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
Unfortunately the 2 bipatus never made it out of the shop. I added the meleagris and the other 5 killed it pretty much. I had to put it out of it's misery, it was swimming upside down in the corner and they were attacking in continuously.There was no coming back from the state it was in. Very sad to watch and I feel terrible not being able to separate it in time to save it. :(

Sorry to hear that, Aaron. That sucks.
 
Thanks, I've more bad news to share unfortunately. My pair of Kuiteri's are dead, the male has been missing for 4 days now, I've not found a corpse but you could set your watch by him. I found the female dead last night after looking for her due to not seeing her out and about as she was like clockwork. Body was immaculate, just looks like she dropped dead. It's not the first time I've had this happen to a leopard wrasse but it's usually in the first week. These had been in the shop 6 weeks and in my tank 4. Feeding on flake too. My gut feeling is the male is already gone and the CUC disposed of the corpse. I had a tug of war with a hermit when I pulled her out, it was pulling her into the rocks.

**** you Reef Gods!!!
 
Bought a ornatus on Thursday. Out and in the open eating mysis like crazy day one. In the sand when I got home from work, but out and eating like crazy on day two. Day three, lying on the sand in death throws. No sign today.

The reef god's heard me bragging to my wife about how lucky I got with this fish.
 
Hope I'm not jinxing myself. Was in the LFS last Wed and he had 2 meleagris that had just come in. One looked pretty healthy and relaxed so I brought her home still in the original shipping bag.
Temp acclimation only and straight into the display she went. As expected, burried pretty quick but was out later that night and next day. My bipartus really gave her a bad time for the first couple of days but things have settled down nicely and the two pal around together regularly.
Not eating preparred foods yet but stays active all day hunting pods so I'm sure I have plenty of time till she weans onto storebought foods.
 
I have 2 meleagris and an ornatus waiting for me to be collected from my LFS. All are taking frozen, collecting them today. They're a decent size as well unlike the last one. I'll report back later how it went. It's always anxiety provoking adding new fish, you never know how it'll pan out.
 
I came home with 1 meleagris and an ornatus, the second one I've left a while longer, I weren't happy taking it home.

Here's my new 2, I had some slight aggression from the bipartus and male ornatus so I blacked the tank out.

DSC_0051-12.jpg


DSC_0030-14.jpg
 
Encouraging news. All aggression from the bipartus has subsided and the two are now officially buds, also the new meleagris has sampled some mysys during the last few feedings.
I was very skeptical bringing in the new meleagris but I'm glad it appears thus far to be working out quite well.
 
Well, I received 3 meleagris from LA yesterday. Two of them were DOA with the third looking like she would join them before acclimation was over. The sole survivor survived a hour and a half drip acclimation with prazipro added toward the end of the drip. She was added to the DT, went straight for the sand and surprisingly was seen out and about an hour later picking on rocks and exploring some before going down for the night. She seemed shaky on her fins and I am still not very optimistic for her survival.

Are my experiences with them being shipped the norm? 1 of 3 surviving shipping doesn't seem very encouraging. I have checked DD but haven't had any luck finding them on there. I do notice that a lot of the responders in this thread seem to buy there's from there LFS. I'm thinking of reordering but not if I am only going to get one of three that even survive the trip. I will update on the third one (I hope she comes out of the sand).

thanks...chuck
 
Alas, the third one was dead on the sand when the lights came on today....

Thats a shame, so sorry to hear the news.
These guys have a very poor shipping record. If you get one acclimated they are usually pretty hardy afterwards. Buying a specimen from your LFS is usually the best way to go. Make sure the wrasse has settled at their location and is active and healthy in appearance. If they are eating then that is a definate plus.
My Bipartus had been at the LFS for a few weeks, was fully adjusted to their tank and eating so I got very lucky there. The Meleagris I got last week had come in from the wholesaler(local shipping,2 maybe 3 hrs) while I was in the store. They got two of them and one was very alert, not panicked or stressed, he actually looked pretty at ease with the whole affair so I figured it was worth a shot. Never let him out of the original shipping bag till I got him home and so far so good.
Todays feeding was another plus, he has figured out now what is going on and has started to join the other fish. Not in the clear by any means but it does look like it is going in my favour.
 
the drip acclimation didn't kill the wrasses but it is definatly a bit to long IMO, lets get it down to am hour tops especially on shipped fish as you want to get them out of their ammonia polluted water asap . yes they are toughish shippers although there are worse .
 
My male ornatus pretty much killed the female yesterday, I managed to net her and trap him, he's gone back to my LFS, he's a nightmare and I can't put up with the aggression and him killing anything I try to add. The female ornatus disappeared after I let her recover, I'll be very surprised if she surfaces again. The meleagris is doing ok, eating mysis. My bipartus seemed to join in with the male ornate with the beatings, now he's gone I'm hoping she'll ease up. The meleagris is actually much bigger than her.
 
Thanks for the responses. Are bipartitus more durable than meleagris or about the same? I am thinking about trying one more time with the bipartitus.

chuck
 
multiple leopard wrasses (whether same species or not), are beyond difficult longterm as the dynamics of each relationship changes.......
 
Two female Macropharyngodon meleagris, one in transition to male

Source: LFS

Method of introduction: 1 week in a 10g bath of PraziPro followed by 6 weeks hyposalinity for ich

Tank set up: 150g SPS-dominant reef, no other fish

How many other attempts, if any, you made to keep a leopard wrasse and thoughts on why this attempt was successful: I had a female bipartitus wrasse for quite some time, but my tank got an ich outbreak (before I started treating everything for ich), so I moved it into a QT. It had slowly been growing skinnier, and my guess is that it had internal parasites and wasn't getting enough food in the QT (since it couldn't constantly graze.) Now, I treat all fish with PraziPro and for ich before they go into my display to avoid this problem.

Other info: I made sure both were eating mysis in the store. Upon arriving home, both ate everything I fed them.
 
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