Where can I find a white banded possum wrasse or pink streaked wrasse?

[Tamberav]

I have two leopards and honestly don’t think the experience having them would make keeping a Choati any easier.

With Choati it seems either you get one that acclimates well and handled the stress of capture and transpiration to the states well… or you don’t. Sometimes they look great and act normal and just die 6 months in. If you get one that works the first time. Great! If not, well you may have deep pockets and can keep trying.

Thing is that the other leopards are fairly simple to keep. My LFS can even do it. They don’t seem to be on the same level.

If you have an established and mature tank and an acclimation plan and lots of live foods on hand. If you want to try a Choati then go for it. Owning a different leopard isn’t going to make a difference imo.

 

[Paul B]

Tamberav, My guess is that your guess is correct. I guess so anyway.
I think aquascape or the lack of it is a major factor in many of the creatures we keep.

My tank is 6' long and I built most of the rock. Very little of it is actually touching the bottom and there is a cave system that stretches through the entire rockwork from one end to the other.
Because of this, I can sometimes have a fish hide for weeks or months and never see it.

I have a couple of gecko gobies I think for a couple of years and I may catch a glimpse one every 6 months. Thats lousy for the fish keeper but the fish will live forever in those conditions.

No matter how good looking we think we are, and I think I could be a male model. ;Meh
The fish don't want to see us as we look like Godzilla to them.

They stay happy and healthy if they are secure and can hunt in the crevices of the tank in the dark with no "help" from us.

I cringe when I see tanks where the fish can't get out of our view and most quarantine tanks are like that which actually causes many diseases.

But what do I know?

 

[i cant think]

I cringe when I see tanks where the fish can't get out of our view and most quarantine tanks are like that which actually causes many diseases.

But what do I know?

I agree with this, I find it to be cruel when there’s like 1 piece of rock and 10+ large fish in the tank. My “large” fish are comfortable with me and other people in the room but that’s only happened because they know they can dart into cave structures when they don’t feel as safe.

I have two leopards and honestly don’t think the experience having them would make keeping a Choati any easier.

With Choati it seems either you get one that acclimates well and handled the stress of capture and transpiration to the states well… or you don’t. Sometimes they look great and act normal and just die 6 months in. If you get one that works the first time. Great! If not, well you may have deep pockets and can keep trying.

Thing is that the other leopards are fairly simple to keep. My LFS can even do it. They don’t seem to be on the same level.

If you have an established and mature tank and an acclimation plan and lots of live foods on hand. If you want to try a Choati then go for it. Owning a different leopard isn’t going to make a difference imo.

I would still assume that the experience with other leopards (Of different species) would give a boost to trying choatis, I mean you wouldn’t go for a choats as the first leopard you try unless you’ve kept things like Anampses femininus before. So far this leopard I have has been easy (Much easier than the 2” ones you find commonly in the LFS, I don’t know if that’s just because I have mysis & Brine on hand at all times and she has been trained to eat both within the 2 months of being owned or if it’s just from the size and she wouldn’t have been able to grow into the natural diet completely).

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

My bet is your tank and rock work set up is way different than pretty much anyone else’s. Probably makes them quite comfortable and not prone to being ticked at their room mate.

That’s my guess.

I’ll probably end up going with one of the 6 lines because I have a similar Aquascape where there isn’t a lot of rock, but there’s a lot of caves and tunnels behind the whole structure. Only issue is is seeing whether or not there’s too many fish in there. I have a 32 gallon Biocube and have a Midas blenny and royal gramma. I also may get another clownfish but I want a wrasse more. Anyways, we will see how it goes

 

[i cant think]

I’ll probably end up going with one of the 6 lines because I have a similar Aquascape where there isn’t a lot of rock, but there’s a lot of caves and tunnels behind the whole structure. Only issue is is seeing whether or not there’s too many fish in there. I have a 32 gallon Biocube and have a Midas blenny and royal gramma. I also may get another clownfish but I want a wrasse more. Anyways, we will see how it goes

I would go for the wrasse over the clown because IMHO the clowns aren’t as great as people make them seem to be (Although, I do like black photons). To me it seems like the tank isn’t too small and would be alright for something like a clownfish.

