Quarantine Leopard Wrasses from LiveAquaria

[Rrwilson1223]

Hi Everyone,

I’ve had some bad luck with leopards lately that’s been compounded by the lack of availability due to Covid-19. I’ve tried 3 and only had 1 survive. Sadly, that one recently jumped out of the tank...

So, after extensive research. I’ve decided to have another go.

Eventually, the Wrasses will live in a RedSea Reefer 750. I’ve got a build thread here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/new-red-sea-reefer-750-with-v3-cabinet-and-sump.679053/

Current stock:
- Large Powder Blue Tang
- Med Kole Yellow Eye
- Med One Spot Foxface
- Med Moyeri Leopard Wrasse (Moving soon)
- Blue Devil
- 2 True Perc Clowns
- Large Skunk Cleaner

To avoid any issues with jumpers in the future, I’ve ordered the RS DIY lid kit. Should be here in the next week or so.

I ordered 4 small Leopard Wrasses from @LiveAquaria last night. I wasn’t sure if they were the best vendor but the lack of availability made them my choice. Really hoping my first shipment from them is a good one.

I set up my old 120 gallon system in my garage a while back and added 2 Tupperware containers with live sand. Hopefully, that will keep them happy.

The tank is currently sitting at 1.018 to match the vendor as per others on the forum. I’ll slowly up the salinity over the first week or two. There are pods in the tank and I’ve got plenty more if the Leopards refuse frozen early on. Including a Tigger Pod tank near by.

I’ve got CopperSafe and other meds on hand if needed and plenty of water on hand for water changes. Planning on keeping them in this system for observation until they are eating very well and I’m confident that they’ll succeed in the main display.

The tank will be kept dark except for a 6 hour (garage light only) period each day. Eventually, I’ll place an old freshwater light on the tank to match my DT.

I’ll give the new arrivals a quick freshwater dip to get rid of any flukes. Per what I’ve read from humble fish and others, the water will be well aerated, match temp/ph.

I’ve got a suspicion that part of my issues with previous attempts was a Moyeri Leopard wrasse that I purchased a long time ago. He liked chasing some of My previous wrasses so he will be moving to another system I own.

Eventually, this system will become my frag tank. For now, it’ll be a very large QT. If I need to medicate, I can set up a separate 20 gallon as well.

If anyone else has suggestions or comments, please feel free to chime in!

Here is a pic of the QT tank.

 

[Rrwilson1223]

Article from 2013 with a much more difficult wrasse species. Interesting adjusting the choat’s leopard wrasses’ internal clock. Author said he had good success. Interesting that they didn’t include a sand bed or rock initially. Forcing the leopard to adjust to our time zone first. They gave them black worms and live brine. Unfortunately not available here at my LFS due to Covid. But I do have a tigger pod tanks and lots of munid isopods and amphipods in my system.

I’ll use the darkness over the first few days from this method. Will also use the selcon and garlic additives to see if they’ll be enticed.

Australian Leopard-wrasse Quarantine Technique | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

Class: Actinopterygii Order: Perciformes Family: Labridae Genus: Macropharyngodon Species: choati, Randall, John E. 1978 Common Names: Choati Leopard-wrasse, Australian Leopard-wrasse Of all the…

reefbuilders.com

 

[Rrwilson1223]

Discussion on R2R about acclimating Leopard without sandbed for initial 2/3 days. Seems like many folks were more concerned about getting the young wrasses to eat. Others argued that it was more important to get them comfortable after the stresses of shipping.

One thought here is to keep the wrasses in the 25 gallon sump initially to get acclimated to time schedule and eating. Then move to the 90 gallon display to be amongst the rock and sand. Thoughts?

Seemed like the user’s fish was struggling and they decided to try a FW dip. Outcome was not recorded.

Leopard Wrasse QT

Good to know. To tell you the truth I'm not to eager to run the TTM although I'll consider it. I know this is probably dumb but I haven't encounter any post from someone saying they got ich from a leopard wrasse. I guess my plan is to observe/get eating and still deciding if I want to...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Rrwilson1223]

@Humblefish had a discussion about QT for Leopards. Folks mentioned cyclops, frozen brine and Mysis and good options.

Not planning on treating copper right off the bat. Seems like they are not always very tolerant. Will try Copper Power at 1.0 if required. And then move slowly to therapeutic level in 48/72 hours.

Tips on QT’ing Leopard Wrasses?

