Super Star Of The Reef: The Blue Star Leopard Wrasse–Macropharyngodon bipartitus

[MIKE NY]

heres mine that decided after four years to change....

 

[Eggpaul]

Just got one that was at the LFS for a few weeks. It's a female. She has been in QT for 5 days. Hides in the evenings and swims during the say. Eats black worms and brine shrimp.

Is deworming necessary? I don't see any white poop.

 

[Cthulukelele]

Just got one that was at the LFS for a few weeks. It's a female. She has been in QT for 5 days. Hides in the evenings and swims during the say. Eats black worms and brine shrimp.

Is deworming necessary? I don't see any white poop.

From what I understand, they are really likely to come in with internal parasites which often are asymptomatic and since feeding food soaked in metro/focus is very easy on most fish, I've heard it is useful to do prophylactically especially with leopards

 

[Eggpaul]

From what I understand, they are really likely to come in with internal parasites which often are asymptomatic and since feeding food soaked in metro/focus is very easy on most fish, I've heard it is useful to do prophylactically especially with leopards

Should I wait a little before treating her? She has been in QT for 5 days and eats a lot.

 

[Cthulukelele]

Should I wait a little before treating her? She has been in QT for 5 days and eats a lot.

I know it can act as an appetite suppressant, but if it is already eating well it should be fine to start--just don't be surprised if it eats a little less

 

[Jesterrace]

Interesting to see these transitions. I have a Juvie Blue Star as well and have only had it for 4 months. We shall see what happens with it as it ages though. I am okay with either config. My Melanurus Wrasse is currently going through it's juvie to adult color scheme.

 

[WetPets]

Mine did the same thing I put a female in the tank and now I have a male I like both forms of this fish it is one of my favorite fish. I find the trick to having them do well is putting them in a tank with some live rock for natural food to start.

Nice job on the article!

I was able to witness my female Blue Star Leopard Wrasse transition to a male in my 120g reef tank.
I never really liked the "Blue Star" common name until my fish transitioned and is now a very deep blue color.
Here's a few pics of that transition over the past year.

Female; January 2014.


Starting to transition; January 2015.


This was the stage I liked the most; October 2015.
The body color had changed to blue, but the spots still adorned the body.


Most current pic, July 2016.

 

[Atif]

Great and use full info in this artical

 

[Amps Reef Life]

I love my Blue Star Wrasse. I have five leopard wrasse in my tank.

 

[Sir Chris]

Ok Perfect!
Would this be on level with a melinarus(spelt wrong) how it will eat a clean up crew? I see small snails, like nasarious(spelt wrong) size or any snail is a potential dinner?
Would like a yellow corris or 4 line in how they don’t mess with CUC but going into my LFS for snails is just fine! More reason to go more.

I’m well knowledged on wrasses so difficulty is just fun now. So would it be a “good move” to purchase. I prefer a smaller wrasse less then 4 inches unless its a leopard or meli
Thank you
EDIT: the pictures are screaming GET ME! Size & color are ace. If it’s a CUC machine I don’t have rare snails. Love my blue eye hermit tho

 

[Jesterrace]