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

I would go for the wrasse over the clown because IMHO the clowns aren’t as great as people make them seem to be (Although, I do like black photons). To me it seems like the tank isn’t too small and would be alright for something like a clownfish.

I have had a pair for a few weeks before I had to return them. They were picking on my Royal Gramma and I'm glad I got 50% back for them. So if I can't get a clownfish, fine by me, they're just icons and people recognize them. Plus they're fun to watch

 

[SauceyReef]

Good info here. Thank you everyone for chiming in. From a lot of experience with six line in smaller tanks they are incredibly aggressive. I always want such a beautiful fish but have learned they are probably best for 50 gallon +. My LFS has a ten year old six line that was literally near 4-5”. Also another reason many can’t consider a six line is they will almost 100% of the time being aggressive to smaller shrimp.

Larger tanks are definitely better for most of these fish, but realistically can’t always be done. My friend who’s a marine biologist and done a lot of snorkeling / scuba diving genuinely believes all the fish we get in the hobby can get like 10-20x the size in the wild. He’s claimed he’s seen smaller nano fish near a foot in length!

 

[Tamberav]

I agree with this, I find it to be cruel when there’s like 1 piece of rock and 10+ large fish in the tank. My “large” fish are comfortable with me and other people in the room but that’s only happened because they know they can dart into cave structures when they don’t feel as safe.

I would still assume that the experience with other leopards (Of different species) would give a boost to trying choatis, I mean you wouldn’t go for a choats as the first leopard you try unless you’ve kept things like Anampses femininus before. So far this leopard I have has been easy (Much easier than the 2” ones you find commonly in the LFS, I don’t know if that’s just because I have mysis & Brine on hand at all times and she has been trained to eat both within the 2 months of being owned or if it’s just from the size and she wouldn’t have been able to grow into the natural diet completely).

I think the difficulty of common leopards is over-stated. Finding people who keep Chaots is probably a handful and finding people who keeps leopards is easy. Even on nano-reef, I have seen beginners pick up a leopard from the LFS and add it to their 29g and feed it pellets without issue. Most of the time they are eating at my LFS already.

They ship poorly and small ones sometimes have a pinched head from just not having any reserves during collection but otherwise they seem to acclimate to tank life fairly easily. On evolved website he even calls most of the common leopards 'not for the beginner but hardy' - the exception being the potters and Chaoti. Key word is hardy which I have found them to be. I would say a beginner won't have a mature tank or know how to pick out a healthy specimen but past that they are not too bad.

 

[i cant think]

I think the difficulty of common leopards is over-stated. Finding people who keep Chaots is probably a handful and finding people who keeps leopards is easy. Even on nano-reef, I have seen beginners pick up a leopard from the LFS and add it to their 29g and feed it pellets without issue. Most of the time they are eating at my LFS already.

They ship poorly and small ones sometimes have a pinched head from just not having any reserves during collection but otherwise they seem to acclimate to tank life fairly easily. On evolved website he even calls most of the common leopards 'not for the beginner but hardy' - the exception being the potters and Chaoti. Key word is hardy which I have found them to be. I would say a beginner won't have a mature tank or know how to pick out a healthy specimen but past that they are not too bad.

Yeah, that’s true but I think the key part to hardiness is having them acclimate to the new surroundings without any aggressors like tangs, Scott’s fairies ect..

 

[SauceyReef]

Yeah, that’s true but I think the key part to hardiness is having them acclimate to the new surroundings without any aggressors like tangs, Scott’s fairies ect..

This was key for my Possum wrasse. I have heard many stories of them not eating for a while and staying hidden. Within a few days of adding to the DT the possum owned the tank as there were no competitors/aggressors.

 

[Tamberav]

Lots of pink streak showing up the past two weeks. Live aquaria of course wants an arm and a leg for them. Blue zoo however is affordable. They may show up in some LFS soon since they showing up online in decent numbers.

Pink-streaked Pygmy Wrasse - Pseudocheilinops ataenia

 

[Paul B]

I have heard many stories of them not eating for a while and staying hidden.

