Potter's Wrasse Trio incoming

[eatbreakfast]

QT is more important with fish like this. You have to deworm leopard wrasse with prazipro at a minimum. It's also the best way to get them adjusted to your light schedule and foods. Those 3 things alone GREATLY increase your chance of success long term. They did not die from qt, if anything qt is an easier transition for them.

I recommend live blackworms (ordered online in advance) and nutramar ova.

I agree. I also find that specimens that die quickly in qt will also die quickly in dt.

 

[Abhishek]

To update this...I lost two of the three in QT, quickly and relatively mysteriously. After that, I went ahead and moved the remaining one into the reef display and seems to be doing well thus far, but, only time will tell.

In the future with fish that are touchy like this, I will not do a QT stint, they'll go straight in the reef.

Hi Karen ,

First of all am so sorry for the loss . I hope the last one does great in your reef tank .
Now please forgive me if I sound rude in my comments below but everything am saying here is with great intentions for you and my experience with these wrasses and anthias .

First of all , please ask yourself the question whether your QT protocol was as perfect as it can be ?
When am working with sensitive wrasses like leopards , like I have an anapmses in my qt now , I planned ahead and had my qt running for one and half month . Every equipment was sterilized with alcohol and dried prior to use .I know there's lot of products like dr. Tims that help develop beneficial bacteria instantly but my experience has been that you need to plan ahead . It's not a dump approach .

Secondly ,you need to have all food ammunirions in your arsenal to try and feed them . I have stocked nutramar ova , cyclopzee , ROE ,mini mysis , LRS Fish frenzy , LRS Fish eggs, Reef Cavier , live brine shrimps , and lastly blackworms before I got my wrasses . You need to invest time in making sure they eat atleast one of the options .
I personally find it hard to believe that they won't eat ROE or fish eggs or nutramar ova or lastly blackworms especially when they came from Collin , one of the best fish importers in the US . Leopards and anthias need to be fed atleast 3-4 times a day in normal circumstance. In qt, I feed them atleast 5-6 times in small amounts . Twice in the morning before I leave for office within an hour gap and 3-4 times once am home back from office with 1 hour gap in between meals. Feeding more in QT also means you have to be top of your water change and remove any uneaten food within an hour so as not to allow them to rot in the tank.

Thirdly , did you have stock of NFG , the best for gram negative bacterial disease ? It's costly but worth every penny . If not atleast did you have b Furan 2 , kanaplex and metroplex ? It's not just simple as dumping B Furan 2 and hoping it would work .
Did you use prazi on them ? Sometimes, prazi and copper is known to create issues with leopards although it hasn't been my experience . But am egenrally very cautious of dosing copper and only do it once am sure teh wrasses are doing excellant and eating aggressively.

How did you acclimate them to qt tank ? I never ever do drip acclimate as once you open the bag , the ammonia becomes lethal . You need to know the incoming water salinity and match it in ur qt and just drop the fish in the qt once it's temp acclimated .

Lastly , many of these will not work for you and need to find your qt process by lots of practice and patience . Believe me, it takes a lot of effort to fine tune your qt skills and only way is to do it in practice. You can read hundreds of materials online, but you need to figure out what works for you and your specific fishes . These are just guidelines .
I learnt it the hard way after killing 3 butterflies - 2 copperbands and 1 marginalis which was a costly one and my favorite one too. But I was successful the fourth time and qted it for 2 months. Now the copperband literally eats out of my hands but when it arrived, it was only 2 days out of ocean as it came from teh wholeseller and guess what ??? I ate only clams .

I strongly disagree with the thought of even not doing qt for these sensitive species in the future as that will reduce your chances of success even more .

Reduce stress of shipping and allowing them to eat freely with all possible medications done is the only way to success .

You should know that when you get such sensitive species , you have to spend way more time in making them acclimate to your tank than normal aquacultured clowns . It was funny , but I didn't go to office and spent 3 days and then the weekends constly when I got my Randalls anthias and my leopard wrasses to make sure I can feed them and take care of them as much as i can . My wife still makes fun when I slept on the floor by my qt tank when my leopard arrived to make sure I know how its cycle of sleeping and waking up is, checking on the tank multiple times in the night . It was stressful for me but once its over, you have the amazing delight of owning such amazing species .

Moreover, these are my stepping stones to keep my dream fishes - Anampses Lennardi and Feminnis and hence am still learning and continuing to put efforts. I still need a lot to learn from the experts here like @eatbreakfast , @evolved and @Humblefish

I hope you get the picture and please do not be discouraged by deaths of 2 leopards. You might have lost this battle with 2 leopards but with refined qt process in the future you will win the war .

Regards,
Abhishek

 

[Reefltx]

I agree. I also find that specimens that die quickly in qt will also die quickly in dt.

Not all the time.
This particularly wrasse is quite hard to keep. I have better luck with blue stars or other leopard wrasse.

 

[Abhishek]

Not all the time.
This particularly wrasse is quite hard to keep. I have better luck with blue stars or other leopard wrasse.

Hard to keep doesn't mean NOT QTING it the proper way .
Isn't it more important that you qt it all the more with utmost diligence away from all the competition in DT ?

Regards,
Abhishek

 

[Reefltx]

Hard to keep doesn't mean NOT QTING it the proper way .
Isn't it more important that you qt it all the more with utmost diligence away from all the competition in DT ?

Regards,
Abhishek

Do you have experience with this wrasse? I’m just saying, you’d need a established QT with live rock and sand for it to really work. I’ve tried 5 potter’s Wrasse, they all died within 3wks in QT. That was with a qt setup months in advance with a tub of sand and no medication. I tried varies of frozen and live foods. My last one, went straight into the display and It was active, never saw it feeding but it was eating something. It lasted about a month. I think, it would’ve lasted longer if I hadn’t accidentally crushed it moving my rocks around.

 

[eatbreakfast]

Not all the time.
This particularly wrasse is quite hard to keep. I have better luck with blue stars or other leopard wrasse.

I was referring to specimens, not species. Even within delicate species, some specimens are hardier, some are more sensitive. The hardier ones would likely survive either qt or dt, and the weaker ones likely not survive either.

Do you have experience with this wrasse? I’m just saying, you’d need a established QT with live rock and sand for it to really work. I’ve tried 5 potter’s Wrasse, they all died within 3wks in QT. That was with a qt setup months in advance with a tub of sand and no medication. I tried varies of frozen and live foods. My last one, went straight into the display and It was active, never saw it feeding but it was eating something. It lasted about a month. I think, it would’ve lasted longer if I hadn’t accidentally crushed it moving my rocks around.

In this exmple, the wrasse that was feeding right away in the dt, would likely have started eating right away in an appropriate qt.

 

[roberthu526]

Sorry to hear your loss. I just picked up a potters myself today. Saw it at LFS and was told it had been in the store for over three weeks. Eating pretty well in the store so I decided to take him home. I already have a tank running Hypo so it didn't take long for me to acclimate. After getting in the tank everything seems to be fine. Tank mates don't pay attention to him and he just swims along with other fish. I fed twice but he only ate the first time because he went to bed before 7PM... Fingers crossed.