Leopard Wrasse in hiding

[Coffee Soundboard]

About a month ago, 4 leopard wrasses finished QT (1 black, 2 divided and 1 Kuiter's.) The QT went surprisingly well. All 4 fish ate from day 1 and not once did they act strange in the slightest. Once their QT was complete, I placed them into the display tank. All 4 hid almost immediately. The next day the 2 divided were out and about. About 4 days after introduction the Kuiter's was swimming around. However, the black leopard never emerged. I assumed something caused him to die, but I wasn't sure what. Last week while vacuuming the sand, he popped out and swam around for about 30 minutes, then back into the sand. He has not re-emerged. I've checked in the middle of the night multiple times and have never seen him. At this point I assume he is probably dead.
What would cause 1 out of 4 perfectly healthy leopard wrasses to never come out of the sand, and probably die of starvation? Should I try to find him and see if he is alive?
Thanks!

 

[fishingchuck]

I have a leopard. He only comes out in the morning. Sometimes I don’t see him for weeks at a time.

 

[moz71]

I would not expect him to be dead. Especially since you already scared him out of sand once already. My leapord wrasse stayed in sand for a solid 15 days before he emerged. As I worried the same I did lots of reading and hiding for looong time is normal. It was only a week ago he was alive. These are funky fish

 

[Coffee Soundboard]

Yeah, I get all that. But this is going on a month. I've never heard of a leopard going a month straight of hiding and being fine when they decide to finally come out of the sand.

 

[blaxsun]

He's probably coming out off-peak. Or he's toast. But short of probing the entire sand bed, there's no way to really know for sure.

 

[moz71]

Yeah, I get all that. But this is going on a month. I've never heard of a leopard going a month straight of hiding and being fine when they decide to finally come out of the sand.

Didn’t you say you saw him last week when scared out of sand?

 

[Coffee Soundboard]

Didn’t you say you saw him last week when scared out of sand?

I did. He was out for roughly 30 minutes only because I spooked him. He did not eat anything while he was out though.

 

[Dburr1014]

I had a leopard hide for 6 months when I got Dinos. When he did finally come out, he was all skinny and died a few days later. Not saying this will happen, but they do hide, and can be for a while.

 

[Coffee Soundboard]

I had a leopard hide for 6 months when I got Dinos. When he did finally come out, he was all skinny and died a few days later. Not saying this will happen, but they do hide, and can be for a while.

Well I guess there is still hope for my guy.

 

[i cant think]

Yeah, I get all that. But this is going on a month. I've never heard of a leopard going a month straight of hiding and being fine when they decide to finally come out of the sand.

It’s really not uncommon to find this happen - You seem to be relatively new to leopard wrasses or even sand sleeping wrasses, correct me if I’m wrong though. These guys are notorious for hiding for months on end when Newley introduced just to come out looking perfectly happy. I don’t recommend touching the sand again since it seems you scared her out of the sand once already.

 

[HB AL]

Sometimes animals ďie in this hobby and you never figure out why, **** happens.

 

[Coffee Soundboard]

It’s really not uncommon to find this happen - You seem to be relatively new to leopard wrasses or even sand sleeping wrasses, correct me if I’m wrong though. These guys are notorious for hiding for months on end when Newley introduced just to come out looking perfectly happy. I don’t recommend touching the sand again since it seems you scared her out of the sand once already.

I am not new to leopard wrasses or sand burying wrasses. I'm not sure why you would assume that. I have never had a wrasse bury in the sand for a month straight (minus the time I scared it out). Are they really that notorious for hiding in the sand? If so, maybe I've been extremely lucky. Either way, I guess time will tell what happens to her.

 

[Tamberav]

Any potential bullying happening? Maybe when your not watching in wee hours? My sand sleepers come out early even before lights on.

Kuiters are actually fairly aggressive for a leopard. Mine is a total dick now lol She chases the blue star leopard around but the blue star is pretty established and getting big and seems to be able to handle it. She will bully anything new for a bit, wrasse or not.

