Leopard wrasse questions

[JenniferMcK]

there was a guy on here that has a ton of them and he said qt was stressful for them and does not do it but he also feeds some form of medication in all of his fish food directly to his reef tank saying it had no effect on any of his corals

There is no medicated food that will kill ick or velvet.

It must've been prazi, metro, or GC, which like @mfinn said, doesn't treat for the nasties and I just can't take that chance in my dt. I don't want to go through that again ever.

 

[Hemmdog]

Thank you so much. Your tank is beautiful!

Aw thank you !

 

[JenniferMcK]

Ok so here's my plan. Anyone chime in to help. I have a 40 gal breeder that's already cycled and had a group of storm clowns go through copper in it, with a large Tupperware of sand, 2 sponge filters, pH, and a few pieces of pipe. I'm going to order a leopard wrasse and a yellow coris wrasse (I've heard they do good together and have read that sometimes the yellow coris will teach the leopard to eat frozen foods), and 2 storm clowns. I'm figuring 40 gal will enough space for all of them. The wrasses are small in size about 2 inches and the clowns are only an inch each. Also ordering frozen cyclops and pods. I have a divider and separate tanks if I need them(I quarantine fish for people as a side job so I have a lot of stuff). Going to let them all settle in for a few days and get the leopard eating frozen and then start copper slowly and hold for 30 days if all goes right, transfer to sterile tank after at least 14 days if anything goes awry. Then do 2 rounds GC and also feed GC or fembendazole. Then add to dt after observation. Does that sound like a good plan?

 

[Hemmdog]

Ok so here's my plan. Anyone chime in to help. I have a 40 gal breeder that's already cycled and had a group of storm clowns go through copper in it, with a large Tupperware of sand, 2 sponge filters, pH, and a few pieces of pipe. I'm going to order a leopard wrasse and a yellow coris wrasse (I've heard they do good together and have read that sometimes the yellow coris will teach the leopard to eat frozen foods), and 2 storm clowns. I'm figuring 40 gal will enough space for all of them. The wrasses are small in size about 2 inches and the clowns are only an inch each. Also ordering frozen cyclops and pods. I have a divider and separate tanks if I need them(I quarantine fish for people as a side job so I have a lot of stuff). Going to let them all settle in for a few days and get the leopard eating frozen and then start copper slowly and hold for 30 days if all goes right, transfer to sterile tank after at least 14 days if anything goes awry. Then do 2 rounds GC and also feed GC or fembendazole. Then add to dt after observation. Does that sound like a good plan?

Sounds fantastic Now you have to decide what kind of leopard wrasse !

 

[JenniferMcK]

Sounds fantastic Now you have to decide what kind of leopard wrasse !

You're so right. The potters are definitely the most expensive and most beautiful looking, but I think I'll pass on that one. I love the look of the female divided wrasse but I think I'm gonna go with the regular leopard wrasse for my first one as its the cheapest, so if anything goes wrong (got my fingers it won't), I won't be out that much money. I'll probably start with methylene blue bath upon arrival just in case and then to qt it goes. I have frozen blood worms, brine, mysis, reef frenzy, and some type of coral blend food, so I'm ordering the cyclops and pods. I have a bunches and bunches of pods in my dt but I don't know how to catch them outta there.

 

[Hemmdog]

You're so right. The potters are definitely the most expensive and most beautiful looking, but I think I'll pass on that one. I love the look of the female divided wrasse but I think I'm gonna go with the regular leopard wrasse for my first one as its the cheapest, so if anything goes wrong (got my fingers it won't), I won't be out that much money. I'll probably start with methylene blue bath upon arrival just in case and then to qt it goes. I have frozen blood worms, brine, mysis, reef frenzy, and some type of coral blend food, so I'm ordering the cyclops and pods. I have a bunches and bunches of pods in my dt but I don't know how to catch them outta there.

Sounds like your set

 

[JenniferMcK]

Sounds like your set

Thanks for the help. I really appreciate it!

