Mysterious Leopard Wrasse death

[Vermontreefer]

Leopard wrasse RIP

Well I hate to make this post, but my leopard I added 5 days ago turned up dead this afternoon. Followed everything by the book acclimation wise, but did skip a quarantine phase strictly because it appeared healthy, energized, and lacking of external parasites which is usually the case for leopard given the slime coat.
Absolutely gutted, as it’s the first leopard I’ve had in 8 years. Water parameters are all where they need to be and no aggressive tank mates. Tank has an abundance of micro fauna for food so hunger wasn’t a worry.
My initial guess is internal parasites but without a microscope for dissection I can’t tell.
I’m giving it one more go with a medium ornate leopard from a more reputable online vendor (liveaquaria) and will give it a full quarantine period with copper power, prazipro, and stress coat.
Any advice is greatly appreciated

 

[littlefoxx]

Leopard wrasse RIP

Well I hate to make this post, but my leopard I added 5 days ago turned up dead this afternoon. Followed everything by the book acclimation wise, but did skip a quarantine phase strictly because it appeared healthy, energized, and lacking of external parasites which is usually the case for leopard given the slime coat.
Absolutely gutted, as it’s the first leopard I’ve had in 8 years. Water parameters are all where they need to be and no aggressive tank mates. Tank has an abundance of micro fauna for food so hunger wasn’t a worry.
My initial guess is internal parasites but without a microscope for dissection I can’t tell.
I’m giving it one more go with a medium ornate leopard from a more reputable online vendor (liveaquaria) and will give it a full quarantine period with copper power, prazipro, and stress coat.
Any advice is greatly appreciated

Im sorry for your loss! Theres a few really good wrasse people on here that can help! Only wrasse I have is a melenarus, but I know from research these kinds can be really hard to care for! Hopefully they can help. He was a beautiful fish for sure. Fish medics also might be able to help you troubleshoot, they will ask for behaviors of the fish and other stuff. How are the other fish in the tank??

@vetteguy53081 @Jay Hemdal

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Leopard wrasse RIP

Well I hate to make this post, but my leopard I added 5 days ago turned up dead this afternoon. Followed everything by the book acclimation wise, but did skip a quarantine phase strictly because it appeared healthy, energized, and lacking of external parasites which is usually the case for leopard given the slime coat.
Absolutely gutted, as it’s the first leopard I’ve had in 8 years. Water parameters are all where they need to be and no aggressive tank mates. Tank has an abundance of micro fauna for food so hunger wasn’t a worry.
My initial guess is internal parasites but without a microscope for dissection I can’t tell.
I’m giving it one more go with a medium ornate leopard from a more reputable online vendor (liveaquaria) and will give it a full quarantine period with copper power, prazipro, and stress coat.
Any advice is greatly appreciated

Sorry to see. Personally, I find these very delicate, and just not worth the heartache.

Was it eating well?

Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

Leopard wrasse RIP

Well I hate to make this post, but my leopard I added 5 days ago turned up dead this afternoon. Followed everything by the book acclimation wise, but did skip a quarantine phase strictly because it appeared healthy, energized, and lacking of external parasites which is usually the case for leopard given the slime coat.
Absolutely gutted, as it’s the first leopard I’ve had in 8 years. Water parameters are all where they need to be and no aggressive tank mates. Tank has an abundance of micro fauna for food so hunger wasn’t a worry.
My initial guess is internal parasites but without a microscope for dissection I can’t tell.
I’m giving it one more go with a medium ornate leopard from a more reputable online vendor (liveaquaria) and will give it a full quarantine period with copper power, prazipro, and stress coat.
Any advice is greatly appreciated

Always assume a new fish has something and give it even a 14-21 day quarantine to alleviate a tank infestation with something foreign. These wrasses are hit and miss as being healthy and eating.
Was a beauty

 

[BZOFIQ]

These are hard to get going generally, especially if shipped.

Did it eat well during those 5 days, did it sleep in the sand at night, how many times did you feed per day?

Once awake they always look for food/want to eat. They swim a lot looking for food and need to be fed multiple times per day unless yours is an old tank and there is plenty of pods they can pick on.

Worse of all, even when well established, these always go carpet surfing for me. Tight covers are a must.

 

[BZOFIQ]

Tank has an abundance of micro fauna for food so hunger wasn’t a worry.

Just re-read your post....did you witness it constantly peck at stuff?

