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 have had my leapord for just about a year and a half. Put it directly into my 20 gallon frag tank, for QT purposes. The tank has roughly 20 lbs of live rock. It has been doing so well that i have been afraid to move it into the display. Got it from a Lfs.
 
i would assume that your good to go if you want him in your display tank .i usually put my wrasses directly into my DT and have had great results in doing so .
 
Here's a pic of my Meleagris. Only wrasse in the tank at the moment, but hopefully I will add a pair of McCosker's.

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I have had my Meleagris for 6 weeks now, he was great from the beginning eating everything and seemed to fit right in but now he has been missing for 2 days, why do they hide or is he dead?
 
Hiding on occasion for a few days isn't unheard of.

However, jumping out of the tank is much more common. Is your tank escape proof?
 
A stop by my LFS yesterday netted me a Kuiteri variety of Leopard Wrasse.
He was eating and had a full belly.
I was told the PE Mysis I have is too large for him to eat so I purchased some spirulina enriched frozen brine.

Great coloration, looks as vibrant as this one here.

p-37172-kuiteri-wrasse.jpg


He quickly buried himself in the sand after a 45min drip acclimation.

So I go to work the next morning wondering when she will come out.
On lunch I pull up my tank camera and see she is out and about!

Look on the left side of the tank between the torch and the hammer.
Crappy pic I know but its a snapshot from a browser that links to a 640x480 camera.

There she is!

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When I got home she was out for a good 3 hours and I was able to feed and watch her eat spirulina enriched frozen brine.

At around 7pm before the lights started to go down she disappeared into the sand. I have not seen her out at all since then and it has been 5 days.

edit: I know I need about 1" more sand and will be adding it this weekend
 
Looks large enough to me to feed the best food of PE Mysis, but pics are accurate in perception. Also, live bloodworms are awesome....don't forget Selcon.
 
Following up on my Kuiteri variety of Leopard Wrasse post 2 above this one.

Day 1 he went into the sand.
Day 2 he was out for foraging on pods & then I was able to feed him frozen brine. Total time out and about was approximately 5hours.
Day 3-12 no sightings at all.
 
Following up on my Kuiteri variety of Leopard Wrasse post 2 above this one.

Day 1 he went into the sand.
Day 2 he was out for foraging on pods & then I was able to feed him frozen brine. Total time out and about was approximately 5hours.
Day 3-12 no sightings at all.

My Kuiteri will hide for a few days at a time but never that long. One thing I noticed is that he stays out the shortest of all four of my Leopards so sometimes I just missed him.

On the weekends I almost always see him at some point.

Chinch
 
Greetings!
I have been afraid to write because I didn't want to jinx myself but I've had a M. bipartitus and a M. geoffroyi in a 20 gallon (long) mature reef tank QT for the past three plus months. They have been doing great, eating mysis and brine, the geoffroyi even takes in frozen Formula I. Question, lately, I've noticed some aggression from the geoffroyi towards the bipartitus during their first meal in the morning. No torn fins or anything but the bipartitus does appear to be frightened by the geoffroyi as she does not go right up to the food as she used to. Both are females, but the geoffroyi stays up many hours more than the bipartitus and I think she has claimed the 20 gallon tank. I am guessing that the aggression may stem from the limited space but then read several pages ago how a geoffroyi "tore up" a bipartitus. My plans are to have a 75 or 90 gallon diplay especially for the leopards but wonder if I need to seperate them sooner rather than later.
Thanks to all the good information here, I have a tiny win. I just want to do what is right for these beautiful fishes!
 
My Kuiteri will hide for a few days at a time but never that long. One thing I noticed is that he stays out the shortest of all four of my Leopards so sometimes I just missed him.

On the weekends I almost always see him at some point.

Chinch

I have not seen my Leopard Wrasse in over 2 weeks.
I stir some of the sand where I think he last went in. This is not advisable but I figure the fish for dead.
No luck, he is nowhere to be found.

Then I think to myself well maybe he jumped into the overflow and is decaying there. I remove my drain pipe, no luck.
 
Guess its time I joined in. This is my second attempt with a female divided.

My LFS had a young one last week that had been in the store for 3-4 weeks was eating and appeared healthy so I decided it was worth another try. Got her home, temp acclimated and in the display tank she went. She never even buried, just started checking out the new surroundings and hunting. Its been just over a week now and all is well. She eats regularly and has acclimated completely to my light schedule.

I realize after reading this thread that by no means am I in the clear but it does seem I'm off to a very good start.
 
yes,your off to a good start but by no means are you in the clear . feed him well and prazipro if you can find it as deworming is very important .
 
So I just found this thread and thought I would share my experience.

I have a 5-6" female meleagris. She has been with me for 9 months. I purchased her at the lfs where i work. She lives in my 20 long reef.. I had the luxury of watching her for 2 weeks before I purchasers her.

Feeding: wasn't excepting frozen for 5-6 days. After which Hikari mysis was the food of choice ( much smaller then PE mysis)
After about 2 weeks I got her to accept formula one pellets . I had her on that for probably 7 months..still occasionally feeding mysis as a treat. Recently I switched to New life spectrum marine . She didn't like it at first.. she had a hard time with the slightly larger pellet size. So I switched back and her color started the fade. The spectrum added coloration that she never showed. I switches back to spectrum and haven't looked back. Amazing colors.. wish I could get a picture lol she's so fast.

Behavior: man was she shy! I put a "sold" sign on her to watch her behavior. She hid for like 2 days and got hungry and started hunting. She accepted frozen so I took her home. Now I can set my watch to her. She comes out around 6 am and goes to bed around 7pm. She has become very bold but still startles if I approach too fast. Love her <3

Tank: is a 20 long (30x12x12) it was setup as a mantis tank for 8 months then I broke down my 55 into the 20 long so it was pretty well established. Around 35-40 lbs of LR & LS. tank mates are 2 fire clownfish and a 1-eyed twinspot hogfish. She didn't like the hogfish but he is so timid being how he only has 1 working eye. I took him home because no one wanted a " dying 1 eyed fish" but he is awesome . Lots of LPS and zoas. My centerpiece is my blue gigantea carpet anemone that im trying to save..it was pretty bleached.

Hope this helps? Oh and she is my first attempt
 
I have not seen my Leopard Wrasse in over 2 weeks.
I stir some of the sand where I think he last went in. This is not advisable but I figure the fish for dead.
No luck, he is nowhere to be found.

Then I think to myself well maybe he jumped into the overflow and is decaying there. I remove my drain pipe, no luck.

Going on 4 weeks now, nowhere to be found, not on the floor not in the sump, not in the overflow. Moving on and maybe I will try another sand burrowing wrasse later but not sure.
 
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