They do stay hidden, mine after years still doesn't hardly swim out in the open. But that is fine and I like it like that.

 

[i cant think]

They do stay hidden, mine after years still doesn't hardly swim out in the open. But that is fine and I like it like that.

my first nano wrasse was a tanakas pygmy and I saw him every day but it was normally just a nose or tail, he definitely wasnt as brave as something like C. lubbocki or M. bipartitus juveniles (Even my 1" BSLW is braver than a 2" tanakas).

 

[FMF0331]

A bit over a month ago I happened to walk into a LFS near me... not my usual haunt, and he had a tank with about a dozen or so pink streaked. It was just dumb luck. I did pick one up because, as you said, they don't come up often.

which LFS did you get it from ?

 

[SauceyReef]

I wonder if all these possums/pink streaked available are from the Summer collection. I am lucky my possum wrasse has a curious personality of a sixtine!

 

[Lyss]

I really want a pink-streaked to finalize the fish stocked in my nano tank, but my LFS continually says they don’t see them/can’t get one. I’ve seen lots popping up on Divers Den lately but haven’t pulled the trigger b/c I wasn’t thrilled w/the way they looked (most looked faded in color and all clamped up), and the price. No way I’m paying $150 + overnight shipping + the box fee they charge. I figure I’ll just wait and eventually it’ll work out.

I bought my 2 feather dusters off divers den — they’re big, beautiful, and thriving, but after the shipping cost and additional fee, I did think I paid too much. Made me hesitant to do that again, even for a pink streaked.

 

[i cant think]

I really want a pink-streaked to finalize the fish stocked in my nano tank, but my LFS continually says they don’t see them/can’t get one. I’ve seen lots popping up on Divers Den lately but haven’t pulled the trigger b/c I wasn’t thrilled w/the way they looked (most looked faded in color and all clamped up), and the price. No way I’m paying $150 + overnight shipping + the box fee they charge. I figure I’ll just wait and eventually it’ll work out.

I bought my 2 feather dusters off divers den — they’re big, beautiful, and thriving, but after the shipping cost and additional fee, I did think I paid too much. Made me hesitant to do that again, even for a pink streaked.

I recommend going for the LFS option - DD is trying to get an arm and a leg for a wrasse that isn’t actually worth that much (I paid roughly $20 for mine - Translated from Pound Sterling, It may have been $27 but I can’t quite remember since it was around 6-7 months ago).

 

[SauceyReef]

I really want a pink-streaked to finalize the fish stocked in my nano tank, but my LFS continually says they don’t see them/can’t get one. I’ve seen lots popping up on Divers Den lately but haven’t pulled the trigger b/c I wasn’t thrilled w/the way they looked (most looked faded in color and all clamped up), and the price. No way I’m paying $150 + overnight shipping + the box fee they charge. I figure I’ll just wait and eventually it’ll work out.

I bought my 2 feather dusters off divers den — they’re big, beautiful, and thriving, but after the shipping cost and additional fee, I did think I paid too much. Made me hesitant to do that again, even for a pink streaked.

Be especially weary with fish and inverts from them. Not only are the prices ridiculous and fish often sick/deathly, they will likely have some or multiple diseases. I am yet to get a fish from LA that does not have internal parasites.

 

[SauceyReef]

Tamberav shared a link that has some available for $60-70 + shipping. Would be cool to see somone here snag one!

Pink-streaked Pygmy Wrasse - Pseudocheilinops ataenia

 

[Lyss]

Tamberav shared a link that has some available for $60-70 + shipping. Would be cool to see somone here snag one!

Pink-streaked Pygmy Wrasse - Pseudocheilinops ataenia

Ah, Blue Zoo has them again. I’m super tempted b/c that sale price (minus shipping) is what my LFS charges when they get them in. But I still feel weird not seeing the fish. At least w/DD it’s WYSIWYG, and seriously the way the ones they’ve had looked made me think better to wait.

I think I’m gonna pester my LFS again and see if they can get me one now that they’ve been popping up more online.