Leopard Wrasse

[J_Vee]

Hello,
My wife bought me a leopard Wrasse (female) for Valentine's day. Most of the time she is under the sand. When she is out I make sure I add food. I would not have purchased this fish because it is difficult to keep alive.

My question is: Are these fish nocturnal feeders and will the fish be able to get enough food between what I add and the 4 inches of live sand? Thanks


J_Vee

[Conski]

i think its probably just shy and getting used to things in the tank, with time itll come out and feed normally. Ace will know better if he sees this, that fish is his little pride and joy lol

[SubRosa]

Which Leopard Wrasse are you referring to? The basic care of all members of the genus Macropharyodon is similar to that needed for Dragonets like Mandarins( except of course that the Wrasses need sand to hide in), but just like Dragonets the difficulty of care varies from species to species. M. bipartitus are pretty easy to get onto frozen Mysis, whereas M. geoffroyi is much more difficult to convert ime. Posting a pic could make it easier to get accurate info.

[Ace25]

I was just lucky I guess because my wrasses ate frozen from day.. well.. about day 3 when they finally came out of the sand initially. They don't eat food in the sand, just sleep and run there for protection, so you must feed them and have a good pod population because they primarily go around inspecting rocks all day long like hunters and eat any pods they can get.

I feel the "difficult" part of Leopard wrasses is finding a healthy one to begin with, just like with Copperbanded Butterflys. If you get a healthy one they are actually very easy to care for as long as their needs are met, ie, sandbed and no aggressive fish (damsels) in the tank with them.

[SaltwaterTim]

I'm sure yours will come out of the tank more as time goes by. I add food for mine at the same time as I feed the rest of the tank. I got very lucky and mine started accepting pellets really by the second day. I add flakes to the tank then put in small leopard wrasse bite sized pellets. With the other fish in the tank eating the flakes the leopard wrasse started eating the pellets. She even picks the ones off the rock that get that far. Between that the pods in my tank the pellets weekly frozen food I think mine eats plenty and is getting a good enough diet.

I agree that getting a healthy one to start with may be the hardest part.