Potter's Wrasse wants to destroy Bipartitus

[Half Vaped]

I have three Leopard Wrasses in my 150G: M. bipartitus added ~December 2015, M. meleagris added ~June 2016 and a male M. geoffroyi added November 2016. The M. biparitus and M. meleagris were about 2 - 2.5 inches when added; they're about 3 inches now. The M. geoffroyi was already full grown at over 4 inches when I got him.

The three have been "getting along" great, as in they basically just ignored each other and did their own thing, swimming all around. Until the past few days when the M. geoffroyi has been relentlessly attacking my poor M. bipartitus every time it shows its face. The M. bipartitus has been hiding in the rocks and only comes out for food. But the M. geoffroyi chases it back to the rocks as soon as he notices it's out. The M. meleagris is unaffected.

I can't get a good pic of M. bipartitus since it's mostly hiding now, but it looks like the spots on its face are starting to elongate. Could it be that it's transitioning to male, which is causing the M. geoffroyi to act aggressively?

I feed heavily, usually thrice daily and I have over 250 lbs. of rock. So there is no shortage of food or shelter.

What can I do? Will the M. geoffroyi calm down and let the M. bipartitus be? Or do I need to remove one of them?

 

[OrionN]

Consider having three Leopard wrasse of the same species. The three Meleagris I have hand loosely together. More than 50% of the time they are within 1 foot of each other. My tank foot print is 6'X3' so maybe I am imagine things, but to me it seem they are aware of each other. They all sleep at the same place, go to sleep and get up within a min of each other, so I think they do stay as a group. So far the three still female in coloration but the color of the largest one is lighter and maybe changing.

If possible, I like to keep fish in breeding units in my tank.

 

[eastlake]

My potters did the same thing to my meleagris and she wasn't transitioning. If its being aggressive now I wouldn't expect it to let up so if you're able to get it out of there, easier said than done I've been trying for months, I would suggest that. From what you're describing it definitely sounds like the aggression is a result of the bipartitus beginning to transition into the male phase and the potters is already a male and protecting his space.

 

[OrionN]

Inter-species interactions always unpredictable. Behavior clue are not completely in-sync so the dominate fish tend to beat up the submissive fish a lot more. I see this when I tried to pair Ocellaris with Percula.
One just want to show the other who is the boss, but in the process, the submissive one can get beat up rather bad. A lot of the time, these dominate assertion activities keep the submissive fish from turning male.

 

[ca1ore]

I have found the potters, particularly if it is a male, to be amongst the more aggressive of leopards. Didn't matter whether the 'victim' was male or female.

 

[Half Vaped]

Thanks for the input, guys. I was able to snap a quick pic of my M. bipartitus during feeding before the M. geoffroyi chased it away. I haven't scraped the glass in a week, so please excuse the poor quality:

Is this the face of a transitioning M. bipartitus? I can't find any good "before" pics of its face, but I'm pretty sure its spots are changing.

Today, the M. bipartitus seems a little more outgoing, but is still getting chased by the Potter's. I don't see any damage to the M. bipartitus--it seems to be getting more tolerant of being bullied and seems to be eating enough. But the Potter's isn't backing off.

If I'm unable to catch the Potter's, do you think the M. bipartitus will be fine long term being constantly bullied? I'm not sure if it's even realistically possible to catch the Potter's without breaking down the rocks.

 

[Half Vaped]

Consider having three Leopard wrasse of the same species. The three Meleagris I have hand loosely together. More than 50% of the time they are within 1 foot of each other. My tank foot print is 6'X3' so maybe I am imagine things, but to me it seem they are aware of each other. They all sleep at the same place, go to sleep and get up within a min of each other, so I think they do stay as a group. So far the three still female in coloration but the color of the largest one is lighter and maybe changing.

If possible, I like to keep fish in breeding units in my tank.

With my nine Flasher and Fairy Wrasses, they all seem to interact with each other, hanging out and chasing each other around. But the three Leopards are like three loners. They don't hang together and they definitely don't sleep in the same area.

I wouldn't mind trying a trio one day. Leopards of the same species do seem to interact with each other more.

 

[ca1ore]

Yes, that is definitely a transitioning female; though, I've had a meleagris transitioning for weeks.

 

[Half Vaped]

The Potter's has relaxed a lot and is now only occasionally chasing the M. bipartitus. The M. bipartitus is now out most of the time again and back to business as usual. I have two hypotheses on what may have happened:

1) With the M. bipartitus in transition, the Potter's wanted to let it know that he's the only male in the tank. Maybe the Potter's stopped the M. bipartitus from tansitioning further.

2) With the M. bipartitus in transition, the Potter's thought that the M. bipartitus is a completely new fish in the tank, so the Potter's was hazing the new guy, letting him know who's in charge.

Either way, they're getting along for now. I'm hoping the M. bipartitus doesn't try transitioning further, which may upset the Potter's again.

 

[eastlake]

I'm glad to hear your potters backed off, you'll have to keep the thread updated to let us know if peace remains. Gives me hope that mine will someday even leave my lawnmower blenny alone