Leopard Wrasses.. :(

[arcanehacker]

Anybody knows what are the requirements of Leopard Wrasses? Cos I have been trying Leopard Wrasses with only 1 successful attempt.. So far those nicer coloured ones like orange, green camo, etc, never survives. They seem to hide under sand from first day and then next thing I know would be a dead body.. usually few days later.

It seems like the hide under the sandbed till they starve to death..

So far only one which I have for quite long is a black one.. probably close to a yr already.. It comes out very often.

Unless its something to do with being scared by my Tangs.. then again, even with 1 or no Tangs, I still never had any success.. I just wouldn't see them till they die.. urgh..

[dachkie]

Anybody knows what are the requirements of Leopard Wrasses? Cos I have been trying Leopard Wrasses with only 1 successful attempt.. So far those nicer coloured ones like orange, green camo, etc, never survives. They seem to hide under sand from first day and then next thing I know would be a dead body.. usually few days later.

It seems like the hide under the sandbed till they starve to death..

So far only one which I have for quite long is a black one.. probably close to a yr already.. It comes out very often.

Unless its something to do with being scared by my Tangs.. then again, even with 1 or no Tangs, I still never had any success.. I just wouldn't see them till they die.. urgh..

tell me about it, i purposely let my tank cycled until tons of live copepods for them to eat and put them in as 1 of the 1st fishes also fail

we can start a failedinleopardwrasseclub

[Terryz_]

Mainly it due to the way they are caught, usually by cyanide... So they are normally not in good condition, cyanide poisoning which led to internal infection which is mostly difficult to save... This might also be the reason why they dun feed readily due to the internal infection...

So far, only the Black Leopard Wrasse, Bipartitus Leopard Wrasse and Ornate Leopard Wrasse have some survival rate...

Not sure about Choati but it seems like have quite good survival rate from what I see...

[yikai]

Mainly it due to the way they are caught, usually by cyanide... So they are normally not in good condition, cyanide poisoning which led to internal infection which is mostly difficult to save... This might also be the reason why they dun feed readily due to the internal infection...

So far, only the Black Leopard Wrasse, Bipartitus Leopard Wrasse and Ornate Leopard Wrasse have some survival rate...

Not sure about Choati but it seems like have quite good survival rate from what I see...

hi terryz, every single choati bought by different reefers that i know (including me) have not had success with this fish. they will be feeding very well and then die. mine got skinnier and skinnier....

even buy from 2 different LFS also. this leopard is not easy

[Terryz_]

hi terryz, every single choati bought by different reefers that i know (including me) have not had success with this fish. they will be feeding very well and then die. mine got skinnier and skinnier....

even buy from 2 different LFS also. this leopard is not easy

Sad, it seems like Choati is not a good choice too... Should be internal parasite again from the symptom of getting skinnier...

[yikai]

Sad, it seems like Choati is not a good choice too... Should be internal parasite again from the symptom of getting skinnier...

yeah. very difficult... even after multiple multiple attempts by various reefers of different tanks and different husbandry, all CMI.. and most of them played by more experienced wrasse keepers too.

[dachkie]

hi terryz, every single choati bought by different reefers that i know (including me) have not had success with this fish. they will be feeding very well and then die. mine got skinnier and skinnier....

even buy from 2 different LFS also. this leopard is not easy

precisely , the irritating part is when they started feeding for a few days and you get so excited seeing them eating then poof , missing

[yikai]

precisely , the irritating part is when they started feeding for a few days and you get so excited seeing them eating then poof , missing

mine was feeding for weeks the thought of a long term upkeeping of this beautiful fish was like, all that was on my mind. then slowly see it wither away, and you know it won't make it. its sad...

[Harlequinmania]

I got one from one of the reefer here.. Been missing from the first two day when i put it in, before it appear suddenly, and now it is feeding like a pig..

Prehapes you can consider buying this fish from reefer here which is more stable.

[iskay]

Support Responsible Reefing. If success rate is so low, perhaps they should be left in the oceans.