If it did eat in fact then either stress or parasites like you alluded to.

 

[Vermontreefer]

Im sorry for your loss! Theres a few really good wrasse people on here that can help! Only wrasse I have is a melenarus, but I know from research these kinds can be really hard to care for! Hopefully they can help. He was a beautiful fish for sure. Fish medics also might be able to help you troubleshoot, they will ask for behaviors of the fish and other stuff. How are the other fish in the tank??

@vetteguy53081 @Jay Hemdal

I appreciate the help and references, it’s my first post in years on r2r and man this community rocks. The other fish are fine, orchid dottyback (very docile pseudochromis, doesn’t bother anything), yellow tang, bangaii, lawnmower blenny, and oscellaris clown all doing fine and unchanged behavior. All corals and inverts fine as well. My suspicion is internal parasites, but it remains a mystery

 

[littlefoxx]

I appreciate the help and references, it’s my first post in years on r2r and man this community rocks. The other fish are fine, orchid dottyback (very docile pseudochromis, doesn’t bother anything), yellow tang, bangaii, lawnmower blenny, and oscellaris clown all doing fine and unchanged behavior. All corals and inverts fine as well. My suspicion is internal parasites, but it remains a mystery

No problem, wish I could help more! If it was parasites I would keep an eye on the other fish, especially your tang as they are prone to ich! And yes I have an orchid too, shes the smallest fish in my tank so shes super calm too

 

[Vermontreefer]

Just re-read your post....did you witness it constantly peck at stuff?

If it did eat in fact then either stress or parasites like you alluded to.

The thing is is that after adding it to the display, I moved the net with the fish to the sand bed, and after ~30 seconds of not moving from the net it shot into the sand bed, not to be seen for five days until turning up dead. Tank is fed twice daily, is around 7 years old and filled with micro inverts. I stayed up until 2 am the last three nights hoping to catch a glimpse and even then did not see it. I also didn’t notice any strange breathing and it was not any skinnier than when it arrived from shipping.
I ordered an ornate leopard wrasse to give a full quarantine period on top of all the other specialized care, and will see how it does. Will be Doing therapeutic coppersafe at 1.5 ppm, one or two prazipro treatments, and some stress coat while acclimating to the quarantine tanks water.
Should I forego the copper treatment if I plan on placing a rock from the display tank which is seeded with amphipods and munnid isopods for the wrasse to eat on? Or should I start copper and only add the rock if it’s not eating frozen foods?

 

[Vermontreefer]

Sorry to see. Personally, I find these very delicate, and just not worth the heartache.

Was it eating well?

Jay

Unfortunately since I didn’t quarantine it, and it came from an online vendor, I never got the chance to see it (eat) before death. I have it in me for one more go as it’s a favorite of mine, both leopards I lost were meleagris so maybe extra specialized care and a different species (ornatus) will be the one. If this one doesn’t make it with all the precautions I’m knowledgeable of taking, I’ll be taking a few years to reassess my system and practices before trying again

 

[ca1ore]

QT for leopards is an absolute must .... but not for disease. In fact, i would not recommend treating it in QT until it is settled and eating well. I think 'internal parasites' is the go to explanation for their demise when in most cases they just never ate. Set up a proper QT (with sand), give it plenty of small foods and you've got a good chance for success.

 

[BZOFIQ]

When setting up an 'observation' tank you can just use a deep Tupperware tray with sand, no need to fill whole tank with sand. Worked for me many times before. These must eat before being released into DT. Live floating food or fatty frozen food is usually well accepted after it settles....unless there is a problem.

 

[Vermontreefer]

When setting up an 'observation' tank you can just use a deep Tupperware tray with sand, no need to fill whole tank with sand. Worked for me many times before. These must eat before being released into DT. Live floating food or fatty frozen food is usually well accepted after it settles....unless there is a problem.

I just made a new thread about the ornate leopard wrasse that came in today. Following all advice from this thread, have two Tupperware’s of silica based sand and a bowl for cover. Good news is that I’ve seen her eat frozen marine cuisine and new life spectrum pellets already a couple hours into being in the observation tank

 

[BZOFIQ]

I just made a new thread about the ornate leopard wrasse that came in today. Following all advice from this thread, have two Tupperware’s of silica based sand and a bowl for cover. Good news is that I’ve seen her eat frozen marine cuisine and new life spectrum pellets already a couple hours into being in the observation tank

Good start indeed. Good luck - they are absolutely beautiful.