Any experience with this fish?
- Thread starter Cassian
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@evolved might be able to help. Beautiful fish
Dr. Reef
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No personal experience with that particular fish but its species usually are hard to keep and require a group to survive better. Maybe someone else can chime in.
NYA has one for a lot less fwiw if you prefer them over dd. If you've kept leopards before this species is not much different than the rest, similar to potters (m. geoffroy) and black (m. negrosensis). The whole genus are particularly bad shippers so keep that in mind and inspect closely especially for mouth damage upon arrival.
Another similar wrasse in price and behavior is choat's leotard m. choati, maybe some more info on that one. The only leopards I wouldn't compare this to are m. ornatus or m. moyeri, the former being larger and somewhat easier to keep, the latter being more similar to halichoeres than macropharyngodon imo.
evolved
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Technically, it's Halichoeres lapillus. When Jack Randall described the species, he was initially thinking it was a Macropharyngodon as well. However, one of the key characteristics of that genus is the presence of pharyngeal teeth - which are in the throat. None of his lapillus specimens had them, so into Halichoeres it went. The official description paper has it as Halichoeres lapillus. It's still believed that it is an ancestral species to the Macropharyngodon genus.
I really love the way these look and im willing to take the time to wean it on to frozen. any one have experience with this fish? why is it expert only?
It's an "expert only" for the same reasons that all Macropharyngodon wrasses are considered such, although this species is a bit easier than the genus norm.
I do have 4 of them...
But I don't necessarily agree with that.
I definitely wouldn't compare it to a choati - which is by far the most difficult Macropharyngodon.
The juvenile form of lapillus is very similar to M. pakoko, which would actually make it pretty similar to meleagris and geoffroy, genetically.
Being that lapillus has always found its way in limbo between the two genera, it's difficulty is also right there along with that. A bit more challenging than the average Halichoeres, but easier than the average Macropharyngodon.
Thought choati were one of the easier macropharyngodon, so that's good to know. I think some leopards are easier than some halichoeres...h. iridis for example are rather difficult. Good info on this being h. lapillus.
Scurvy
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Gorgeous but Ive never kept one.
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I didn't have any issue with that, and mine came semi-direct from a collector. All 5 easily ate whatever I offered. (the fifth one went to a friend, who still has it as well)
As long as the mouth is in tact they should readily take food. Can try live black worms if they're picky at first, but I've never had trouble getting healthy leopards to eat lrs or mysis and they eventually take pellets like the rest of my wrasses. Even then they may eat with damage if the food is right, I just had a halichoeres timorensis with bad lower jaw damage, was a good eater pre damage, ate through the injury and healed within a few weeks.
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Nice, haven’t seen a lapillus on DD in a long time. Last time I did, I bought it 
. That was close to 5 years ago and it’s still going strong. Same day there was a Vivien - always wished I’d bought that too. Haven’t seen one of those since.
. That was close to 5 years ago and it’s still going strong. Same day there was a Vivien - always wished I’d bought that too. Haven’t seen one of those since.
