Leopard Wrasse

[Satori]

I posted this in FRAG too....

Who has experience with a Leopard Wrasse? I know Scott and Erin have one. (or 2?) Do they eat frozen food? I found red planaria in the fuge. They're not in the main tank that I can see, but I want to start planning ahead. Melev says a leopard wrasse definitely eats them, but they're hard to keep.

Anyway, here's a shot of the planaria. It's amazing what must be living in our tanks the whole time that we just don't see. Like I mentioned earlier, the only thing I've added in the last 6 months is a pair of clownfish. When most people get a pest, they probably just blame the last thing they added, when the fact is, it was probably there the whole time. I'm just speaking of my recent discovery of red bugs and now the planaria. Hmmm...

 

[owsi]

Mike, If you can't get the Wrass, Salfert "Exit" works great had them a few years back, took 2 treatments back to back. You need to run carbon and do a water change. If the numbers are high, syphen out as many as you can, they are toxic when they die. The Exit itself didn't seem to effect anything but the flat worms. Good luck.

 

[Satori]

Thanks John. If I can get an effective predator to control them in the main tank (which I haven't seen any yet) I may let them go in the fuge. Free food and all. If they get in the main tank like they are in the fuge, I'll definitely treat.

 

[lcashman]

I've had my leopard wrasse for over a year now. It eats anything I feed the tank (flakes and frozen).
My suggestion, if you decide to get the leopard wrasse, is it to have plenty of pods available in case it does not eat right off.
I used mysis shrimp to get my wrasse to start eating.

 

[Satori]

Thanks lcashman for the leopard experience. I think I'm good on pods, but I would really prefer if the new guy will eat frozen too.

 

[Satori]

I got my blue spot leopard, exquisite, and labouti wrasses. They're doing great in QT. On the original order I got a super male lineatus, but it didn't survive shipping. The exquisite and labouti are eating frozen, but the leopard still needs to learn.

Exquisite and leopard:

Labouti:

In those first pics, I had to use the flash so the colors are washed out. Ignore the blurriness in this next one, it's just to demonstrate the true colors of the labouti. :lol:

 

[Satori]

I have a great update. All 3 are now eating frozen mysis and brine.

 

[owsi]

Great

 

[lcashman]

Good to hear!

 

[Satori]

I got these 3 fish into the main tank. The powder blue tang chased everyone until I loaded them up with food. Even the tiny neon goby surprised me by harassing the leopard wrasse! The new labouti wrasse was on the carpet behind the tank within 2 minutes, but I was able to move the calcium reactor and barley reach behind the sump and get him back in the tank, and put the egg crate back on before it happened again. There's still a little chasing going on, but not bad. The PBT chases the leopard, the painted wrasse chases the labouti, and the red parrot wrasse chases the exquisite wrasse. Last night I turned off the lights early to make everyone calm down and go to bed. It should be better today.

 

[owsi]

Good to hear they are doing well, hope the sibling rivalrey quites down soon. I am building my frame top todayabout 5" tall like I had on the 110 FW. Hope that will keep them in, Ilke your Leopard Wrass. BTW, Rob has some good Tigger pods, put some in my fuge Fri, doing great, they say they reproduce like crazy, we'll see. I feed them Phyto. LMK when you plan next trip to Tucson, drop by and check out the Solaris

 

[Satori]

Thanks John, I would like to stop by some time. Luckily, we don't have to go up there twice a week anymore but I'll get there again some time.

I don't think adding more pods would really do anything for me. My fuge is already crawling with them everywhere you look, so they're already reproducing at capacity.

So far today since the VHOs came on, I see everyone but the labouti. The PBT chased the leopard once, then gave it up.

 

[owsi]

Thats good to hear also, not that I don't want you to come by but that things are going good and you don't have too.

 

[Satori]

That's for sure!

 

[Satori]

Well, I caught a glimpse of the labouti. After spending all day searching cracks and crevices, I climbed up on the kitchen counter and put my cheek against it and can see just a small part of him. Unfortunately, judging from the color pattern, it looks like he's laying upside down. Not good. :mad2:

 

[Satori]

Yep. Definitely dead. I just got him dug out.

 

[fishaholic911]

That sucks!

 

[owsi]

I know the feeling, got my PBT a week ago, all was great at lights out, found my Bi-Color Angel that was doing great for months on carpet dried. Seems that the PBT went to the Angels cave that night and spooked the Bi-Color to jump because the PBT was in that cave in morning. Hope the rest have settled down for you.

 

[Satori]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8771111#post8771111 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fishaholic911
That sucks!

Sure does. Out of all of them, the labouti was the one that I was really hoping would be ok. Not because he was the most expensive, but because he was a large, brightly colored fish.

He was fine yesterday after laying on the carpet for 2 minutes. I guess it was the combination of the stress of new tank and carpet.

 

[fishaholic911]

He sure was a great looking creature! It always seems that the favorite fish is the first to die. I lost a pbt because the gold rim tang 1/2 his size picked on him until he gave up. I would much rather had it be the other way.