 

[Coffee Soundboard]

Any potential bullying happening? Maybe when your not watching in wee hours? My sand sleepers come out early even before lights on.

Kuiters are actually fairly aggressive for a leopard. Mine is a total dick now lol She chases the blue star leopard around but the blue star is pretty established and getting big and seems to be able to handle it. She will bully anything new for a bit, wrasse or not.

I thought that was a possibility, although a far off one. When the 4 newish leopards were in QT together (for about 1 1/2 months) there was zero aggression. They buried in their little bowls of sand every night at the same time, and came out in the morning at the same time. In the DT there is a Mystery Wrasse that does chase fish once in a while. It's nothing that I would think could cause the black leopard to go into hiding. All of the other leopards and other wrasses don't seem to pay much attention to the chasing. So if there is aggression I haven't seen it.

 

[Tamberav]

Oftentimes fish won’t show aggression in a QT because they are stressed.

Does the mystery chase any of the other wrasse? That’s all it would take to potentially cause a new fish to hide. An established one not so much. Fish also know when something is weak.. if there is a particularly more timid or smaller fish… that fish can certainly become a target. Some fish handle bullies better than others.

 

[i cant think]

I am not new to leopard wrasses or sand burying wrasses. I'm not sure why you would assume that. I have never had a wrasse bury in the sand for a month straight (minus the time I scared it out). Are they really that notorious for hiding in the sand? If so, maybe I've been extremely lucky. Either way, I guess time will tell what happens to her.

I thought it due to you not knowing this but I must’ve been wrong. Yes, these wrasses are extremely notorious for diving into the sand and not coming out for months on end just to rise as if nothing happened.

I thought that was a possibility, although a far off one. When the 4 newish leopards were in QT together (for about 1 1/2 months) there was zero aggression. They buried in their little bowls of sand every night at the same time, and came out in the morning at the same time. In the DT there is a Mystery Wrasse that does chase fish once in a while. It's nothing that I would think could cause the black leopard to go into hiding. All of the other leopards and other wrasses don't seem to pay much attention to the chasing. So if there is aggression I haven't seen it.

A mystery is the last wrasse anyone would recommend mixing with other wrasses. These guys can kill other wrasses if they had their mind to it. The black leopard is EXTREMELY finicky to any form of aggression, even just a small bit of chasing will throw it into hiding.
Someone on here had a bad experience with chasing between a red coris and a Blakc Leopard. The result was an unfortunate death of the leopard.

 

[blaxsun]

Mine was great until it jumped out of the tank one day. Despite returning it to the tank immediately, it disappeared into the sand - never to be seen again…

 

[i cant think]

Mine was great until it jumped out of the tank one day. Despite returning it to the tank immediately, it disappeared into the sand - never to be seen again…

How long ago did it dive into the sand bed and which species was it? The blacks, Kuiters, Moyers, Choats, Potters all are extremely finicky and stress out rather easily so will often vanish into the sand for a while and depending on why it hid, it may come back out but it may not.

 

[blaxsun]

How long ago did it dive into the sand bed and which species was it? The blacks, Kuiters, Moyers, Choats, Potters all are extremely finicky and stress out rather easily so will often vanish into the sand for a while and depending on why it hid, it may come back out but it may not.

Oh man... that was about a year ago. When I upgraded to a larger tank last May it was nowhere to be found - even when I emptied the tank and sifted through the sand bed. Someone got a free meal...

It was a black leopard wrasse, but I had a regular leopard wrasse that earlier suffered the same fate.

 

[Coffee Soundboard]

I have a total of 5 leopards (including the hiding black leopard) and the only one to stay hiding is the black. The other 4 leopards barely notice the mystery wrasse, and honestly, the aggression is pretty minimal. I suppose it’s possible that the black leopard has tried coming out and has been harassed by the mystery but it doesn’t seem likely to me.