Leopard Wrasse Primer

[iamwrasseman]

choati leopard wrasse

choati leopard wrasse

the difference between the two are as follows the females are basically orange and white only and the males have blueish tones of color in their lower face with a pale blue cheek .:idea: the picture of mine is a female but its hard to really see ,if you look in the earlier pages i have it blown up much larger and then you can see it has no blue on the lower face or cheek .

 

[rgentry123]

so, just added another leopard to the tank! went by a really good lfs in richmond when i was traveling through and they had this fat little potters leopard wrasse that was eating well so i picked him up! he's acclimating now but i have high hopes for the little guy!

 

[kingsland]

A few not so good pictures of my leopards. If only they would stay still for a moment.

 

[iamwrasseman]

nice pictures ,thanks for sharing . i never seem to see the potters leopard in my lfs we keep searching his three suppliers to no avail . they do have them online but i hate to buy such a delicate fish sight unseen . patience,patience patience !

 

[rgentry123]

its funny becuase the potters leopard seems to be the ONLY one i ever see in this area. never see any of the other leopards available.

 

[iamwrasseman]

really you need ta send me one lol . really all the other wrasses are real easy to get here but for some reason the people we deal with in california dont offer them . my lfs has gotten every other leopard and always seems to miss on the potters . i will be waiting B Z has them byt as i said i hate getting that delicate of a fish sight unseen .i may have to give it a whirl but i will at least wait till the spring to early summer .

 

[rgentry123]

well, if you ever decide to make a trip to the east coast i can point you in the direction of a good lfs that always seems to have them. and healthy one's too.

 

[rgentry123]

oh, but if you come you have to agree to bring me a healthy bipartitus. or chaoti. im good either way

 

[iamwrasseman]

the bipartus yes they have a great chance of living and actually i have a harem of five and definatly would bring one . i may PM you and see if we can work out something ,if not thats okay too ! oh yea i can get the choati's but they have a very ,very low survival rate i have lost thousands of $ on them and not very good luck . so it,s a bipartus f male for sure .

 

[olemanwinter]

Complete failure

Complete failure

I'm so frustrated.

Saw a small piece of what looked like fish flesh in the tank today, so against advice and my better judgement I gently stirred the sand looking for my leopard. He is gone.

My tank parameters were fine. He was voraciously eating frozen mysis. No aggressive tank mates. Plenty of sand. WHAT ELSE CAN BE ASKED OF ME!?!

My first leopard attempt has left me with a seriously bad taste in my mouth. It was the neatest fish I have ever had.....and I had him for only 3 days.

 

[Tylt33]

I'm so frustrated.

Saw a small piece of what looked like fish flesh in the tank today, so against advice and my better judgement I gently stirred the sand looking for my leopard. He is gone.

My tank parameters were fine. He was voraciously eating frozen mysis. No aggressive tank mates. Plenty of sand. WHAT ELSE CAN BE ASKED OF ME!?!

My first leopard attempt has left me with a seriously bad taste in my mouth. It was the neatest fish I have ever had.....and I had him for only 3 days.

Leopard Wrasse Depression- welcome to the club. Experienced reef keepers fail alongside the new in this game. I'm 3 of 10 for "success" so far- and those three have lasted a month each at the most (4 days for the newest one).

 

[96gts]

I'm so frustrated.

Saw a small piece of what looked like fish flesh in the tank today, so against advice and my better judgement I gently stirred the sand looking for my leopard. He is gone.

My tank parameters were fine. He was voraciously eating frozen mysis. No aggressive tank mates. Plenty of sand. WHAT ELSE CAN BE ASKED OF ME!?!

My first leopard attempt has left me with a seriously bad taste in my mouth. It was the neatest fish I have ever had.....and I had him for only 3 days.

Sorry for your loss, but do try again. My Potter's Wrasse only lasted 2 days in my tanks, it got beat up by my sixline in my old tank. I have my Ornate Leopard in my new tank for over 1 month now, so far so good.

 

[iamwrasseman]

most of what you may be missing is here in this tread from acclimating to feeding and disease controll also a goos debate on the issue of a qt tank . one of the first things i do is get live brine shrimp and feed multiple times throughout the day . no QT and prasi pro treatments for all newbies . just to ease your mind i have bought many Macropharyngodon meleagris wrasses "common leopard wrasses . 6 died at the store ,4 i brought home in the original shipping bag ,7 came dead to the store and 6 months ago i got a pair and they are doing great ! last week i bought two more and so far they look great ,but thats a total of 21 fish and two are well established and two are looking very well . thats how delicate they are ,the fish are starved in very poor conditions for up to three weeks before they leave their collection point and then they are shipped to the many warehousing facilities in this country then they are again shipped to your lfs .thats alot of abuse for a live animal of any kind to deal with and the leopard wrasses are very,very delicate to sat the least . i have now 45 wrasses or so and i have purchased a few hundred throughout the past eight years just to end up with them . my success rate has gone up 500% in the last three years because of the proper acclimation process and also from putting them directly into the display tank .you have to understand that the collection process is the main problem ,within it are many shortcommings and we just get the livestock that is sent to us which are doomed except for the hardier ones and wrasses dont fall in that catigory .just my 2 pennies :sad2:
Dave

