putting a leopard wrasse in our 55 reef?

[devolette]

hello all, we have a fishless 55 reef at the moment, pods everywhere and super healthy, happy corals and inverts. then we have an ocellaris clown in a hospital for another few weeks who will go back in. i saw a leopard wrasse at my LFS and fell in love. anybody have expierence with these? i'd love to get one for our reef soon and was just wondering how the care goes, i've heard they can be kind of hard to keep. what is it that makes this statement possibly true?

 

[Downbeach]

Do you have a DSB?

Here's a good article:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-07/hcs3/index.php

 

[Beach Bum]

Make you see it eat before you get.

 

[devolette]

thanks for the read! our tank is set up perfectly for this fish, which is really exciting. the one i saw at the LFS was really healthy seeming according to what they say to look for so i'll ask them to order more! our LFS is awesome, we're lucky. none of that copper treating every fish! that's crazy. not really, but i just don't agree hah. i've actually heard them turn down sales to people because they knew how big their tank was and knew the fish would die. anyway, we have a four inch sand bed and a HOB refugeum.. i don't know how that's spelled, sorry. our clown seems to be a female, she's a tank bred ocellaris but she's usually decently nice to other fish and it would only be the two of them at first so i think it'll be okay.

 

[evolved]

75g min, IMO, for Macropharyngodon. But not everyone will agree with that.

 

[devolette]

since we have awesome live rock set up and a deep sand bad as well as we're planning to not overstock what so ever, i think it'll do well in our 55 honestly. but i do appreciate the opinion. in my opinion, unless you're tank is set up for a certain fish, like ours was (is) set up for a mandarin, i believe you need the larger tanks. our mandarin was super happy and fat.

 

[sherita]

Which leopard wrasse is it? I have a meleagris leopard who has been with me for two years. If you have a ton of pods, and a sandbed he can hide in, he will most likely do well for you. However, it's much easier if you can see him eat at the lfs. Sometimes they can be a real challenge to train over onto frozen.

 

[KoleTang]

Well what happened to the mandarin?...

Make sure it is eating frozen before buying. Mine used to hunt for pods, but now all it wants to do eat mysis shrimp and spirulina flakes. It is getting fat LOL.

My sand is only 1" deep.

 

[devolette]

we added three blue reef chromies to our reef which already had a hector's goby, a spotted mandarin, a clown and a LM blenny, i think it was an overload and stressed them all out and they all got marine ich and died off :/ it was really sad but from now on we'll QT our fish and make sure to not overstock. our mandarin was an extremely happy and fat fish, he'd come up to the dropper we'd feed the fish with and peck the mysis straight out of it haha. i loved him. he was really a success for us 'since we started with him in a 29. it's really a bummer he's gone.

 

[rebel souljah]

mine eats 4 to 5 times a day...as well as all my anthias!

 

[Downbeach]

Here's what I do to QT this type of fish. Place a GLAD disposable container in the QT with a couple inches of your substrate, after the QT period, place the lid on the container before the fish emerges from the sand, and place the container in the DT, and remove the lid, so the fish will emerge in the DT.

 

[devolette]

that's a wonderful idea!!! and our QT doesn't have sand in it so that'd be a nice way to put it in there. thanks!

 

[devolette]

oh, and i just realized you asked what kind they had at the fish store, it was a small macropharyngodon meleagris

 

[Downbeach]

It might be worthwhile to do a treatment with PraziPro too.

 

[devolette]

in the QT? i'll look it up. we're planning on using metronidazole with garlic guard on all new fish in the QT tank in the future.

 

[Downbeach]

I don't think I'd use any anti-biotic without cause. I don't think it's a bad idea to have some on hand, but I wouldn't use it prophylactically.

 

[devolette]

we're still not entirely sure how we're going to go about it but i wouldn't do things like copper treat or do hyposalinity on every new fish, that's a bit too much and some fish don't survive it. do you think the medication is somewhat toxic if not needed?

 

[KoleTang]

we're still not entirely sure how we're going to go about it but i wouldn't do things like copper treat or do hyposalinity on every new fish, that's a bit too much and some fish don't survive it. do you think the medication is somewhat toxic if not needed?

Cupramine is pretty gentle. I use it prophylactically for two weeks on all but the more sensitive fish. (Mark Callahan tested it on several mandarins and they were completely fine)

Paragaurd and Prazipro are good as well.

I recommend Mr. Saltwater Tank's QT guide. I bought it and it was 100% worth it.

 

[devolette]

Cupramine is pretty gentle. I use it prophylactically for two weeks on all but the more sensitive fish. (Mark Callahan tested it on several mandarins and they were completely fine)

Paragaurd and Prazipro are good as well.

I recommend Mr. Saltwater Tank's QT guide. I bought it and it was 100% worth it.

i know these are expert fish, the leopard wrasse, so would you consider it a more sensitive fish? also, cupramine isn't like copper and won't stay in the tank glass and stuff, right? like i could put inverts in this tank in the future? if so it's okay i'm just wondering.

 

[KoleTang]

I did not QT my leopard wrasse, but it is a very healthy and energetic specimen.

Mark Callahan used cupramine on his leopard in QT. I would either skip, or be very cautious with the cupramine on the leopard.

I hear cupramine does not bond to things as well. In the QT guide (I know, I sound like an infomercial LOL) they did a test to see if the cupramine was still int eh tank after using it. (removed with carbon, cleaned with bleach) They kept a zoa colony and some inverts in there for several months and it was OK. But personally, I would just have a tank permanently designated to QT.