keeping leopard wrasse

Wesus · Nov 29, 2016

I had no problems with mine leopard wrasse. She is in my tank since August and eats like a pig. I feed my fish with various frozen food, sometimes pellets. She is best friend with yellow tang, they roam together all the time.

becks · Nov 29, 2016

Mine ate like a pig from day one too, she was only small and I think it helps that my LFS holds his fish for 2 weeks to settle after the stress from shipping.

badstorm48 · Nov 29, 2016

Wesus said:
I had no problems with mine leopard wrasse. She is in my tank since August and eats like a pig. I feed my fish with various frozen food, sometimes pellets. She is best friend with yellow tang, they roam together all the time.

Where did you get yours from and I'm taking it as a female leopard since you referred to it as her? Did you just put her right in your dt tank or did you do something special before introducing into dt tank? I don't have a qt tank set up the only thing I could do is get a acclimation box set up but I feel that the small space would just stress them out even more. What do y'all think? I really don't have many fish in my tank and the ones I do have are extremely passive and peaceful even my wrasse. I'm just trying to think of the best way to make it work. So far it looks like I'm going to have to get one online and just hope for the best.

Wesus · Nov 29, 2016

I got her from LFS in Old Seybrook CT and I was told it is female. Since I don't have QT tank I only used drip acclimation and introduce her to my tank after one hour. She buried in sand for couple hours and later showed up at feeding time. Best way is to quarantine fish for 4-6 weeks, but I took my chances and got lucky. If you are going to buy fish online you need acclimate fish probably longer. My was travelling only for 30 min and water temp was pretty much the same like water in my tank. I think acclimation box may stress fish more. If you have sand bad may be better to let her burrow in sand

badstorm48 · Nov 29, 2016

Yeah that's what I was thinking. Thanks for the info.

saltyhog · Nov 29, 2016

Actually when I buy on line I don't do any drip acclimation at all. I find out the salinity that the fish will be shipped in, match my QT tank to that and transfer immediately to the QT tank after a brief bag float to equalize temp. pH and ammonia toxicity rise with each passing minute in shipped fish. That is much more dangerous to fish than even moderate amounts of salinity change.

RMS18 · Nov 29, 2016

I have these 2 girls in qt at the moment (terrible picture!)

They have been in qt for 3 weeks now, 1 round of prazi done. They eat frozen mysis, brime, live black worms and pe calanus. They do have big appetites and eat all day long. At my lfs one of them ate the other didn't, but after about a week of hiding in qt the larger female ate for the first time. I tried one lepord wrasse before these 2, she died after 3 days in qt. She never ate once, I think it comes down to how they were collected and acclimated at the wholesaler and lfs. I did a 30 min acclimation, floated the bag and changed out some water every 10 minutes. My water comes from my lfs so I knew the parameters would be the same which I read is important with these wrasse. I left the lights out for 3 days, and have 2 large sand containers in there.

badstorm48 · Nov 30, 2016

See I don't have a qt that I can do that with. Was thinking of just draining most of the water from the bag and taking a shot glass of my tank water putting it in the bag every ten minutes for 30 minutes maybe so that they can get used to my water or I was thinking just float the bag for 15 minutes to let the temp get right and just put them on in the tank

RMS18 · Nov 30, 2016

badstorm48 said:
See I don't have a qt that I can do that with. Was thinking of just draining most of the water from the bag and taking a shot glass of my tank water putting it in the bag every ten minutes for 30 minutes maybe so that they can get used to my water or I was thinking just float the bag for 15 minutes to let the temp get right and just put them on in the tank

Why not just go buy a 15 gallon tank? Then you will have a qt yoy can do that with [emoji6]
Putting them into your dt could infect other fish if they are carrying anything. All of my wrasses I have bought had flukes.

badstorm48 · Nov 30, 2016

Have no room for one that's the main reason

RMS18 · Nov 30, 2016

badstorm48 said:
Have no room for one that's the main reason

Oo stop that is the worst excuse ever. It takes up 20 inch by 12 inch lol for 3-4 weeks.

alex.mccann99 · Nov 30, 2016

I've been successful in the past keeping a pair of Leopard wrasses. I started with one, after about 6 months, added two more, bought through Liveaquaria.com. One of them ended up being bullied by the two and was found dead after about a week. The original one I had in there ended up turning male, nice turquoise blue coloration and slightly larger. They would swim together and bed down in the sand right next to each other, was very cool. The first one I had was eating pellets at the LFS, which is why I bought him right away, they sell very quickly when this is the case. Once in my tank, they both would eat pretty much anything, even the Nori sheets I put in for my Tang. I did Dose my tank and refugium about once a month with Copepods and Amphipods, because it seemed they were always hunting, even after they loaded up on Mysis, I'm sure it was just instincts to do so. With two Leopards, a Yellow Coris and a Mandarin, it was important to keep the pod population up. They were easily the highlight of the tank, always beautiful to watch swim in and out of the live rock with the exciting spotted patterns and colors. I never had any problems having the yellow coris in there with them, minded their own business. They are tricky fish to keep, need to pay attention to their eating habits. I would say if you don't see them hunting around your live rock / sand bed and actively eating, then it could be a sign of a problem. I have heard they frequently will starve to death, because of lack of pods and inability to get them to take prepared foods, Mysis, Pellets, etc.

alex.mccann99 · Nov 30, 2016

You might watch for one to show up on DiversDen. Don't they quarantine the fish on there. I know people who've got them there before, eating anything right from the get go.

tom reilly · Nov 30, 2016

Bmwm235i said:
Oo stop that is the worst excuse ever. It takes up 20 inch by 12 inch lol for 3-4 weeks.

You can Q T in a 5 gallon plastic bucket.

wowkingjames · Nov 30, 2016

I always wanted one, lfs never have them I think I've seen them once in a store which no longer exist. Where do you get black worms and thanks for the information plan on getting one in the near future.

badstorm48 · Nov 30, 2016

Yeah I was thinking of keeping a look out on divers den or somewhere that keeps a guarantee on them. Which with the qt I just graduated college and got a job so I still live with mom until I can get my own place. So I'm limited to what I can keep in my room so that's where I literally have no space to set up a qt.

Daniel@R2R · Dec 1, 2016

Great info in this thread!

falconut · Dec 1, 2016

I've had my ornate for over two years. A LFS had two in stock that were eating with gust we both picked 1 up. His is doing great to. My advice would be to find on locally that's eating really good or find an online vender that will guarantee its eating and give a guarantee. Good luck.

badstorm48 · Dec 5, 2016

That's what my plan is. Looking at getting one from live aquaria since they have a 14 day guarantee on there fish and other online places that have them that also give a guarantee and hopefully an already feeding one. Like I know nyaquatics will get hard to keep fish and only sell the ones that are already eating from what they say on there website on certain fish.

tj w · Dec 6, 2016

badstorm48 said:
That's what my plan is. Looking at getting one from live aquaria since they have a 14 day guarantee on there fish and other online places that have them that also give a guarantee and hopefully an already feeding one. Like I know nyaquatics will get hard to keep fish and only sell the ones that are already eating from what they say on there website on certain fish.

Be sure to read the warranty claim on each species. I know quite a few vendors will not have a 14 day policy on finicky fish. Just do your research where you choose to buy. Some sites say due to the delicate nature of the fish they only allow DOA warranty claims on them.