 

[mystery_reef]

Redtail Tamarin Wrasse
(Anampses chrysocephalus)

off subject---but a difficult wrasse to take care...wish me luck. will she get along with my leopard and coris? i am going to be qting in another reef for a while first before she gets to the main display, if ever.

iamwrasseman---what is your definition of proper acclimation? i usually use the drip method. thx

 

[iamwrasseman]

yup definatly the drip method but first get them temp acclimated and i do mine in my sump with a special "plastic jug" that fits in there . its a 2 gallon jug and then i drip them in the sump to keep it at the correct temp . i also check the ph and over the period of two to three hours get the ph correct and then introduce the specimine into display tank .also i drip at approx 3 drops per second or slower . if i get a fish in the mail or in the original bag i usually do the acclimation over the period of four hours . i know its a long time but if you can keep the temp correct as i do it really helps out IMO . i very slowly adjust the ph of the newbie to match that of my tank . you have to be careful with ph adjusters because they may increase the ph to much with only one drop so it needs to be diluted and i usually put two drops into an ounce of the bag water after the first hour . the red tail tamrin that you have i have had good results with but they have to be fed small food such as cyclopeeze and mushed up mysis . also i stat them out on live brine as i usually do with most of my new wrasses just to get them introduced to aquariun life . the live brine is good for the first week but you have to get them eating frozen because its not very nutricious .
great luck with you tamrin ,they are also very cool and beautiful ! :fun4:
Dave

 

[rgentry123]

the bipartus yes they have a great chance of living and actually i have a harem of five and definatly would bring one . i may PM you and see if we can work out something ,if not thats okay too ! oh yea i can get the choati's but they have a very ,very low survival rate i have lost thousands of $ on them and not very good luck . so it,s a bipartus f male for sure .

i was kidding about the chaoti, i dont think i'll be trying one of those anytime soon although i would love one. if you would like too get a potters let me know. it's a really good lfs that gets them in and they may be willing to ship. i know thats somthing you wanted to avoid but i could make a trip down there and make sure the wrasse is fat, happy and eating before you wanted to get it. or if your in the area shoot me a pm and i can give you the details on the store.

 

[mystery_reef]

yup definatly the drip method but first get them temp acclimated and i do mine in my sump with a special "plastic jug" that fits in there . its a 2 gallon jug and then i drip them in the sump to keep it at the correct temp . i also check the ph and over the period of two to three hours get the ph correct and then introduce the specimine into display tank .also i drip at approx 3 drops per second or slower . if i get a fish in the mail or in the original bag i usually do the acclimation over the period of four hours . i know its a long time but if you can keep the temp correct as i do it really helps out IMO . i very slowly adjust the ph of the newbie to match that of my tank . you have to be careful with ph adjusters because they may increase the ph to much with only one drop so it needs to be diluted and i usually put two drops into an ounce of the bag water after the first hour . the red tail tamrin that you have i have had good results with but they have to be fed small food such as cyclopeeze and mushed up mysis . also i stat them out on live brine as i usually do with most of my new wrasses just to get them introduced to aquariun life . the live brine is good for the first week but you have to get them eating frozen because its not very nutricious .
great luck with you tamrin ,they are also very cool and beautiful ! :fun4:
Dave

thanks for the reply.
i always float for temp and then drip. dripped her for 2 hours but temp clearly dropped a bit in the bucket. if i can next time i will try and mantain the temp as well. so far she looks good. going to be feeding her rod's and a mixture of other goodies once i figure out what she likes. she's also in a well established tank w/ fuge and several flatworms in the display for her to feed on.
i dont think i've ever seen a potter's in my area. if i did i would not be able to resist giving it a try

 

[snorvich]

Follow iamwrasseman's procedure, it is excellent.

 

[iamwrasseman]

yea the potters is for some reason one that i just dont see for sale but i am patient and someday i will find one . they have them on line at a couple of stores but i will only buy wysiwyg fish and they aren't available like that from what i have seen .hes on my wish list !

 

[rgentry123]

iamwrasseman i hope you've looked @ the DD sneak peek for today!