Leopard Wrasse

[Kizmar]

What are the chances of a 2" Leopard Wrasse eating inverts like blood shrim or a Electric Blue Hermit?

 

[Northstar24]

Absolutely 0 I would say. All leopard wrasses are listed as reef safe. That being said, these fish are rather difficult to maintain long term, and many of them have parasite issues. I have a very good LFS by me, who puts all of his fish through a medicated QT before selling them to customers so I have had good luck with mine.

Like Dragonets/Mandarins they feed on pods, and the key is getting them on to prepared foods as well. Mine hid in the sand for about a week and a half after being added to my tank, and ate only pods for about two weeks after that. I feed a nice blend of frozen food made by a local reefer, and the leopard wrasse took to that eventually.

You'll also need several inches of fine sand for the wrasse, as they dive down into it when scared or startled, or when they go to sleep at night. You can pretty much set your watch to when my wrasses hit the sand, its 9:45 each evening (lights are out by 10 on my tank)

 

[Bifferwine]

I had a leopard wrasse for several years. It should not bother your inverts. Northstar is right about how delicate/sensitive they are. Their survival rate in captivity is very low, not because they are particularly difficult to keep, but because they are difficult to get eating. Once you get one to start taking food, they are no harder to keep than any other type of wrasse.

 

[2XAl]

I had to google one because I haven't heard of them before, what a cool looking fish!

 

[BL1]

I've currently got three types of leopards, and they leave my hermits and shrimp alnoe but, they've gone after quite a few of my snails. My nass and astrea snail population has gone down considerably though.

 

[Kizmar]

Interesting. I do have 3 nass snails. I wonder if one would bother my conch snails too.

 

[BL1]

Ehh, I mean there's risks with any fish. Wrasses are tough because even the reef safe ones will pick at pest inverts. Almost any fish that does that has the possibility at picking at the god inverts. IMO, wrasses are well worth the pain of having to restock my CUC every so often. If you get one or a few, you'll think the same too ;)

 

[Kizmar]

Good to know. I saw a really nice looking female Leopard at the LFS today. I held off on getting her because of the issue I had with the Six Line I took back. I wanted to do more research first.

I may head back there tomorrow and see if she's still there. :)

 

[Bifferwine]

Does your tank have a good pod population established? Because leopard wrasses are so difficult to get eating, I wouldn't recommend one for a new tank, a tank without a refugium, or one that doesn't have a robust pod population.

 

[Kizmar]

I have a decent pod population, but it is a young tank. The guy at the LFS fed the wrasse in front of me to show that she was already used to frozen shrimp and pellets soaked in garlic. That's not to say that she will eat well in my tank, but it's a good sign.

 

[Bifferwine]

Yes, that is encouraging. It's always good to see a fish eat at the store.

 

[BL1]

I agree, poor eating is one of the three major problems with leopards. The other two are poor shipping and internal parasites. It sounds like the one at your LFS may be pretty good. I would definitely suggest treating your tank with a treatment of prazipro will help if there are any parasites, and it's reef safe so you can dose your whole tank with it.

 

[Kizmar]

Thanks. I'm pretty sure the LFS treats them for parasites too.