Leopard Wrasse. only experts??

[evolved]

If you get two females, one will become a male. So either start with one male and female or two females

Not necessarily when it comes to Macropharyngodon; they may both remain female indefinitely in a closed system.

I have been trying to get a male for about a year and lfs's are having a hard time getting one in for me, my female has been in the tank about a year, can I add a second female at this point and hope it changes to a male?

Adding a male would be ill-advised; adding another female should be okay, but won't guarantee you'll get a male out of it.

Quick question. If the sand bed is made of the tropic Eden reef flakes is that too "rough" for them to bury into?

No; that's fine enough.

 

[Alvin Alejandro]

Hi.

i want to buy a couple of Leopard Wrasse.
are they that hard to keep?? liveaquaria says "only Experts".. and im not that expert yet haha
if i buy them they will live in a 95g tank...! with 2 clowns.. and soon 2 cardinal bangai.

let me know your opinion

Me personally I don't think you have to be an expert to keep leap order wrasse you just gotta understand what their needs are. For the most part most of them won't take frozen foods so you gotta sure you have an established system with lots of cope pods till you can get them adapted to frozen foods and you have to have sand because they like to hide in it. They're really skidish. I used to have a black Leopard wrasse in my 75g and it was amazing it took me a month to get him to take frozen foods but I ended up tearing my tank down and sold him. :/

 

[Alvin Alejandro]

Oh and acclimation is a big thing. I would do very slow drip acclimation just so they don't get stressed out

 

[eatbreakfast]

Me personally I don't think you have to be an expert to keep leap order wrasse you just gotta understand what their needs are. For the most part most of them won't take frozen foods so you gotta sure you have an established system with lots of cope pods till you can get them adapted to frozen foods and you have to have sand because they like to hide in it. They're really skidish. I used to have a black Leopard wrasse in my 75g and it was amazing it took me a month to get him to take frozen foods but I ended up tearing my tank down and sold him. :/

While I agree that leopards aren't necessarily expert only, I have found that most will accept frozen food pretty quickly, and a healthy leopard will be quite inquisitive of it's surroundings.

Oh and acclimation is a big thing. I would do very slow drip acclimation just so they don't get stressed out

A long drip acclimation is one of the worst things you can so. Ammonia buildup is far more dangerous and stressful than a difference in water parameters.

 

[Alvin Alejandro]

While I agree that leopards aren't necessarily expert only, I have found that most will accept frozen food pretty quickly, and a healthy leopard will be quite inquisitive of it's surroundings.

A long drip acclimation is one of the worst things you can so. Ammonia buildup is far more dangerous and stressful than a difference in water parameters.

The first leapord I tried introducing into my tank died with in the first hour of introducing him into the tank because of short acclimation. The second one was completely fine after I did a long drip acclimation. I'm only speaking from my own experiences.

 

[eatbreakfast]

The first leapord I tried introducing into my tank died with in the first hour of introducing him into the tank because of short acclimation. The second one was completely fine after I did a long drip acclimation. I'm only speaking from my own experiences.

How do you know that it was the acclimation that killed it? Leopards are notoriously bad shippers and are also more sensitive to ammonia as well. Your sample size is one of each method. I am speaking from experience as well, and have acclimated literally hundreds of leopard wrasses, many slowly and had mixed success, but once we dropped the period of acclimation, the mortality dropped in half.

 

[dewboy1127]

@ou12004 they will change to male when its needed and if only two in tank good chance one will transition and that would be cool to see...worse case you have two female n then get a male to make beautiful trio

 

[ou12004]

Adding a male would be ill-advised; adding another female should be okay, but won't guarantee you'll get a male out of it.

Why would it be a problem to add a male?

 

[dewboy1127]

Ordered my female blue star yesterday will be here tomorrow from la will be taking the acclimation advices of @4FordFamily @evolved @eatbreakfast

 

[evolved]

Why would it be a problem to add a male?

Because there's no way to be sure your current female has not started to become a transitional male.

 

[saltyhog]

My Potters was actually not a difficult fish at all. It never hid in the sand, it ate a little within 24 hours of introduction to QT and ate vigorously at about day 3. It's one of my most outgoing fish. Mine also transitioned to male within 6 weeks of me getting him/her.

Frozen blood worms were what got mine started but it now eats anything I feed except nori..