 

[rkpetersen]

I like to use a dish of sand ( tupperware low profile dish) for leopards in my quarantine tank. I've seen some others say no.
One thing I do know is most sand that we use will absorb copper out of the water, so daily testing IMO is mandatory.
I use the Hanna High Range copper checker. It is awesome. No guessing what the color in the tube actually is.

I use a dish of sand for sand-sleeping wrasses also.
Worth mentioning that if you use chloroquine phosphate instead of copper, the sand will absorb a massive amount of phosphate.
And if you do a full water change but don't breakdown the tank between quarantines, use the sand again, and redose CP, the phosphate level in the QT water can get extremely high.
On the order of 300 ppm or higher. Will cause fish mortalities when everything else seems fine.

 

[JenniferMcK]

I use a dish of sand for sand-sleeping wrasses also.
Worth mentioning that if you use chloroquine phosphate instead of copper, the sand will absorb a massive amount of phosphate.
And if you do a full water change but don't breakdown the tank between quarantines, use the sand again, and redose CP, the phosphate level in the QT water can get extremely high.
On the order of 300 ppm or higher. Will cause fish mortalities when everything else seems fine.

Thanks for the info. But I know Wrasses can't handle CP. Currently I've only treated some clowns in CP but I started with a sterile tank with nothing but pipes for hiding, that wasn't cycled so that bacteria couldn't break it down, did water changes every few days to stay on top of ammonia, and broke down the tank after treatment was done. Then after cp treatment was done, one of the clowns came down with some kind of infection and was scratching like it still had ich or velvet, so I started all over again with copper, and the clowns are healthy and happy now, eating like pigs and very beautiful. So I'm not sure if I did something wrong or the CP wasn't pure, but I'll be sticking to copper from now on.

 

[Idoc]

I just completed a lengthy quarantine of a leopard wrasse. It is detailed on page 5 of my build thread:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/idocs-first-reef-tank-build-75g.317135/page-5

Leopards are notorious for having internal parasites/worms. I started with 2 leopards and ended with 1. The obe that died was due to internal parasites...I didn't treat quickly enough for this during my quarantine process! If the fish seem to arrive healthy even after a few days, I would treat with General Cure+Focus for 14-21 days prior to copper...but of course doing it after successfully teaching them to eat frozen food. I attempted medicated food while treating copper, but it didn't work. My healthy leopard would show strange swimming patterns after eating the food, so I stopped med foods and the behavior stopped. Plus, the copper suppresses appetite anyhow. By the time I finished copper, the infected leopard wasn't eating at all and slowly went downhill. I've read that leopards and other wrasses have thicker mucus coats so less prone to ich/velvet...so, i would worry about the internal parasites before copper treatment.

If treating with clowns, then you should consider eventually treating the water column with General Cure instead of only PraziPro. GC also has Metrodonizole in it with th he Praziquantel which helps with Brooklynella... which cleans are very susceptible to carry as well.

Definitely use a dish of sand for the wrasses to bury into. I think this helps with their stress levels. Also don't be surprised if the leopard buries into it for several days without coming out!

Good luck! My healthy leopard is doing great in the DT now with the other fish. I took about 3 months to slowly quarantine her, though.

 

[JenniferMcK]

I just completed a lengthy quarantine of a leopard wrasse. It is detailed on page 5 of my build thread:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/idocs-first-reef-tank-build-75g.317135/page-5

Leopards are notorious for having internal parasites/worms. I started with 2 leopards and ended with 1. The obe that died was due to internal parasites...I didn't treat quickly enough for this during my quarantine process! If the fish seem to arrive healthy even after a few days, I would treat with General Cure+Focus for 14-21 days prior to copper...but of course doing it after successfully teaching them to eat frozen food. I attempted medicated food while treating copper, but it didn't work. My healthy leopard would show strange swimming patterns after eating the food, so I stopped med foods and the behavior stopped. Plus, the copper suppresses appetite anyhow. By the time I finished copper, the infected leopard wasn't eating at all and slowly went downhill. I've read that leopards and other wrasses have thicker mucus coats so less prone to ich/velvet...so, i would worry about the internal parasites before copper treatment.