I have two leopard wrasses coming tomorrow for my next batch of QT. The last few batches of fish I’ve used copper power and raised slowly once the fish are eating well. I know leopards are a bit tricky. My plan is to put a Rubbermaid container in the QT with some fine sand for them to hide, but...

humble.fish

 

[Rrwilson1223]

List of different strategies for QT of difficult fish.

For wrasses they really encouraged deworming. Mentioned the API general cure. I’ve read that this is a great option in multiple places.

Again, lots of great info from @Humblefish. He mentioned in a YouTube video that he uses saltwater black mollies as a “canary in the coal mine” to check for fish disease. Interesting info.

Difficult Fish to QT guide

Below is a list of difficult fish to quarantine, with specific recommendations on QT strategies for each group of fish. Angelfish (and their sensitivity to copper) I've never figured out if angels being sensitive to copper is a "thing" or not. They do seem to fare a little better in Cupramine...

www.reefsanctuary.com

 

[Rrwilson1223]

Another good thread. This time with Blue Stars. Interesting dynamic with a male and 2 females. Initial females didn’t make it and thread starter got 2 more. Plus some aggression with a fairy wrasse.

Another person who recommends keeping leopards in groups. Funny that the male couldn’t find the sand. Interesting thoughts on observation vs just treating before symptoms. Whether or not we have 10-15 minutes each day to really observe the fish and look for signs of issues.

Blue Star Leopard Wrasse - QT Treatment & Compatibility

I've been working with the great squad here at R2R in another thread to finalize my stocking list for my 90G reef. One of my QT tanks is about to be placed into the DT later this week and when looking at the LFS today we fell in love with these Blue Star Leopard Wrasses which are currently...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Rrwilson1223]

Also watched a video where someone acclimated a leopard in a sump refugium with bowl of sand. Interesting idea with lots of pods in sump for them to eat. And also most of us run refugiums at night so they are still on their schedule. has anyone else tried this with success?

 

[4FordFamily]

I recommend feeding them heavily for a week before copper or other meds (unless they start to deteriorate with obvious parasites). You can and should feed general cure soaked food with “focus” added to keep the meds bound to the food. Works best with frozen food, microwaves and strained/drained. Add a bit of garlic guard for taste and some selcon, Zoe, and/or vita chem to aid in nutrition. After 14 days of this if all is good, start treatment regimen. This seems to work better for wrasse who need to be fat and acclimated before treatment. The medicated food is due to the high likelihood of internal parasites with wrasse, particularly leopards.

 

[Rrwilson1223]

I recommend feeding them heavily for a week before copper or other meds (unless they start to deteriorate with obvious parasites). You can and should feed general cure soaked food with “focus” added to keep the meds bound to the food. Works best with frozen food, microwaves and strained/drained. Add a bit of garlic guard for taste and some selcon, Zoe, and/or vita chem to aid in nutrition. After 14 days of this if all is good, start treatment regimen. This seems to work better for wrasse who need to be fat and acclimated before treatment. The medicated food is due to the high likelihood of internal parasites with wrasse, particularly leopards.

Thank you so much for the info! I’m trying to read everything I can before the leopards arrive. When you mentioned feeding them heavy, what in your experience has worked well to get them eating? I’ve read cyclops, rod’s food, amphipods and Mysis. Unfortunately, my LFS doesn’t have live brine or black worms at the moment.

 

[TriggerFinger]

I have no experience with these fish but I wanted to mention that a lot of people have success hatching their own baby brine shrimp. It doesn’t look too difficult. Brine shrimp direct has supplies if you wanted to take a look. I hope the new leopards work out, they really are pretty fish!

 

[4FordFamily]

Thank you so much for the info! I’m trying to read everything I can before the leopards arrive. When you mentioned feeding them heavy, what in your experience has worked well to get them eating? I’ve read cyclops, rod’s food, amphipods and Mysis. Unfortunately, my LFS doesn’t have live brine or black worms at the moment.

I mix a bunch of frozen fish food - CA Mysis, PE Mysis, Spirulina Brine, Blood Worms, Emerald Entree, and a bunch of others.

 

[HotRocks]

I have Qtd several leopards with Copper power. It works well. They are a very delicate fish and often times some of the more difficult species from the genus require live blackworms to get kickstarted. I have never had any issues with a moyeri. Potters leopards are rather difficult and choatis are extremely difficult. I attribute a lot of the issue being that they just don't ship well at all.


Are you Qting other fish with them? You will probably not see anything on the wrasses themselves due to the thick mucus layer they have. If you have a tangometer in there with them it may be easier to tell what you may need to do. I personally run them through copper regardless as they are just too much of a risk to carry something negative into the tank with.

