Leopard wrasse not looking well at all!!!

Tamberav · Feb 25, 2021

Eleni18 said:
So.....this morning, no trace of the fish. He is no longer lying on the sand, but I cannot see him anywhere....What do you think?Dead or alive hiding somewhere?

No way of knowing. They can hide for weeks but also a CUC can dispose of a body very quickly.

moz71 · Feb 25, 2021

I would hope for best and hope he recovered and buried in sand. My leapord wrasse spent 14 straight days in sand before he came out. And was completely fine. Don’t go try digging him up. This may be his way of destressing. It is very tempting to go digging. Don’t. If he did die and clean up crew ate him nothing can do anyway. I am suspecting he is fine and buried himself

Dom · Feb 25, 2021

Eleni18 said:
So.....this morning, no trace of the fish. He is no longer lying on the sand, but I cannot see him anywhere....What do you think?Dead or alive hiding somewhere?

Monitor your ammonia levels. If it has died, you might see your ammonia level come up temporarily.

ZoWhat · Feb 25, 2021

Did you research before your purchase?

+1 on all comments that they bury quickly upon acclimation

The biggest concern is eating. It will come out of the sand late at night and hopefully you have enough Pods fir it to hunt and eat within close proximity.

Leopards are expert only.
Extremely expert only.
Very very very hard to get eating without live food. Even with live food, who knows?

I personally wouldnt even consider buying one unless I saw it on 2 different occasions at a LFS eating frozen prepared food.

Even then.... once transferred from LFS to my tank, could start another starvation response

Best of luck. Leopards are one of the hardest fish to get acclimated in a tank. Once acclimated then you worry about JUMPING OUT OF THE TANK
.

Uncle99 · Feb 25, 2021

They are famous for burrowing and staying under the surface of sand substrates at night, or when frightened.
It is also possible that he may dive into the sand on first introduction and stay there for days. This flight may not necessarily be from fear, they are likely just adjusting their circadian rhythm after having been caught and shipped through several time zones. Other than checking to see if the wrasse jumped out onto the floor, I urge patience. Do not stir the sand up to find your errant wrasse. Be assured that with time, it will resurface.

Arabyps · Feb 25, 2021

Tamberav said:
They are poor shippers and likely nothing you did. I had 3 come from LA awhile back. One looked good, one DOA, and one that could not bury and getting stuck to overflow. The bad looking one did survive with some TLC and I still have her years later.

I would recommend using TSM for online purchases as they ship their fish really well. They come in huge bags of water and the fish are all conditioned and do better with shipping.

ALWAYS test the bag waters salinity. I have had fish come in hyposalinity by mistake which would have killed the fish If I didn’t add them to a QT matched and bring it up over a week.

Also LA fish sometimes come in at 1.018. I get these fish into clean matched water in a bucket to get them out of ammonia bag water and then drip from there when the difference is great.

There are two LA options - regular LA and Divers Den (don't conflate the two when evaluating LiveAquaria product). I only purchase from Divers Den (stringent protocols to insure healthy fish - see link below) and have always received excellent livestock in very good condition. When purchasing from DD, I still treat with Safety Stop after acclamation. I also purchase from TSM which are an excellent source for quarantined livestock. I don't feel the need for a Safety Stop treatment for product from TSM as they have the very utmost quarantine/treatment prior to release for sale.

IMO the OP should increase the drip acclamation to 30-45 minutes minimum. Also, fish purchased from the LFS almost always require QT since they generally do not perform any sort of QT prior to shipment (except perhaps therapeutic copper in the water and low salinity). Since you are unable/unwilling to QT, at a minimum treat with Safety Stop after acclamation.

Good luck and hope all turns out well.

LiveAquaria® Diver's Den® WYSIWYG Store Quarantine Procedure for Marine Fish

www.liveaquaria.com

Tamberav · Feb 25, 2021

Arabyps said:
There are two LA options - regular LA and Divers Den (don't conflate the two when evaluating LiveAquaria product). I only purchase from Divers Den (stringent protocols to insure healthy fish - see link below) and have always received excellent livestock in very good condition. When purchasing from DD, I still treat with Safety Stop after acclamation. I also purchase from TSM which are an excellent source for quarantined livestock. I don't feel the need for a Safety Stop treatment for product from TSM as they have the very utmost quarantine/treatment prior to release for sale.

IMO the OP should increase the drip acclamation to 30-45 minutes minimum. Also, fish purchased from the LFS almost always require QT since they generally do not perform any sort of QT prior to shipment (except perhaps therapeutic copper in the water and low salinity). Since you are unable/unwilling to QT, at a minimum treat with Safety Stop after acclamation.

Good luck and hope all turns out well.

LiveAquaria® Diver's Den® WYSIWYG Store Quarantine Procedure for Marine Fish

LiveAquaria® Diver's Den® WYSIWYG Store Quarantine Procedure for Marine Fish

www.liveaquaria.com

When I say LA... I bought from LA side. It was when prices were low and everything had a 14 day guarantee or money back. I did get fish from DD with disease sometimes.

Eleni18 · Feb 27, 2021

Hi, thank you all for your input. As I said, I live in Greece, so no option to ship from LA or elsewhere. I trust my online LFS, always got top health and quality fish from him. I do not quarantine fish I get from him. I have been researching leopard wrasses for more than a year, I understand how demanding they can be. I would not expect him to eat frozen. My tank is a 150 gallon, running for 4-5 years and has plenty of pods I think, If I can trust the opinion of two healthy mandarins eating pods all day long. But....I still cannot find my leopard wrasse.

moz71 · Feb 27, 2021

Eleni18 said:
Hi, thank you all for your input. As I said, I live in Greece, so no option to ship from LA or elsewhere. I trust my online LFS, always got top health and quality fish from him. I do not quarantine fish I get from him. I have been researching leopard wrasses for more than a year, I understand how demanding they can be. I would not expect him to eat frozen. My tank is a 150 gallon, running for 4-5 years and has plenty of pods I think, If I can trust the opinion of two healthy mandarins eating pods all day long. But....I still cannot find my leopard wrasse.

All you can do is give it time and hope he is still in sand and will come out one day. Like I mentioned mine stayed 14 days in sand. And what a GREAT feeling when you glance at tank and there he was swimming around after all that time. Hope you get that feeling. Still hope!!! It’s all you do now anyway.

homer1475 · Feb 27, 2021

Yup agree with above.

My last leopard I added actually hid in the sand for a month! It only came out after about 2 weeks, at night. Now that it has gotten used to my lighting schedule, shes the first up in the AM, and last to go to bed at night.

Just give it time. And for the love of it's health, don't go digging in the sand for it. It will only increase it's stress level. If you haven't seen it after 2 weeks, unfortunately it has probably perished.