Bluestar Leopard Wrasse

[Dreadnaught]

I purchased a pair BSLW from liveaquaria last week and they passed in couple days. I thought I give it another shot. These two appear to be in worse shape than last weeks pair. I am drip acclimating now. I threw in some worms during this process. I have a wide variety of live and frozen food. Any suggestions?

 

[Dreadnaught]

 

[Duke4Life]

@eatbreakfast and @evolved

 

[evolved]

I wouldn't drip acclimate very long, and I would definitely kill the light or cover that bucket with a towel. Matching salinity and getting temp somewhat close is really all that is needed.

No need to put food in there; that's only going to hurt more than it helps I'm afraid.

 

[Dreadnaught]

Thanks. Yes I covered bucket. I typically don't drip acclimate. I was made to believe Leopard wrasses "must" be drip acclimated after reading anything I could find on the subject after last weeks failure. They are moved into QT now.

 

[eatbreakfast]

Methylene blue has helped in some situations where wrasses come in and are lying on their side but breathing fast. It helps o2 get absorbed into their blood stream. I usually do this immediately after acclimation. Rebagging them with water from the tank, a drop of MB, and leave them there for an hour.

Definitely agree with Hunter, long acclimations are a no no, they leave the fish exposed to ammonia, which can permanently damage their gills.

 

[ca1ore]

FWIW, a leopard wrasse laying on its side in the bucket is not necessarily a bad thing. It's their way of trying to hide when there is no sand to bury in. Also, if you are putting these fish into QT, why acclimate at all. Just adjust the tank SG to match that of the incoming bag (1.018 nominally for LA). I got a pair of meleagris from them two weeks ago, and just floated for 15 mins to equalize temperature before putting them in. Both are fine and eating well.

 

[4FordFamily]

FWIW, a leopard wrasse laying on its side in the bucket is not necessarily a bad thing. It's their way of trying to hide when there is no sand to bury in. Also, if you are putting these fish into QT, why acclimate at all. Just adjust the tank SG to match that of the incoming bag (1.018 nominally for LA). I got a pair of meleagris from them two weeks ago, and just floated for 15 mins to equalize temperature before putting them in. Both are fine and eating well.

X2.

Do not add food to the bucket of foods it acclimate as it will only foul the water. I think they look good. Wrasse lay on their side a lot and it's perfectly normal.

 

[4FordFamily]

Another problem is that that looks like two male blue star leopard wrasse to me, one transitioning and one transitioned. @eatbreakfast @evolved

Is it just me?

 

[Dreadnaught]

Thank you all for the suggestions. I almost did a MB dip at start but did not. Should I consider it at this point? I could pull them or I could add MB to the QT for an hour and then run carbon or a big water change since it would be less stressful.

On a positive note, I am seeing one of them come out of hiding which was more than the other two. I'll try to get a better picture of them in a couple days to look at transitioning situation. My Wrasse experience is limited but I am guessing low stress is probably the best thing I can do at this point.

 

[Triggreef]

My best success with leopards involves using the largest complete tank i can set up as a quarantine. A cycled tank with no other fish. With pods all over covering the glass and all. Nice deep sand bed & plenty of live rock. Then treat with prazi pro twice about 6 days apart. Watch for other symptoms after for a month or 2. Very high success rate this way with multiple types of leopards. All other ways, very high failure rate.

I know it seems like a lot of work but it's actually a lot less work than changing water in quarantine tanks all the time. A cycled tank can be set up very easy with just the powerhead & the heater even a 75 gallon or so would be perfect and could be found on Craigslist really cheap.

 

[Triggreef]

Looks like a female and a transitioning male to me

 

[eatbreakfast]

Don't recatch them to do the methylene blue.

It's a male and a female.

 

[teamlounge]

bluestar's especially need a sandbed when acclimating. They will hide for several days. (I've heard stories of up to a month). Also, acclimating in a bucket or small open space is extremely stressful on wrasse. There are many arguments against acclimating at all as long as they came from a clean water source (no copper, etc.) I would suggest dropping them in your tank by hand (no net) in a place where they can get right into a deep sand bed.

 

[Pugfishluv3]

I had a pair from liveaquaria they looked dead like that. They stress super easy. I had lights out for the first day or so due to stress. They are very shy fish. It toke mine about 3-4 days before they came out of the sand to eat. You may want to add more sand for them to hide in maybe they will feel safer.

 

[Watevadog5]

Took my female almost 10 full days. Then she would appear for a few hours once a day to eat. Its a month later and finally she is out and about most of the day

 

[Brautumn]

We never had any problem with acclimation on our leopard wrasses. We got a trio of small meleagris from live aquaria last December and opted not to QT them and they stayed out from the first day until the blue lights went out and they even ate. They adjusted pretty quickly and ate all the different foods that went in the tank.
I did the same with 2 small ornate leopards ( 4 months now) for our other tank. Took them longer to adjust to our lights but they ate anything that went in the tank. They had plenty of pods and critters to pick off the rocks and they were all out from day one with no hiding for days in the sand. Non of the other fish bothered with them.