Leopard wrasses not eating!

duvareef · Jan 4, 2017

Hey guys I recently added a leopard wrasse to my tank it's been 4 days now and he isn't eating I had tried mysis shrimp,brine shrimp, small pallets and flakes but it won't even get close to the food!

Lovemycj7 · Jan 4, 2017

Try live black worms.

Lovemycj7 · Jan 4, 2017

And did you qt? They are known to have internal parasites. Qt is a great time to train the fish to eat

Lovemycj7 · Jan 4, 2017

And from the pic it looks like your sandbed has large grain sizes these wrasses sleep in the sand if you have big grains that's a problem too.

eatbreakfast · Jan 4, 2017

With a leopard this small use smaller foods, reef plankton, baby brine, small fish eggs.

Also, add the food to high flow, this will often elicit a feeding response.

Tiny specimens need to eat frequent. Small meals.

Cment · Jan 4, 2017

+1 on QT. To be safe you should assume she has internal parasites. 2 rounds of prazi is needed. Live black worm, cyclopeeze, cyclops and live hatched brine are a better fit right now. They can be stubborn at first to eat but once they do they're pretty hardy fush. You can supplement by adding live pods right now to make sure there's enough in the tank for her. Also be prepared to feed at least 4 times a day. When I have them in QT I literally feed small portions every hour for the first week or so...

jenreefer · Jan 4, 2017

+1 ^^^ A few weeks by themselves in a smaller tank is required to get them eating well. QT is really for more than just observation, especially with these small wrasse. It is for acclimation to food and schedule. Once you get her eating and recognizing you when you come up to the tank as a signal that food is coming, you are in good shape.

Placing her right into a large tank can be difficult when taking frozen food is an issue.

BTW, she is a beauty. One of my favorite fish of all times.

Good luck

duvareef · Jan 4, 2017

I QT for just 3 days like I said I had tried mysis and brine shrimp. I'm gonna have to QT a little longer and hopefully she starts eating, she is a beauty !
thank you all !!!

4FordFamily · Jan 4, 2017

eatbreakfast said:
With a leopard this small use smaller foods, reef plankton, baby brine, small fish eggs.

Also, add the food to high flow, this will often elicit a feeding response.

Tiny specimens need to eat frequent. Small meals.

I agree and blackworms or live brine if those don't work

roberthu526 · Jan 4, 2017

Put QT in a private room. A lot of traffic around the tank will cause stress. If you want to observe you can buy a webcam pointing at the QT.

ca1ore · Jan 4, 2017

New leopards don't compete well for food in a community tank. Add my voice to those advocating QT (with sand) to get them eating. Nutramar Ova is a 'miracle' food to get picky fish eating - and apparently it's available again.

mfinn · Jan 5, 2017

I've had pretty good luck getting leopard wrasses to eat with using Tigger pods in quarantine.

justin.k.nelson · Jan 5, 2017

I qt'd my black leopard mainly to observe her and make sure she can eat frozen. I started with mysis and brine and she ignored them initially. I started using rods eggs and frozen cyclops and she immediately got excited for them and chased them in her qt. I then started introducing her back to shrimps and once she was targeting them consistently for 3-4 days straight; I knew she was ready for my dt community. She's been out and about and picking at my broadcast feeds since.