Leopard Wrasse Recovery

[Zachvet]

Hey all,

I have a beautiful male Blue Star Leopard wrasse who has been in my 135g display for 3 years. I’ve had him on frozen and pellets for years now. I’ve also had a mystery wrasse for roughly 1.5 years and the two have been getting along fine with the leopard being dominant.

Long story short, I believe my fish got a bit of ammonia poisoning from my increased feeding and lazy maintenance. Totally my fault - one of my Clowns and my leopard were looking pretty sickly. I’ve gotten back on schedule with maintenance and everyone seems to be bouncing back with the exception of my leopard wrasse. I think his sickness upset the wrasse hierarchy and the mystery wrasse is really beating him up. He wont even let him out of the sand to eat!

Today, the leopard emerged looking VERY skinny. I netted him (which is a testament to how weak he was) and have him quarantined. He’s eating small amounts of food and I hope to slowly nurse him back to health over the next few weeks in quarantine.

I’d love any tips to help get his strength back up and start eating larger amounts. I don’t usually like to medicate but I’m open to it if anything might help. I’d also appreciate any ideas on how I can reintroduce him to the display in the coming weeks. He is my absolute favorite fish and I don’t want to rehome him.

tl;dr - tips on how to nurse a beat up leopard wrasse back to health and how to reintroduce him to the display?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hey all,

I have a beautiful male Blue Star Leopard wrasse who has been in my 135g display for 3 years. I’ve had him on frozen and pellets for years now. I’ve also had a mystery wrasse for roughly 1.5 years and the two have been getting along fine with the leopard being dominant.

Long story short, I believe my fish got a bit of ammonia poisoning from my increased feeding and lazy maintenance. Totally my fault - one of my Clowns and my leopard were looking pretty sickly. I’ve gotten back on schedule with maintenance and everyone seems to be bouncing back with the exception of my leopard wrasse. I think his sickness upset the wrasse hierarchy and the mystery wrasse is really beating him up. He wont even let him out of the sand to eat!

Today, the leopard emerged looking VERY skinny. I netted him (which is a testament to how weak he was) and have him quarantined. He’s eating small amounts of food and I hope to slowly nurse him back to health over the next few weeks in quarantine.

I’d love any tips to help get his strength back up and start eating larger amounts. I don’t usually like to medicate but I’m open to it if anything might help. I’d also appreciate any ideas on how I can reintroduce him to the display in the coming weeks. He is my absolute favorite fish and I don’t want to rehome him.

tl;dr - tips on how to nurse a beat up leopard wrasse back to health and how to reintroduce him to the display?

Did you test and find high ammonia? High ammonia in an established tank is virtually unheard of unless something was done that killed the beneficial bacteria. It could have been another water quality issue such as low pH.

All I can suggest now is to feed it high protein, high fat foods like mysids, in small amounts, multiple times each day (4x). Cutting the mysids smaller may help the wrasse eat them. Of course, don't let any food lay on the bottom after the feeds, and since it is a new tank, monitor the ammonia level.

Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

As stated, and great that it is eating. . . add selcon vitamins to the foods occasionally and in addition to mysis(mysids), spirulina brine shrimp, LRS fish frenzy (fats and aminos in this good), small plankton, formula 1 frozen to start with.

 

[SaltyT]

I agree with all the above. The only thing I'll add is it's unlikely you'll be able to reintroduce your leopard back in with your mystery wrasse. Pseudocheilinus spp. don't have much tolerance for other wrasses as they mature. If you're able to rehabilitate your leopard you'll need to choose which wrasse you want to keep as the outlook isn't good for these two being able to coexist any longer.

 

[Zachvet]

Great advice thanks all!

I agree with all the above. The only thing I'll add is it's unlikely you'll be able to reintroduce your leopard back in with your mystery wrasse. Pseudocheilinus spp. don't have much tolerance for other wrasses as they mature. If you're able to rehabilitate your leopard you'll need to choose which wrasse you want to keep as the outlook isn't good for these two being able to coexist any longer.

I’m wondering what would happen if I added multiple other wrasses back in at once to spread out the aggression and disrupt the pecking order. Do you think that’s a viable option or is it asking for trouble? My system is pretty under stocked so I have room to add multiple wrasses.

 

[SaltyT]

I’m wondering what would happen if I added multiple other wrasses back in at once to spread out the aggression and disrupt the pecking order. Do you think that’s a viable option or is it asking for trouble? My system is pretty under stocked so I have room to add multiple wrasses.

Adding multiple wrasses at the same time does help disperse initial aggression, but they will still establish a hierarchy. I worry about the potential age of your bipartitus. You've had him for 3 yrs, was he already male when you acquired him? If so, he's probably past his prime and could always be seen as a weaker target by your mystery wrasse. Your ability to reintroduce your bipartitus really depends on if you can get him back to top condition. Also, be careful which species of wrasse you introduce to your well-established mystery wrasse, flasher wrasses and most fairy wrasses for example are easily bullied.

 

[Zachvet]

Adding multiple wrasses at the same time does help disperse initial aggression, but they will still establish a hierarchy. I worry about the potential age of your bipartitus. You've had him for 3 yrs, was he already male when you acquired him? If so, he's probably past his prime and could always be seen as a weaker target by your mystery wrasse. Your ability to reintroduce your bipartitus really depends on if you can get him back to top condition. Also, be careful which species of wrasse you introduce to your well-established mystery wrasse, flasher wrasses and most fairy wrasses for example are easily bullied.

He was already male, yes. That’s a good point it’s hard to say how old he was when I got him…