Leopard Wrasse Primer

[Bluespot22]

What a shame, mystery deaths are no fun. I've changed my mind and have decided to put them in my 46 gallon, at least temporarily. It has tons of macro, pods and worms. Prazipro won't kill the microfauna will it? The only inhabitants are a pair of orange spot filefish that I have had for about a year and have trained onto frozen foods so they will be able to acclimate properly and that tank gets fed very heavily. You mention you got them from a store you work at. Do you know where you guys ordered them from? Mine will be coming from Cairns marine direct from Australia. This is where my last one was from and he did very well for the 5 months I had him.Thanks for the advice, I'll keep you posted when they arrive.

 

[iamwrasseman]

please do keep us posted for sure .the prazipro shouldn't hurt it at all IMO .i have gotten them from blue zoo , Dr fosters ,two different lfs in Rochester ,and our store gets them from Quality Marine and one other warehouse that we haven't done any business with for quite some time that i cant remember the name of .theres also a couple of other place that i have gotten them from that slips my mind but it has been a few years .also from my understanding when fish come into the USA they either enter through California or florida and most come through Cali from what i have heard so its quite a long journey for such a delicate fish .

 

[Bluespot22]

Hopefully the short chain of custody with them coming direct from Australia will help. I think I'll give them a day to settle in and take 2 home. They are scheduled to come in in 2 weeks.

 

[Arkayology]

I have read through this thread and have not found much info on the kinds (brands) of sand people are using and what these wrasse tend to prefer. I know the info out there says that there needs to be a decent amount of sand and that sugar sized is the best. However, I am in the process of building a 60g cube (2x2x2) with x2 mp10s for SPS and I am not sure if sugar sized sand is the best idea. What do people use in their SPS tanks as far as specific brands of sand for Leopard Wrasse? I need a sand that will not blow around in a med-high flow SPS environment.

Thoughts?

 

[aquaph8]

Your looking for a soft sand that wont harm them when they dive into it. Sea flor sales many types that are wrasse safe. I believe tropic eden claims to also be safe.

 

[lbaldrey]

I think I just lost my choati, its been 3 days he hasnt shown up. I kept PH steady as possible, went out and got a few nice pieces of fresh rock for him to pick on and a week passed without incident....suddenly he's vanished without a trace...

 

[Bluespot22]

I wouldn't give up yet, sometimes these fish hide for several days before coming out. Sometimes they need to adjust to your time zone as well.

 

[iamwrasseman]

i have had them vanish for over a month so dont get worried yet . thats something that i mistakenly left out of their "quirks". sorry for that there as i should have posted that also but it is in this tread many times .

 

[Bluespot22]

Unfortunately they only had 2 choatis to send us. That being said, I'm going to take them both home. I'm going to take them directly from the shipment to my tank at home. We'll see what happens...

 

[iamwrasseman]

thats cool ,keep us posted and i wish you the best . when are you getting them ?

 

[BeanMachine]

How much do you guys pay for the choatis in your area? My local store keeps getting rather large ones for about 200 bucks.

I'm still waiting for my meleagris to fully change to male, geez its taking forever...

 

[iamwrasseman]

mine were any where from $80 to $250 a piece depending on who from and how i bought them .but retail here is around $120 if you can get them . they are coming up on the list more common now .
yes sometimes it does take quite a while to change but i had a bipartus that changes three weeks after i got him and it only took a week or two to fully switch to his male adult colors ,it was quite amazing as i didn't recognise my own fish one day .

 

[Bluespot22]

thats cool ,keep us posted and i wish you the best . when are you getting them ?

Thanks. I'm writing this at midnight so technically today (8-12-11). I'll give them a few days to settle down in my tank and then treat with prazipro.

 

[bennyinca]

Looking to get a leopard, but when observing it at LFS, I noticed their scales are somewhat "fluffed". Is that normal ?

 

[curlykid]

fluffed as in fury? or fluffed as in puffy?

 

[Bluespot22]

We received 2 male choati's so I only took one home because I want to get a pair. I'll wait for a female. After being introduced he swam around for about 5 min. and then buried himself in the sand. He looks great, nice and fat and great coloration. Hopefully he comes around and starts eating!

 

[iamwrasseman]

best wishes my friend !

 

[curlykid]

yes, best wishes!

 

[Bluespot22]

Thanks guys. No appearance today, but the other one at the store was out and about. Hopefully mine will re surface soon.

 

[Pylos]

So I have a large male bipartitus who has been a male for some time now. I just caught some green on my larger meleagris today. At the moment these two fish have no aggression issues with each other or any of the other leopards.

When the meleagris becomes male will they have an issue?

They are in a 6' 180g, I'm hoping that the space will curb possible aggression.