Leopard Wrasse Primer

Leopard Wrasse Primer

  • Macropharyngodon bipartitus

    Votes: 67 28.4%
  • Macropharyngodon choati

    Votes: 12 5.1%
  • Macropharyngodon geoffroy

    Votes: 24 10.2%
  • Macropharyngodon meleagris

    Votes: 78 33.1%
  • Macropharyngodon negrosensis

    Votes: 29 12.3%
  • Other

    Votes: 26 11.0%

  • Total voters
    236
leopards

leopards

my reef tank has been up for about a year running strong, everything is doing well. about 3 months ago i bought a female meleagris from the lfs waiting quite awhile to get her in. drip acclimated but then put her in the dt, she was swimming basiclly in one spot til lights out and then never saw her again for about a week. she seemed like she was having trouble with the amount of flow in the tank, i keep it pretty high. then lights out and haven't seen her since. chalked it up to im never gonna she her again. about a month after that i found a male meleagris at the lfs he didnt look great but i had never seen a male at the lfs so i took a chance and brought him home. same acclimation. he did kinda the same thing acting like to much flow. lights out and didnt see him for 2 and a half weeks after i had totally given up him. then nothing for about another week. then about every 2 days would see him i figured he was getting used to the light cycle. he was fat seemed healthy, then came home and he was on his side and seemed really stressed. so i put him in the fuge that i only have some liverock pods and snails in every now and then i see him. i dose vodka and use a uv light. could that have an effect on him. will the uv kill pods?. all my parameters are great. i have other fish in the dt doing fine and all my corals are fine also. is this normal?
 
Just initiated myself to the Leopard Club....

-Purchased a M. Bipartitus female from LiveAquaria.
-Received her this morning...was a little worried during acclimation as she seemed very weak and pretty much just laid in there for a while. Every once in a while she would wiggle a little.
-After acclimation, I moved forward with putting her in the DT (lights off). She floated to the bottom and then sprang to life and wriggled into the sand.
-I feel much better now...as it seems most head for the sand, but the effort she put in to getting in showed me she definitely had some strength. I will leave the lights off for the rest of today and then switch them back into auto mode.

Now I play the waiting game....I did this all in very dim light, so I really haven't even had a chance to see her! I feel really relieved to get to this point. The next hurdle is feeding! Everyone wish me luck please...and I'll definitely post some pics when she emerges...
 
Well...came home tonight and she was laying on the sand. I guess shipping was too hard on her. It's a shame...once I got a look in the light, what a beautiful fish! Seemed plenty fat and healthy. I will try again for sure....
 
Dang sorry to hear. I hope your next one is much easier. I did not have any troubles with my M. bipartitus from Divers Den so hopefully your next one will go just as smooth.
 
3 Month Update: still havent set up the fuge.. regardless, the wrasse continues to stay active and roam the entire tank..still no pellets just frozen. doing great.

 
I almost forgot about my leopard when I was pitting my 12g and 30g into my new 60g!!! Saw her floppin and had to dig her out. She's doing great and eating everything. Frozen, pellets and flakes! Such an awesome fish
 
Ok...2nd try...

LA was great and replaced my female that perished shortly after arrival. They also had males available...so I thought maybe they'd do better coming in with company.

I received them yesterday (paid the $15 extra for Saturday delivery). I unpacked them and acclimated them together. These were definitely more active than the last one and acclimated great. I decided to try them in my QT just to be able to better keep and eye on them and their feeding. I did the unpack, acclimation, and transfer to QT in very low light...so I didn't get a good look at them. The female quickly found the tupperware container of sand and went to hiding. The male hid under the rock. I let them adjust through the day/night and let the lighting come on as normal this morning. The female stayed in hiding...but the male was out all day. The male appears to be healthy...but cosmetically looks pretty bad. I'm wondering if he isn't still in the morphing process? He is kinda brownish and his marking are kind of dull. Could the stress of shipping deteriorate the coloring that fast? We'll see...I'll try to get some pics soon...

I have my fingers crossed again...but it's already going better than attempt #1...
 
i fed the tank some prime reef flakes and was pretty surprised to see my leopard taking them in. wasn't expecting that to ever happen..
 
here is a juvi, not quite a year, but doing good. eats anything. very sorry for the quality, this is no easy fish to photograph. its just getting some yellowish colour at the tip of the mouth, so ill update with pics ti see changes, but ut may take awhile, as getting a good pic will be tough.
 

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Was in my LFS yesterday and they had a 2 1/2 inch female Meleagris that was eating frozen Mysis. I've generally steered clear of Leopards, but this one appeared healthy and was going for $20!!! Suffice to say, I now have my first one after almost 30 years of reefing. So far so good. Skipped QT :(, straight into to fuge and indeed eating Mysis.

My question though is whether a 3 inch Dusky in the DT will present a problem when the time comes, hopefully, to move the Leopard up?
 
My melarunus bullied my female melagris for about 2 hours when I first introduced her, after that she was not to keen on eating with the group and slowly wasted away.
 
Poor girls been hiding for weeks. My Sixline has been harassing her. Made a 2 liter fish trap to get it out. Hope it works

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Wow, some great photos in the last few weeks! And a few males.....

Good luck gregrock! I'm sure you know, your leopard will perish shortly with a six line.
 
Gal thriving in my fuge; eating thawed Mysis with enthusiasm. Am a bit nervous about moving her to the DT, however, with a resident dusky wrasse and a few tangs.

 
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