Leopard Wrasse Primer

[monkiboy]

ok the choat's wrasse is out of QT. it's been about 36 days to today. it's been in my display for two days now. upon introduction it surprisingly didn't dive into the sand which most of my wrasses have done. it meandered for about an hour and was under the sand for the next 24 hours. the next day it was "awake" around 3pm and only out for half hour and back under the sand. today, it was out for three hours swimming calmly in a slightly larger than the day before but still not exploring the 7' fully.

it ate a few enriched blackworms without much excitement, but did eat. ate some PE enriched mysis and hikari mysis and spat a few pieces back. his activity and length of life thus far has me excited as i hear that the two week to 1 month mark is the life clock on this species in captivity. once after that hurdle everyone i talk to that has one has kept them successfully long term.

i'm feeding small amounts as many times as i can while he's awake to take advantage of those few hours but so far so good. no aggression from the other tank inhabitants and he does seem more active and willing to search more of the tank every day.

here's a quick video of him a minute or so after waking mid afternoon in my tank for the first time:

 

[ca1ore]

Very nice, good luck with him (her, can't tell?).

BTW, my male Bipart is now eating mysis though only after it falls to the bottom - he ignores anything in the water column. That'll have to change as very little food given to my display gets a chance to hit the bottom!

Continuing to feed them every chance I get during the day - ends up being 5 to 10 times.

 

[gregrocks79]

Added a male ornate leopard about 20 min ago. He's still swimming around and checking out his new digs. Even snacking off the rocks!!

Crappy pic but it'll suffice for now

 

[gregrocks79]

Better crappy pic



He ate some frozen mysis. Woot

 

[ca1ore]

All three of my DD Bipartitus wrasse's are out from 9 am until about 5 pm, and are eating Mysis, larry's reef frenzy and spirulina brine. Male still only eats once the food is on or near the bottom, but doe that quite enthusiastically. I am quite optimistic that I will be able to move them up into the DT within a few weeks. Taking the risk of no QT, not an unreasonable one in this case, seems to have paid off as none of the three show any signs of disease.

 

[iamwrasseman]

very nice video ! and its awesome that he survived QT for a month as i had found that they did so much better going directly into DT . you may have one that will endure this stressful process and make it for years to come !
IME, they have been nearly imposable to keep more than a few months as mine ranged from dead in the bag to a few months . what is really baffling is that i never had one lose weight and wither away over time . any of them that made it for more than a few weeks always were eating well ,like six to ten times a day but they were fine one day and dead FAT AND HAPPY LOOKING the very next day much to my dismay. much earlier in this tread you can read my findings but they are just one that should be left on the reef . right now they are plentiful but i probably wont ever try one again ,unless i do .lol
i think my next one will be a pair of amphius feminus ,as they are readily available but a bit more expensive . i am finally setting my cube tank up but it will still be a month before i get water in it .. there is 200lbs of live rock in my basement sump and i just shut down my 90 today so i will be feeding the rock until i hook up my cube .

 

[fishmanstan]

The store "New Fish" in Chicago has like 10 different leopards. They have 2 chaoti and the worker said they have had them for like 1.5 yrs. Fattest and biggest leopards I have EVER SEEN! Incredible

 

[iamwrasseman]

yes you have to feed them all day long for sure . 6-9 times or more if you can . IME the more small feedings the better for them

 

[monkiboy]

All three of my DD Bipartitus wrasse's are out from 9 am until about 5 pm, and are eating Mysis, larry's reef frenzy and spirulina brine. Male still only eats once the food is on or near the bottom, but doe that quite enthusiastically. I am quite optimistic that I will be able to move them up into the DT within a few weeks. Taking the risk of no QT, not an unreasonable one in this case, seems to have paid off as none of the three show any signs of disease.

that's awesome that they are all out and about and eating and your short term success. how often are you feeding?

very nice video ! and its awesome that he survived QT for a month as i had found that they did so much better going directly into DT . you may have one that will endure this stressful process and make it for years to come !
IME, they have been nearly imposable to keep more than a few months as mine ranged from dead in the bag to a few months . what is really baffling is that i never had one lose weight and wither away over time . any of them that made it for more than a few weeks always were eating well ,like six to ten times a day but they were fine one day and dead FAT AND HAPPY LOOKING the very next day much to my dismay. much earlier in this tread you can read my findings but they are just one that should be left on the reef . right now they are plentiful but i probably wont ever try one again ,unless i do .lol
i think my next one will be a pair of amphius feminus ,as they are readily available but a bit more expensive . i am finally setting my cube tank up but it will still be a month before i get water in it .. there is 200lbs of live rock in my basement sump and i just shut down my 90 today so i will be feeding the rock until i hook up my cube .

i dont believe qt and prophylactic treatment needs to be stressful. medicines and processes are much more refined and gentle. additionally it's quite ideal as it allows for solitary care and conditioning - there are no tank inhabitants to worry about, very clean water, easy to condition to various foods, easy to monitor and observe behavior, etc.

i really hope this guy does make it and so far so good. he still does not stay awake very long - about four hours tops but hopefully that slowly increases over the next few weeks. eating all foods well but still not excited about blackworms which i would really like him to eat more of.

and yes, i read all your posts prior to my purchase. thank you for posting up your experience with the choati as it was good reference before my own purchase.

did you mean to say your next purchase would be an anampses femininus? these are readily available to you? through what supply? i'd love to get a pair down the road to be with the lennardi as the show stoppers. they are all gorgeous specimens.

