Leopard wrasse Q

[THEDLO]

ok soon im going to be reciveing a leopard wrasse from a fellow reefer, its a male, eats well and is used to tank food (hes had it for almost a year).

so my question is.....if i get a female for it, what are the chances that it will learn to eat like the male? i really want a pair. thanks for the help guys :wavehand:

 

[MCCOOL]

Your chances of it eating are good IF you start with a healthy fish, which can he hard to find sometimes.

What species of leopard is it? I've read that some(M. Meleagris) don't tolerate companionship as well as others.

 

[THEDLO]

its this one but the male...it comes from hawaii i believe the one u speak of is the tonga one.

 

[Ryan-UF]

I have read only positive about grouping leopards. It is usually better though to introduce them together, or introduce the male last to "run the harem" if you add more than a pair. I assume they are going in your 120? Keep an eye on the pod population because your new wrasse will likely rely on them for a while before taking frozen. She should pick it up eventually though if in good health.

**Just saw your pic above - Vermiculate leopard wrasse are awesome, be careful though, I have lost two over the last 4 years for unknown reasons that were happy, eating, and dancing on the sand. If you can, verify that they are not being cyanide caught.

 

[THEDLO]

yea this would be the 120. so what im getting is the male so i should add the females first? my consern with that is getting them to make the transition from live food to prepared food. the males has already made that transition.

 

[Ryan-UF]

After reading your livestock list maybe it's not as big of an issue for the order. That recommendation is more for aggression issues. With three tangs in a 120... there will be pleanty to distract them. I definitely don't want to tell you how to run your tank, but might want to consider that you may be overstocking.

 

[THEDLO]

im down to 2 tangs now lol my hippo NOM'd the crap out of my goby. so she had to go. almost all my fish are under 3" the naso may be more like 4-5

 

[Ralph ATL]

have you looked through this?

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1486086

 

[iamwrasseman]

if you have females that you have added first you need to keep an eye out because if you get a dominant female that is getting close to turning male it could fight with the male . in your case i would suggest that you have the male in the tank first . i have found this out the hard way a couple of times and found this works better than the norm .they do very well in groups and again healthy specimines are key with these guys .

 

[Dizzle63]

I have had luck adding small juveniles to an existing male potter's.

 

[THEDLO]

at the moment i do not have a wrasse, the male would be my first. so what im seeing is that the females that i choose to add (if more than one) should be healthy. how soon after should i add the female/s? if i can find some i may go for smaller ones about 2-3" the male is bout 3-4"

thanks for the info guys!

 

[joe22883]

+1, its rare to find a leopard in good shape. terrible shippers and/or hard to collect. mine swam in circles on the glass for weeks before calming down and eating prepared food. I looked for years before finding a healthy enough one worth buying. good luck pairing them up, it would be sweet.

 

[THEDLO]

just read somthing on the feeding thread...i really wanted the tonga leopard, but this opertunity presented its self and now that im fairly confident about what to give it idk i may change my mind and go for the other one...damn decisions decisions lol