[[V]tEc]

My first leopard was Splendid from AM.....threw inside my 2ft tank n was mia for couple of days. only on the 4th or 5th day, it came out.....it happened on my offday so i quickkly fed it with mysis n brine shrimp. In the beginning, they will be very shy n will only come out for 2 3 hours b4 they go under the sand again....so during the time when they r out, u gt to feed them. till date, this leopard is in my 4ft tank coming to 3yrs. I also try getting the black n philippines leopard, but find them harder to keep...only managed to keep 1 philippines male leopard after a couple of tries. important thing is try to get 1 that do not look stress, swimming ard normally instead of hidin at 1 corner. try adding this fish first so that it will stay out in the open for longer period of time. of cos some luck play a part in keeping this fish.....some ppl i know cant keep this fish, even when buying from reefer, put inside tank also mia.....

[arcanehacker]

I see.. so its really that difficult.. then I'll forget about them.. they look really nice though..

[arcanehacker]

My first leopard was Splendid from AM.....threw inside my 2ft tank n was mia for couple of days. only on the 4th or 5th day, it came out.....it happened on my offday so i quickkly fed it with mysis n brine shrimp. In the beginning, they will be very shy n will only come out for 2 3 hours b4 they go under the sand again....so during the time when they r out, u gt to feed them. till date, this leopard is in my 4ft tank coming to 3yrs. I also try getting the black n philippines leopard, but find them harder to keep...only managed to keep 1 philippines male leopard after a couple of tries. important thing is try to get 1 that do not look stress, swimming ard normally instead of hidin at 1 corner. try adding this fish first so that it will stay out in the open for longer period of time. of cos some luck play a part in keeping this fish.....some ppl i know cant keep this fish, even when buying from reefer, put inside tank also mia.....

Impossible to add leopards first yah.. esp for people like me who already have many fishes over the years.. and its hard to wait for them to come out and feed them.. its like luck thing. Many are working. We can't be home the whole day to see when its out and feed it.. We have only the brief morning and evenings to feed.. if its not out by those times then its impossible.

[yikai]

mm....have tried many different leopards. easiest IMO is macropharyngodon bipartitus aka the splendid leopard. easiest to keep feeding and least shy. have also tried the ornate, and the meleagris. all to good success rates, albeit a little harder than the splendid.

meleagris have a horrible chance of success, but so far i have had good success with them. steer clear of M. choati although they look extremely stunning, hailing only from australia. they are very pricey but very delicate. the only one i have seen that was successful and very fat, was the one living in reef depot's display tank. all other attempts by reefers were deemed futile (to my knowledge). hope if any reefers here is currently keeping choati, please share with us.

[nuj244]

The meleagris I have currently is very hardy! Last month I decided to tear dowm my 2.5 feet setup to install a black acrylic at the back of the tank.

I caught all the fishes except for this one as it buried herself in my 2 inch sandbed. What I did was just scooped the sands into the pail. I then fixed my tank and let the silicone cured for 3 days. When I re-setup my aquarium and started pouring salt water, this fish just suddenly appeared but buried herself in the sand again. There was no way I could catch her without filtering the sand so I just let her stay during the cycling. She survived the cycling, more than a month , and now still looks very healthy, coming out in daytime and disappearing at nighttime.

Imagine this fish survived in a pail of wet sand without food.

[arcanehacker]

I would say besides my current black leopard (dunno what's the name), second best I've tried was a splendid leopard in a 2 ft tank.. lasted for many months. If any remembered the place, I bought it from Eaquarist.. yes it was long time ago..

Also still, in the end, I think it grew thinner and died..

[big_ben102000]

tried the meleagris leopard a couple of times. disppear for a couple of days then come out to feed greedily.. but after 2 months or so, it gets skinner and died. since then, gave up trying. maybe its something in this diet that we are missing out

[yikai]

its not the diet. leopards,as with other wrasses, do not require special dietry needs. frozen and pellets are sufficient for them. most that die of "starvation" are not due to underfeeding or lack of nutrients, but rather, die from intestinal parasites and/or the repercussions of being caught with cyanide, which destroys intestinal fauna and inhibits the absorbtion of nutrients.