Leopard wrasse agression

[eastlake]

I asked on the fish forums with no results so far so I wanted to pick the brains of some of the local folk. So, I have two leopard wrasse, one meleagris and one potters. The female meleagris has been in the tank since November of 2015 and the male potters has been in the tank since October of 2016. Its a well established 150 gallon aquarium with lots of pods and both fish are eating flake and frozen preparations at least 3 times a day. They have gotten along famously up until last week when the male potters began to posture and give chase to the female meleagris. My guess is that the meleagris is starting to change to a male (no visible inclination yet) and the potters is sensing the hormonal change before I'm seeing any change and he's trying to run off a competitor. Has anyone else had experience with this? What else would cause these two fish, that were getting along fine, to all of a sudden "torment"? Its frustrating especially since the meleagris (Violetta) is my wife's favorite and I'm sure it'll be no small feat to trap the potters out of the tank.

 

[Renton777]

I had a similar experience. I had a male and female blue star leopard wrasse and a male potters. For whatever reason the male potters harassed the female blue star to the point she jumped into my overflow. I was able to get her out and gave he to a friend. The strange part was the male potters followed the male blue star everywhere after that and the got along very well.

 

[eastlake]

Well she's in the overflow now, she's still eating in there so I guess she'll have to stay there until I can get the potters out. Sure it would be easier to get her out of the overflow and re-home her but try telling the wife you just gave away her favorite fish.... Happy wife = happy life.