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
I watched my African Leopard dive into the sand in the elbow pvc. I was pretty sure it was going in but I was not 100% sure. As soon as it gets a little dark it calls it a night and goes to sleep.
 
mystery ,you can probably get away with any one of them however i always try to change the tank around a little during the addition. good luck and keep us posted please
 
Just received a female divided leopard wrasse today, put in tank and boom into the sand it went. Is there a size that has a better survival rate? I tried to get a small and turned out to be much larger 2.5 inches. Seemed to be health (fat) but hard to tell just after shipping. (BlueZ).
 
Just received a female divided leopard wrasse today, put in tank and boom into the sand it went. Is there a size that has a better survival rate? I tried to get a small and turned out to be much larger 2.5 inches. Seemed to be healthy (fat) but hard to tell just after shipping. (BlueZ).
 
It is pretty normal for them to stay hidden for a while when first introduced into a new tank. Give her some time. Make sure you have plenty of different foods to offer to get her eating when she does come out. Live brine, tiger pods, brine shrimp, ect...
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14706591#post14706591 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by extinguishfire
I have 5 leopard wrasses in my 295 gallon tank. I have a potters, melegaris, ornate, niger and now a kuiter. I have never seen the kuiter before so I thought I would post a pic of it. All of my leopards eat frozen ferociously.
NewImage.jpg

5 leopards wow that must be quite interesting lol
 
I put the divided leopard in on thursday and I have seen it twice for about 30 sec. How do I get it to eat if it divies into sand before I can get food in the water? Also is it unusually for it to have faded color? Very frustrating to have a ghost fish.
 
the faded color shouldnt be normal IMO .and you kinda have to be ready to feed and sneak up on them sometimes to initiate feeding . you also could put a bunch of live brine shrimp in there and they would be there for a few hours . i always have some "fast food" ready to throw in asap if i see one out in the begining . you have to also give them some room so if your going up to the tank and viewing the wrasse then going to get food that will take to long and also freak him out and he will bury himself before you get the food in the tank . also you can try "scenting" the tank with some prepared food just drop a couple of drops of water from the food into the tank and wait a few minutes and when the wrasse comes out he has smelled his dinner and you then can feed him . try to find an uncomplicated way to feed then also so you arent fumblig in front of the tank getting ready to feed .
 
They definitely try your nerves. I've got a male bipartitus that I didn;t see for two weeks after putting him in, then only for a few hours, not again for another week or so, then for a few hours. Now he's out every day. make sure it's got some live stuff in the tank to eat. If she can look around and find some tasty critters and hunt them herself, she'll acclimate better. I've done things like add cheato to the tank becuase I knew it was loaded in pods. When mine have gotten used to hunting, they've started turning to other foods. My LFS makes a food mix that my bipartitus started attacking the first time I fed it (first time he's shown much interest in non living foods). Keep an eye on other fishes picking on her until she's acclimated better. If her sleep cycle is still off, you may consider slowly changing the lighting cycle to help out. My theory is that when they ship from Africa or Vietnam, they are on a different sleep cycle, which has them awake when my lights are off. Without being able to see, they go back to the sand, and slowly starve. When they start hunting early, I've had the best luck with them.
 
good points there with the lighting and live food . to keed some live food in there you can rubberband some cheato to a small rock and put a couple bottles of tiger pods in the tank and they will hang out in the cheato but the wrasse will still be able to get them when hunting . the tiger pods will live there for a long time and even seed the rest of your tank at the same time . i own a body shop that is one minute from my house so i have the ability to go home for a few seconds anytime i need to .
 
I like the idea of the tiger pods & cheato, although I have 5 juv clowns with a non stop apatite. I put a squirt of arti pods & Cyclopees in but not enough to get her interested before she dove into the sand. The fish was at blue zoo for a few weeks but not sure on light cycle or feeding. I am afraid the color is a stress issue but fish seems full not skinny. Only assume the color will come back as it acclimates. only fish that could pick on it is a yellow watchman so I doubt that is an issue. Clowns are all less 1/2 inch in size. Thanks for info
 
I'm not having the same luck with number 2. My first Leopard (Bipartitus) is 4 months old, and doing great! Dove in the sand the first day, came out in day 2, and started eating live brine.

My 2nd (Meleagris) came in 3 days ago.

Day 1 (evening), didn't dive in sand, just hung out. didn't eat.
Day 2 (yesterday) came out in morning, didn't eat, then I found it slid against some live rock like a royal gramma would. spent most of the day there.
Day 3 never came out yesterday at all.

hummmm.......................sucks!
 
not to promising there ,i have been waiting for my million dollar choati leopards to get onto a correct night day regimine . they were coming out every day longer and longer then one died and the other two have been scarce ever since that day . really got me stumped but i am gonna win .
 
oops just found another choati leopard wrasse doing the death dance ,wow i have gone so far out of my way to ensure the health of thease guys !they are so difficult to keep ,i hope every one else is having success with thease little critters .i have had them for a couple of months and now all of a sudden they are dropping like flies . one more left and all other wrasses in this system are doing great .its gotta be something like internal parasites and i have even treated them for that ! if the next one succumbs to whatever it is i will not be making any more attempts at housing them . i have spent so much time and money on thease guys its sickning . i gotta be missing something here or im just gonna have to take into account how delicate they really are . Mysterybox i hope your meleagris come out soon and does great ! good luck
 
Back
Top