 

[iamwrasseman]

my concern about a QT is that we just took this fish out of the vast ocean which this fish could swim in one direction for its entire life and it would never reach land and we put them in a 20 gallon glass cage .wrasses are very ,very , prone to stress and that 20 gallon tank that is bare with no glimmer of its real setting without the ability for it to understand what the heck just happened is extremely stressful beyond our imagination .there would be a pretty high mortality rate if humans were locked in sheds and thrown some food every now and then for the rest of our life . anyway yes i agree to disagree with you on that subject .
yes a pair of femininus is what i will be show casing in my new tank and they are usually available from wholesalers and in my situation i would be banned from RC if i go further with this . i would suggest you contact your retailer and have them order them for you as they should be very interested in helping you .i do know that route 66 has had the lennardi's from time to time so you could contact them .

 

[monkiboy]

i understand your viewpoint and thanks for the detail. i certainly would not recommend to qt/treat a sand-sleeping/dwelling fish in a bare tank without a refuge of fine sand. i haven't found benefit/higher success rate to treating/qt'ing a smaller leopard in a larger (standard 120 or larger) over a 20L but i've only done this genus maybe 15 times so take that for what it is worth. ideally especially with some of the more finicky fish that i like to keep in qt longer i'd encourage the use of a 40B and having multiples going through treatment at the same time which i've found easier.

your analogy is an interesting one. imagine being thrown in that same shed with other occupants. some perhaps larger or more aggressive than you that are familiar with the layout and are quick to eat the food that is thrown in every now and then and have taken all the good sleeping and hiding spots. and imagine slowly deteriorating and no one noticing able to intervene. it's ok we disagree - everyone has their opinion and there is sometimes no one way to do things correct in this hobby.

man, a pair of a.femininus would be great to see in anyone's system. yes, the lennardi's i know have been more popular lately on the wholesale list as it's an ideal time for collection but haven't seen or heard of any feminius available except from maybe the native exporters and chances there are so small to get it stateside competing with everyone else but most ideal to shorten chain of custody. if you do hear/see the femininus on a wholesale or trans-shipper list, after you've claimed yours of course, please PM me!

 

[iamwrasseman]

the shed with others would be larger and more like a house/mansion if it was one that the people/fish were to live in for a prolonged period .the thing with wrasses as you probably know is they are poor shippers and usually are stressed easily so going directly into a DT usually has the best results IME . also as you very well know is that when properly planned the least aggressive fish should be introduced first and then the more aggressive and so on down the line . i do know that things "fish" come up and mess our planned tank-mates and you cannot always control all of your additions properly in terms of aggression . some fancy reaquascaping usually helps out along with some good old fashioned over feeding usually helps out a ton
its funny as the fems have been on the list for the past two months and are not now .you need to find a retailer that purchases from quality marine and you can do this by going to their website and click on find retailers . their site will tell you of someone hopefully close to you that purchases from them and as i said they usually have them . i have never seen the lennardi's on their site though .i wish you a happy new year and good luck

 

[monkiboy]

i have a source but like you mentioned haven't seen them on there as of late. i'll keep a closer eye on QM specifically now though. thank you dave and happy new years to you too sir!

 

[monkiboy]

here's the latest video from a couple days ago. still doing well like i mentioned and thickened up ever so slightly. much more activity throughout the entire tank and with the other fish.

 

[iamwrasseman]

they were on the list last week for sure as i have been oogling them myself . they have had about ten or fifteen total some medium females and large females and usually one or two large males . i myself will get a pair of females as i like their look much more than the males but the are both well beyond being so stunning . i
like i said QM retailers are available to look up on the website .if you cannot figure it out i could ask my salesperson for information regarding a close retailer for you to associate with .also when i see them i will post here for you to see as i am just trying to help ya out my friend

 

[monkiboy]

thanks so much for offering to go out of your way but no worries i must have just overlooked them hastily while on the hunt for something else. i'll pay more mind. thanks again.

 

[ca1ore]

that's awesome that they are all out and about and eating and your short term success. how often are you feeding?.

Hah, yes, only short term so far. I have had a couple of 4 day trips since I have had these fish, but otherwise I am feeding them almost continuously - at least 10-12 times per day. Currently they are eating enriched brine, Larry's reef frenzy and both kinds of mysis. Males still eats primarily only food that has sunk to his line of vision or below.

 

[boda883]

Iamwrasseman by chance are you ponytail dave. I love looking at your leopard wrasse collection. In fact your collection made me go get two blue stars. I got one female and one that is changing to a male. Its only been a week but both are eating frozen food.

 

[fishmanstan]

I've had a female meleagris for AT LEAST 6 months. Pretty easy fish If eating IMO

 

[ca1ore]

FWIW, just noticed today that my female meleagris has started to eat NLS pellets. New year's resolution perhaps ..... Anyhow, she has been in the display since mid October, and gradually has been taking a greater variety of foods.