If treating with clowns, then you should consider eventually treating the water column with General Cure instead of only PraziPro. GC also has Metrodonizole in it with th he Praziquantel which helps with Brooklynella... which cleans are very susceptible to carry as well.

Definitely use a dish of sand for the wrasses to bury into. I think this helps with their stress levels. Also don't be surprised if the leopard buries into it for several days without coming out!

Good luck! My healthy leopard is doing great in the DT now with the other fish. I took about 3 months to slowly quarantine her, though.

Oh this awesome. Thank you so much for all that info. I'm gonna go read your thread. When I quarantine and treat, as soon as my fish are eating, I feed GC in their food for at least 14 days, during copper. If no improvement with poop, I feed fenbendazole. I've recently started dosing spectrogram + metro for 14 days, while I'm raising copper, bc I've been seeing some nasty infections lately. So I'll probably start off with GC as soon as it starts eating frozen food and metro and spectrogram then start raising copper. Thanks again.

 

[Idoc]

Oh this awesome. Thank you so much for all that info. I'm gonna go read your thread. When I quarantine and treat, as soon as my fish are eating, I feed GC in their food for at least 14 days, during copper. If no improvement with poop, I feed fenbendazole. I've recently started dosing spectrogram + metro for 14 days, while I'm raising copper, bc I've been seeing some nasty infections lately. So I'll probably start off with GC as soon as it starts eating frozen food and metro and spectrogram then start raising copper. Thanks again.

Sounds like a good plan. They are initially really timid fish, so as long as the other fish are peaceful, the leopard should do well with them in quarantine. Having other fish eating frozen may help as well... they can be really picky at first.

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

im not sure what he used it was a liquid and he would let dry krill and brine soak it up he said it fought internal parisites

 

[Aetius]

Would adding 1 leopard wrasse be safe with the six line I already have in my 75G?

 

[JenniferMcK]

Hey everyone again. I'm hoping to get some input here from y'all that gave me the pointers on here. So I had put off getting the leopard wrasse so I could set up a qt and have it pretty good and cycled before getting one. Well I went to petco getting some salt and other things and saw a female leopard wrasse. I thought well heck let me ask about it. The petco employee fed the wrasse and she ate some mysis shrimp so I told the girl to bag it up. I just got it home and it isn't hiding. I have it in a qt with a red fin fairy wrasse in hopes of the fairy wrasse teaching it the ropes so to speak. I fed the wrasses frozen brine shrimp about 3 hrs after acclimation them in the tank. The leopard wrasse was sucking in larger pieces but spitting them out. So I sat and watched her for a bit and she is eating tiny pieces, without spitting them back out. I'm guessing this is really good, but just wanted to make sure I was heading in the right direction with my leopard. She is so beautiful. Here is a pic of them both

 

[Tamberav]

Ive quarantined a diamond goby before with a Tupperware of sand and he had it all over the tank completely out of the bowl in a day. I always use a hannah checker with copper.
Honestly I'd love to be able to just buy one from a lfs but I only have petco and their tanks are awful right now with velvet and algea probs. I talked to the guy I know there and he said he wouldn't order a leopard wrasse for me just bc it'd probably die of velvet in few days after adding to their tanks and then taking home. It's just too big of a risk for me to be wasting my money. So my only option is buying online unfortunately.

I bought 3 leopards online with one being DOA. One looked rough swimming funny and one looked great.

I put the.both into a cycled 10g QT with a Tupperware of sand. My QT had live rock but just skip that since you plan to treat with copper. I treated mine with two rounds of prazipro and a round of general cure in the food for internal parasites.

I had live food on hand and ready...live brine and live black worms. I had them both weaned to frozen in 2-3 days.

The rough looking one fully recovered and I ended up keeping her. I sold the other.

I moved her by taking the Tupperware out and putting it in the DT when she was asleep. This way she had no trauma of catching her. She just woke up into a new world that morning.

I bought three because they are poor shippers so I figured I would sell/re-home whatever didn't make it.

I have had her quite awhile now...she is very fat and a bit bossy. She is in a 25g lagoon with only an inch of sand and doing fantastic. Obviously she will need an upgraded tank at some point here.

