New Blue star leopard wrasse

[Bdog4u2]

My wrasse showed up last Friday and after I acclimated her and put her in quarantine she zipped under the sand and I haven't seen her since. So how long should I wait before I dig around to find her I have a 14 day warranty on her from live

aquaria

 

[pdt7361]

In my opinion, if you haven't seen her in almost a week then she is most likely dead. Mine hid for only 1 day and then has been perfectly happy since.

 

[Bdog4u2]

Maybe I'll dig around some. I read that some have had their's hide for up to 2 weeks

 

[Titanwerx]

I Had a wrasse that hid for a week

 

[kevindo123]

No digging to look for it. If its hiding in the sand, let it be. Digging it up will only stress it more and will not make it better. I am 2 for 3 for the leopard wrasse. My experience with them are good as they started exploring and eating the first day. The one that died was hiding in the sand, but I got her from the LFS when she was still hiding in the sand (could be already too stressed and died soon after she went in my tank).

 

[Labridaedicted]

+1 to the no digging. The fish has been through alot. Let them settle in. The slime coat wrasses make when hiding/sleeping does them good in acclimating.

If it's over a week, get concerned. I've had leos hide for a week and then come out and be perfectly fine, albeit a little skinny from a week of hiding.

 

[hatrix11]

I've heard of wrasses being injured or worse from digging.

 

[melypr1985]

@evolved probably has an opinion on this

 

[Titanwerx]

Just wait it out, eventually he will show. If not and he did die your clean up crew will take care of it anyway, maybe run some carbon just in case.

 

[evolved]

Yup; don't do that. Digging is counter-productive and you will only hurt your chances of success. That just adds stress to the fish; nothing good comes about from it.

Hiding up to a month is possible, but rare. Usually a week or two at most.

If you still haven't seen it around day 12 or so, call or email LA and let them know - they will likely extend your 14 guarantee another week.

 

[Bdog4u2]

If she don't make it is think I'm going to order 2 females and a male next time maybe they will stress less with company. If she died it will be the first fish in the last 8 years to die on me most of my fish are 10-16 years old

 

[sil40sx]

My Fairy Wrasse hid for 10 days....

 

[Brian Kim]

If she don't make it is think I'm going to order 2 females and a male next time maybe they will stress less with company. If she died it will be the first fish in the last 8 years to die on me most of my fish are 10-16 years old

Unfortunately, they are one of the hardest fish to acclimate to a home aquarium. I had 2 die on me and one that has been doing fantastic so far on my QT tank for approximately 3 weeks. She's eating more than any other fish I have and dealing with copper and prazipro well...Guess I just got lucky with my last one but for some reason she was eating well on my lfs...only reason I've decided to give these fish one last try

 

[Robink]

Had a melanarus that hid for 3 weeks. Thought he was dead. Was glad when he just appeared!

 

[eatbreakfast]

Staying buried is not uncommon, the collection-shipping-acclimation process is very difficult on them. I do find that this is a fish that rewuires patience, and is beneficial to still get at an LFS, as it's easier to determine how the fish is doing and whether the particular specimen will have a better chance at survival in captivity.

 

[4FordFamily]

Honestly, of my 9 leopards I kept and adjusted to captivity (one died and two I sold) 4 of them hid for 2-3 weeks, 1 for nearly a month.

Do not dig for her, it will reduce your odds of success.

I also noticed that when they decide to finally emerge some just jump out like nothing ever happened while others take several days to venture out completely for more than a few minutes. They'll stick their heads out, often around feeding time and look around safely in the sand. Don't scare them this is good news. It's also hard to spot them (and that's intentional) doing this. Walk slowly by the tank and especially very early in the morning (perhaps before the lights come on) and late just before and after the lights go out, look for it swimming around or peeking out. They're on a very different schedule than we are and it can take a month or more to transition.

I had a black leopard wrasse that for more than a month was only out for maybe 30 minutes of tank lights and seemed to night hunt, because I caught her swimming around long before the lights turned on in nearly black conditions. I was surprised they would do this.

 

[4FordFamily]

Had a melanarus that hid for 3 weeks. Thought he was dead. Was glad when he just appeared!

I had a lime green (also a halichoeres like the melanarus) wrasse hide for over a month. Didn't see it at all. I moved it to a different tank and figured it dead or that it leaped out of the tiny hole on top and the cats found it.

Turns out I think it was simultaneously changing to male, because it emerged with electric green stripes on the face and it took awhile to finally emerge. Very strange

 

[Keepswiming]

I can shed some light on this situation. My leopard went missing for about a month. I thought it was gone for sure, so I purchased another! Long story short, I looked at my tank one day and he was swimming around happy as can be. Now I need to replace his female. Haha

 

[Bdog4u2]

She popped out for a few mins today so she's still alive. She was pecking at the rocks. My quarantine tank is very old and I let the back wall grow algae so the tank is loaded with pods and I mean loaded it's been all theirs for 2 years

 

[Robink]

glad she showed up!!