 

[PaulKreider]

Mine was gorgeous and eating well for months, loved cyclops and baby brine, but after about 4 months she stopped eating all together and withered, I'm suspecting worms. Definitely worth the prazi qt.

 

[dewboy1127]

Wow that potters wrasse is beautiful @saltyhog

 

[dewboy1127]

Potters was and now definitely will be one of the next fish to enter my tank ...thinking a pair blue star and a potters and chaoti ... .and a bigger tank lol

 

[Brosiv474]

My two blue star leopards were the first two fish in my tank. This was at the advice of my lfs, citing their finicky nature. They advised me it would be best to do them first so they would not have to compete for food, and would have no worries regarding more aggressive fish. This theory worked well for me. They have been alive and well for a year now, and both are still female. Another suggestion was to have fish like chromis or cardinals to convince the wrasse to come out from hiding. I too was reluctant given their "expert only" label. They now eat anything that goes in the tank, and love nori as mentioned earlier.

It is also worth mentioning that I fed them 4-5 times a day with very small feedings spread throughout the day. This helped them stay out longer each day as their biological clock needed to adjust. They are now on schedule with my lights, coming out at sun up, and burrowing in the sand at sun down.

In reference to sand choices, a rough substrate is less than ideal for them. I have Carib Sea bimini pink in my tank which does have some chunks in it. However there are numerous areas in the tank that have the finer particulates that they choose for their burrows.

Once you have established them in your tank, be sure to know where their burrow is. They will return to this same spot nightly and you should make sure to avoid compromising this location.

I now consider them the most hardy fish in my tank, and by far the most beautiful.

 

[Brosiv474]

 

[cnseekatz]

Do not use rough substrate... the finer the sand, the better.

Mine all eat everything that goes into the tank, including frozen and pellets.

I strongly suggest that people do not purchase leopards online. Purchasing from a fish store provides so many benefits. You can see what they're eating (and THAT they're eating), and they should be fairly well adjusted to your time-zone. It sounds silly, but for a fish that has an actual bedtime, shipping across the world to a new time-zone can really screw it up. This is jet-lag for your fish, and it takes time for them to adjust to their new time-zone. Letting your LFS take on the risk of the acclimation of the fish is a huge plus. I won't buy one unless it's been at the fish store for at least a week, preferably 2-4 weeks.

 

[Brosiv474]

I forgot to mention, I always soaked my food in vitamins before feeding them. I also fed them mysis and brine exclusively for the first few months, solely because I did not have any tangs. After the tangs were added later, they then took to the nori, eating it off a veggie clip just as the tangs do.

These two glide through the tank along side one another all of the time. I recently added a diamond goby, and they are best buddies with it. It appears as though they are taking advantage of him stirring up critters from the sand bed.

I think I should also add a warning here... The first thought that comes to my mind when adding a new fish is always "will this new fish do ANYTHING to stress the leopards". I only say this because you will love em and they will become the priority of you tank!

 

[Triggreef]

Mine also eat nori with the tangs as much if not more than the tangs. Lol but that didn't start until well after getting them to the display.

To answer your original post, they are labeled that way due to a high mortality rate. They are tough to quarantine due to their poor shipping capabilities. Just do a ton of research and learn about them before buying, essentially becoming an expert.

I prefer to qt by bringing them immediately into a large clean tank set up as a display, fully cycled. This way it's like throwing them right into a display. I dose at least 2 rounds of prazi followed by observation. When all is good, I like tank transfer method. Then into display.

That said I have no doubt if done properly they would do fine in copper by someone very experienced with using it. @melypr1985

 

[Flashy Fins]

I get the importance of seeing the fish with your own eyes, seeing it in good condition and eating, but LFS purchases are a financial risk I don't like to take with delicate fish.

If I order from LA, I can't know whether I'll get one with a damaged mouth or other problems. What I do know is that I'll get a refund if the fish dies within the first couple of weeks, which I would expect to happen if the fish was seriously compromised. Further, if you do get a fish with problems and alert them, they will sometimes (not always) extend the guarantee a bit.

There are pros and cons to both LFS and online purchasing, and each person has to make the decision for themselves. For me personally, I've been burned too many times by store purchases (not of leopards, just in general). The guarantee is key for me.