 

[Tamberav]

Hey everyone again. I'm hoping to get some input here from y'all that gave me the pointers on here. So I had put off getting the leopard wrasse so I could set up a qt and have it pretty good and cycled before getting one. Well I went to petco getting some salt and other things and saw a female leopard wrasse. I thought well heck let me ask about it. The petco employee fed the wrasse and she ate some mysis shrimp so I told the girl to bag it up. I just got it home and it isn't hiding. I have it in a qt with a red fin fairy wrasse in hopes of the fairy wrasse teaching it the ropes so to speak. I fed the wrasses frozen brine shrimp about 3 hrs after acclimation them in the tank. The leopard wrasse was sucking in larger pieces but spitting them out. So I sat and watched her for a bit and she is eating tiny pieces, without spitting them back out. I'm guessing this is really good, but just wanted to make sure I was heading in the right direction with my leopard. She is so beautiful. Here is a pic of them both

Oh congrats I would chop up LRS small for her to eat...much better than brine. Just get her settled and eating good then start treatment for internal parasites...and whatever else you decide.

 

[Hemmdog]

Hey everyone again. I'm hoping to get some input here from y'all that gave me the pointers on here. So I had put off getting the leopard wrasse so I could set up a qt and have it pretty good and cycled before getting one. Well I went to petco getting some salt and other things and saw a female leopard wrasse. I thought well heck let me ask about it. The petco employee fed the wrasse and she ate some mysis shrimp so I told the girl to bag it up. I just got it home and it isn't hiding. I have it in a qt with a red fin fairy wrasse in hopes of the fairy wrasse teaching it the ropes so to speak. I fed the wrasses frozen brine shrimp about 3 hrs after acclimation them in the tank. The leopard wrasse was sucking in larger pieces but spitting them out. So I sat and watched her for a bit and she is eating tiny pieces, without spitting them back out. I'm guessing this is really good, but just wanted to make sure I was heading in the right direction with my leopard. She is so beautiful. Here is a pic of them both

Nicee you have some mysis as well, like hakari(it’s smaller mysis’)? Brine is a good treat but not a ton of nutrition.

 

[JenniferMcK]

I bought 3 leopards online with one being DOA. One looked rough swimming funny and one looked great.

I put the.both into a cycled 10g QT with a Tupperware of sand. My QT had live rock but just skip that since you plan to treat with copper. I treated mine with two rounds of prazipro and a round of general cure in the food for internal parasites.

I had live food on hand and ready...live brine and live black worms. I had them both weaned to frozen in 2-3 days.

The rough looking one fully recovered and I ended up keeping her. I sold the other.

I moved her by taking the Tupperware out and putting it in the DT when she was asleep. This way she had no trauma of catching her. She just woke up into a new world that morning.

I bought three because they are poor shippers so I figured I would sell/re-home whatever didn't make it.

I have had her quite awhile now...she is very fat and a bit bossy. She is in a 25g lagoon with only an inch of sand and doing fantastic. Obviously she will need an upgraded tank at some point here.

Buying this one for me was kind of like a freak thing. Petco don't usually carry the leopard wrasse. And I was waiting until I had a qt good and ready for one. But the person who special ordered her, didn't pick up. So when I seen her I was dang I guess it's meant to be. Upon further observation of her after I got her home and after I posted my comment, her top fin has a chunk missing out out it. I mean it looks bad. I'm not getting my hopes up bc I know that it isn't good. She swam around the whole day after I brought her home. She didn't go to the sand. So I ended up dumping the sand in the bottom of qt. She still didn't go. When I checked on her last night, she was sleeping with the fairy wrasse instead of the sand. The only thing I can think of with the injury is that a fish bit her, or the Chunky sand at petco injured her. So Im going to do everything I can for her. Do you know where’s i can buy black worms?

 

[JenniferMcK]

Oh congrats I would chop up LRS small for her to eat...much better than brine. Just get her settled and eating good then start treatment for internal parasites...and whatever else you decide.

I have some lrs so I will try that. Thank you. My plan is copper and 2 rounds of Prazipro and of course whatever else she may need if it comes up. Thank you