The Leopard Wrasses will leave your clean up crew alone for the most part. Mine will take the occasional exploratory nip at some snail shells, but it doesn't repeatedly target and flip the snails the way a Melanurus will. To my knowledge I have not lost a single member of my Clean Up Crew to my Blue Star Leopard. That said, you need to know what you are getting into with these beautiful fish. They are notoriously poor shippers and finicky eaters (think Copperband Butterflyfish), and as such you literally have to pick the right fish if you want a real shot at long term success with them. What I recommend for those who are truly interested in them is to wait for your LFS to do a bulk order and then see which ones are still there and active and eating 2-3 weeks later and buy that one. This will go a long way towards you getting an adaptable specimen and the complexity and level of care for them goes down significantly. I used this method when picking out my Blue Star Leopard and it readily adapted to Seaweed (of all things) and adapted to frozen LRS Reef Frenzy within a few days. Nearly 5 months later and it is no more difficult to care for than my Melanurus Wrasse or any other easy to care for fish. To put this in perspective though, my LFS ordered 6 Leopard Wrasses (a mix of the Regular and the Blue Star Leopard). 2 of them were dead within the first week, 2 sold and I have no idea what happened to them. 2 weeks later I came back and there was a larger Male Leopard Wrasse and a Juvie Blue Star left. The Male was lethargic and not moving much and the Juvie was active and appeared not to have a care in the world. We bought the juvie and gave it another week at the LFS for good measure. We came back a week later and the Juvie Blue Star was still active and eating well and the Male Leopard looked about on it's death bed. The point is that it's all about picking the right fish, hence I do not recommend ordering them online as you cannot observe them for a period of time before you buy them. This is the reason why the websites all list their care level as "difficult"

Here is an a species spotlight I did on my Blue Star:

 

[Jesterrace]

Ok Perfect!
Would this be on level with a melinarus(spelt wrong) how it will eat a clean up crew? I see small snails, like nasarious(spelt wrong) size or any snail is a potential dinner?
Would like a yellow corris or 4 line in how they don’t mess with CUC but going into my LFS for snails is just fine! More reason to go more.

I’m well knowledged on wrasses so difficulty is just fun now. So would it be a “good move” to purchase. I prefer a smaller wrasse less then 4 inches unless its a leopard or meli
Thank you
EDIT: the pictures are screaming GET ME! Size & color are ace. If it’s a CUC machine I don’t have rare snails. Love my blue eye hermit tho

I wouldn't go with a 4 line, it will make it difficult to add new additions to your tank in the future and likely won't play well with other wrasses (any of the 4 line, 6 line, 8 line varieties should be avoided for the same reasons). The Yellow Coris (actually a member of the same Halichoeres family as the Melanurus Wrasse) and a Blue Star Leopard would be excellent choices as they should get along well together and will have little to no impact on your clean up crew.

 

[Sir Chris]

This was the info I was waiting on for my wrasse purchase. A lot of research but noting like real world. Your 10000% right. 3 years ago I purchased my 6line and was painful. Love the colors lines but soo agro.
I feel stupid to say but never thought to watch a wrasse as it’s usally in a small acclimation tank not being normal, so probably the reason on that.
Thank you soo much

 

[ca1ore]

Agree that leopards will leave snails and shrimp alone. They spend most of their time hunting for pods, so probably not a good mix with a mandarin, but fine with other wrasses. Blue star females are stunning, but the males get a bit ugly IMO. Much prefer the meleagris males.

 

[Subnautica]

Sorry for digging this old thread but anyone has insight for this?

My BSLW just arrived from Liveaquaria, but she's twice the size of my Melanurus. So far they don't bother with each other. But one thing I'm worried about is, will the Blue Star turn male?

 

[#1Fellowreefer]

I currently have a Divided Leopard Wrasse in QT for 28 days and wanted to know from all you PRO’s who have housed this wrasse, can I add any other wrasse with this one as I am very interested in adding a Yellow and White Coris Wrasse. Below are the fish I have in my DT and in QT currently.

DT list
1 black storm
1 orange storm
1 blood fire shrimp
1 cleaner shrimp
1 pepper mint shrimp
Mixture of snails about 16

QT list
Royal Gramma
Divided Leopard Wrasse

 

[Reefkeeper12]

Here's my male, he's definitely the king of the QT at this point

Mine looks identical to the markings of yours. Is he definitely a blue star leopard male? Or a different kind? Yours is the first one I’ve seen that looks like mine on the tail end.

 

[najer]

Interesting info here @Katrina71 ?

 

[eatbreakfast]

Thats definitely a male bipartitus.

 

[Reefkeeper12]

Thats definitely a male bipartitus.

Cool thanks!