continuously setup as a full reef analog to my main tank. It's a perfect, low stress way to get these fish acclimated.
 
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badstorm48

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I have the sand bed. I think the hardest thing I will have to go through is one that is already eating. I have never seen my lfs carry leopards so I can probably guarantee that I will have to get one online. The hard part is getting one that is eating prepared foods online. I know some places will say if they are or are not eating prepared foods. Oh how. If of an acclimation box should I get? I have kept very porous filter type media in my sump to have pods and I take the filter media out and hide it behind the rocks every week to get pods in the dt tank.
 

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Pods are great, but they're not necessary for leopards in the same way that they are necessary for mandarins. I've kept dozens of leopards over the years, of all the regularly available species, and only two of them refused to eat frozen (a choati and a black). BUT, all went into a low stress environment - early on my refugium, now a separate purpose QT. I've lost them for other reasons than feeding though. Asking a fish that ships and acclimates poorly to survive the initial harassment in a community tank is asking too much. It's no wonder the success rate is so low.
 

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The trick with leopards is to get them to the point that they will take most frozen with enthusiasm. This is difficult to do in a community tank. I keep a 30 lomg continuously setup as a full reef analog to my main tank. It's a perfect, low stress way to get these fish acclimated.

I agree completely. I have a cycled 29 gallon QT that I use for all of my difficult fish. All other fish also spend about 4-5 weeks in it after completing tank transfer. By the time they finish QT in the tank they are well acclimated to captive life, associate me with food and are ready to compete in the big tank for food. I really don't have any shy fish. Believe it or not my least assertive is an Azure Damsel.
 

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The trick with leopards is to get them to the point that they will take most frozen with enthusiasm. This is difficult to do in a community tank. I keep a 30 lomg continuously setup as a full reef analog to my main tank. It's a perfect, low stress way to get these fish acclimated.

I would second this opinion. I have a blue star leopard wrasse harem (1 male, 2 females) which I QT'ed for approximately 6 weeks before introducing them into the larger 90G reef. They have all been aggressive eaters following the QT process and I started with live blackworms which I then transitioned to LRS. Now since they've been in the DT, they have also started eating pellets (PE Mysis pellets in particular) and even nori (which I found out after the fact that they also enjoy). My anecdotal experience has been that QT is key to get them eating well and then they adapt very well to the larger reef.
 
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