Mandarin or leopard wrasse?

[Jack Eskay]

I'm can't decide which one I want. I have a 70 gal with a 10 gallon fuge and know I can only safely as their both pod eaters. What the the pros and cons of each and what do you guys think I should do? Just looking to hear what others think.

Thanks!

 

[DracoKat]

Leopard wrasses will eat frozen foods where as the mandarin might not.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Leopard wrasses will eat frozen foods where as the mandarin might not.

Exactly ^. I have both and they both constantly hunt for pods, but my leopard is a voracious eater of frozen food, Mandy no. Your tank size would be one or the other.

Leopards can be difficult at first to acclimate to eating frozen foods. Hit or miss. Mandarins don't care as long as there is a constant supply of pods.

Your call.

 

[eatbreakfast]

Leopards are more active and also hunt coral pests.

 

[ca1ore]

Agree. All of the leopards I have kept ate frozen; none of my mandarin did.

 

[CodyRVA]

I'd go with the Leopard all day. Wrasses have other benefits as mentioned above. Mandarins may very well be the most stubborn fish i've ever kept; they're really cool fish, but they have the potential to make you want to pull your hair out.

 

[Jack Eskay]

Wrasse it is!! My qt plan is to put him into my 10 gallon nuvo where I'll dose pazipro for 10 days(two doses) and make sure he's eating. Does that sound good?

 

[eatbreakfast]

Wrasse it is!! My qt plan is to put him into my 10 gallon nuvo where I'll dose pazipro for 10 days(two doses) and make sure he's eating. Does that sound good?

That should work.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Wrasse it is!! My qt plan is to put him into my 10 gallon nuvo where I'll dose pazipro for 10 days(two doses) and make sure he's eating. Does that sound good?

That's fine. You may need a Tupperware container full of sand for it to sleep in, in the QT. Discard the sand after treating it and releasing it in to your DT.

 

[eatbreakfast]

I recommend not offering sand for the first few days. One reason is that allows the leopard to more quickly acclimate to your light cycle and secondly, it is easier to observe for any other diseases without sand.

 

[Jack Eskay]

I recommend not offering sand for the first few days. One reason is that allows the leopard to more quickly acclimate to your light cycle and secondly, it is easier to observe for any other diseases without sand.

Ok I'll keep it without sand! Thanks everyone for the help!

 

[CodyRVA]

I recommend not offering sand for the first few days. One reason is that allows the leopard to more quickly acclimate to your light cycle and secondly, it is easier to observe for any other diseases without sand.

IME you're more likely to cause more harm than good by not offering up a "safe place," sand, for the fish; considering wrasses burry themselves when stressed or frightened, which it will definitely be when it enters QT. The fish is going to acclimate to the light schedule regardless and you don't need much, if any, lighting on a QT tank. The wrasse isn't going to stay under the sand 24/7 unless it's dead, in which case you don't need to observe for any disease anyway. Just my .02, to each their own.

 

[Xclusive Reef]

IME you're more likely to cause more harm than good by not offering up a "safe place," sand, for the fish; considering wrasses burry themselves when stressed or frightened, which it will definitely be when it enters QT. The fish is going to acclimate to the light schedule regardless and you don't need much, if any, lighting on a QT tank. The wrasse isn't going to stay under the sand 24/7 unless it's dead, in which case you don't need to observe for any disease anyway. Just my .02, to each their own.

Agree fish is gonna be stressed out. Without the sand bed you might be stressing fish out more. I would add sandbed .

 

[eatbreakfast]

Leopard wrasses burying for a few days to a few weeks is pretty common. One purpose of a qt, especially a qt that is only having prazi run, is to observe for anything more sinister.

And while a wrasse will eventually get used to a lighting schedule. Doing this sooner benefits qt observation, but also observations when it finally gets moved to dt.

Also, cover certainly needs to be provided, pvc or plastic plants, something. And a sandless period wouldn't be an extended period. But at least in the begining, going sandless in qt has proven to be more beneficial for the fish IME than when I have provided sand from the outset.

 

[Jack Eskay]

Leopard wrasses burying for a few days to a few weeks is pretty common. One purpose of a qt, especially a qt that is only having prazi run, is to observe for anything more sinister.

And while a wrasse will eventually get used to a lighting schedule. Doing this sooner benefits qt observation, but also observations when it finally gets moved to dt.

Also, cover certainly needs to be provided, pvc or plastic plants, something. And a sandless period wouldn't be an extended period. But at least in the begining, going sandless in qt has proven to be more beneficial for the fish IME than when I have provided sand from the outset.

I think I'll do what both are recommending I will start with your recommendation and go sandless for maybe the first day or two to make sure there's no real issue. Then I will add a tupaware full of sand for the rest of the time being. There's already some LR and chaeto in there as i kept two clowns in it before I moved them into my DT. There's a also a few corals in the 10 gallon as well. I've read that prazi doesn't affect corals but should I still play it safe and move them back to my dt before adding the wrasse?

 

[JAWS 32]

I have both as well. I have two spotted mandarins and one leopard wrasse and an ornate leopard wrasse. They all hunt the rocks all day and thank God, they all eat mysis and LRS. The leopards are by far way more active and zip everywhere, but the mandys bring their own coolness to the tank. They gracefully glide all around, just at a much slower speed. Both are great fish, as long as you have proper housing/food. Good luck!

 

[MeshmeZ]

I have had both. Had a Mandarin for about 5 years before losing him in a tank crash. I now have 2 leopard wrasse. The mandarins are always awesome to look at, but unfortunately they seem to rarely be out and about. Mine seemed to like to hang out in the back of rocks and under things, probably because thats where the pods were. Also I never got him to eat anything other than pods on the rocks.

My leopard wrasse are out and about all the time (once they got acclimated to the tank, they disappeared for a week when they first came out of quarantine, and I thought I had lost them) and they eat small pellets and frozen like champs.

overall id say the wrasse is the way to go, just make sure to get a screen top for the tank!

as for quarantine, Give it sand in a tupperware. even then it can be dangerous to not have sand all over. if it gets spooked and goes to dive and hits the bottom it can cause jaw damage and make it unable to eat.

 

[4FordFamily]

Leopard wrasses burying for a few days to a few weeks is pretty common. One purpose of a qt, especially a qt that is only having prazi run, is to observe for anything more sinister.

And while a wrasse will eventually get used to a lighting schedule. Doing this sooner benefits qt observation, but also observations when it finally gets moved to dt.

Also, cover certainly needs to be provided, pvc or plastic plants, something. And a sandless period wouldn't be an extended period. But at least in the begining, going sandless in qt has proven to be more beneficial for the fish IME than when I have provided sand from the outset.

I agree, sandless is best. They will lie on their side a lot in the absence of sand when startled and for the first few days. Don't worry. They may well swim fine when you feed or remain "hidden". If they don't move for 12 hours that's when I'd start to be worried. Chances are they swim around at night or when you're gone and then lay somewhere else-- as has already been said, they're on a very different schedule than we are at first.

 

[Ty Hamatake]

My leopard eats everything. Flakes, pellets, frozen, even nori! He hunts all day long and is a very fun fish to watch

I vote leopard wrasse.

 

[domination2580]

I have a leopard who went through qt... no sand at all..pvc pipes were in. I treated with coppersafe since wrasses are very capable at hiding diseases.