 

[Rrwilson1223]

I have Qtd several leopards with Copper power. It works well. They are a very delicate fish and often times some of the more difficult species from the genus require live blackworms to get kickstarted. I have never had any issues with a moyeri. Potters leopards are rather difficult and choatis are extremely difficult. I attribute a lot of the issue being that they just don't ship well at all.


Are you Qting other fish with them? You will probably not see anything on the wrasses themselves due to the thick mucus layer they have. If you have a tangometer in there with them it may be easier to tell what you may need to do. I personally run them through copper regardless as they are just too much of a risk to carry something negative into the tank with.

I wasn’t planning on adding anything else with them. But that’s a good point. My initial thought was to only include the leopards to allow them to get comfortable and have less competition for food.

Most likely will observe the first few days and see how they eat. If they get nice and fat, I’ll start medications included Copper Power or something for worms. API general cure perhaps.

I wasn’t able to find any places local to me that sell black worms. I’ve got plenty of pods of every size though. Tigger, Tisbe, Munid Isopods and Amphipods. Perhaps one of them might get the right reaction until they try frozen Mysis?

 

[Rrwilson1223]

Interesting info from a LiveAquaria customer service rep that goes contrary to what I’ve been told by others

“We do not have exact hold times on the specimen(s) as they are in a holding unit, all specimen(s) are held at least 14 days for the quarantine process.”

This was in response to my question about how long the leopard wrasses I purchased were at their facility. Or what the avg turnaround time was for them...

I’m still going to prepare as though these fish were shipped in the past few days without qt.

 

[Rrwilson1223]

Received the package and unfortunately, 2 of the 4 were DOA. One was completely dead and the other was barely holding on. Swimming upside down in small amount of remaining energy it had.

The other 2 are in my QT set up. Seem to be ok. I’ve got the tank set up with both a light and dark corner. Both seem to prefer the light side. Threw some Mysis in there to see if they would eat. So far, they are just picking at some and spitting them out. Will see if they hunt for any pods later.

Submitted a claim with @LiveAquaria and hoping for replacement wrasses.

 

[Rrwilson1223]

Day 1 Update:

The 2 surviving leopards seem to be in good shape. Both started eating tigger pods immediately and have been actively swimming. Seem to be searching their new surroundings:

 

[Rrwilson1223]

Day 2 Update:

Woke up to both leopards actively hunting the center rock work for food. Decided to try some frozen fish eggs and they both ate. Also placed more tigger pods for grazing throughout the day. Used an old Kessil light set to lowest possible white light. Ammonia measured 0. Seems like all is going well (knocks on wood).

 

[jda]

I have kept a lot of leopards and I would not QT any of them. They need to hunt pods, have sand and the real-deal reef to have the best luck. I am not saying that it is impossible or anything, but I would put straight introduction at about 75% and QT at 25%. These are not an easy fish to QT.

All of this said, I do not QT fish - just isolate them, if I can, to get them eating and comfortable.

They should eat mysis really quickly. All of mine were on pellets in a few weeks.

 

[Rrwilson1223]

I have kept a lot of leopards and I would not QT any of them. They need to hunt pods, have sand and the real-deal reef to have the best luck. I am not saying that it is impossible or anything, but I would put straight introduction at about 75% and QT at 25%. These are not an easy fish to QT.

All of this said, I do not QT fish - just isolate them, if I can, to get them eating and comfortable.

They should eat mysis really quickly. All of mine were on pellets in a few weeks.

I'm a big proponent of QT for most fish. But the leopards have tempted me to try using the refugium in the sump of the display. Concern is the possibility of disease and needing to medicate. So far, both are swimming well and seem to be happy hunting around in the QT. Was particularly worried about them being stressed and laying on their sides/ hiding for extended periods in the sand.

My QT set up was modified to include two large tupperware containers with sand. Also added rock and chaeto to provide a few more pods.

The frozen roe was a pleasant surprise. I wasn't sure if they would only go for live for the first few days. I'll try the mysis tomorrow with the roe and see how it goes.

 

[Rrwilson1223]

Day 3 Update:

Tried frozen fish eggs again and they seemed interested. Some full bites and some where they spit them out. Waited until the afternoon to add some more pods from my pod farm (Tigger Pods). They are both still swimming around looking for pods. They really seem to like the area under the light by the rock/chaeto ball.

Checked on them last night and both were in the tupperware sand bed. At least I'm assuming since I saw two spots where the sand looked disturbed. Going to keep observing them and hopefully they will start associating me as the food guy before long.

Tested ammonia and it is still at 0. There is also a small population of tigger pods forming in the sump of the QT.