Quarantine of new Ornate Leopard Wrasse

[KMench]

Hi All,

I recently ordered an ornate leopard wrasse (Macropharyngodon ornatus) and she came on Tuesday. Initially, she dove to the bottom and skated around looking for sand. I "helped" her from the glass to the sand bowl and have seen her a few times since. She looks ok for now, but I just figured I would post my progress. I initially searched for previous leopard wrasse threads on R2R and found the one below, but after a few posts I feel bad for blowing up the OP, so figured I should start a new thread.
Here's the initial conversation if interested.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/new-leopard-wrasse.328557/page-2#post-4178257

Since she has been in quarantine since Tuesday, I have seen her on a few occasions, she will swim some and then will sit on the bottom and just be still for a while. I've tried to get her to eat some ova/bloodworms/mysis/brine with no success as of yet....she just keeps doing whatever she was doing beforehand. Currently she is in a 20G long for QT with a mandarin, and a small goby. There's some live rock in there to house pods, PVC for hiding, a container of sand, ammonia alert, heater, PP4 powerhead, and HOB filter. Just wanted to continue to update/post to see if anyone has suggestions/concerns or anything to help with the process! I attached a crappy iPhone picture I took of her earlier when she was hiding next to a piece of live rock.

 

[Maritimer]

At two or three days into QT, these fairly intelligent fish can still be pretty spooked by all that's gone on. A clean glass box is a fairly alien environment. The best things for her right now are probably quiet, stability and small amounts of food, offered often. If she seems nervous, a partial cover for the walls of the tank can be helpful; tape a plastic trashbag over the glass so that she's not being frightened by movement in the room outside. (If you can do that in a way that allows you to observe from across the room, so much the better.)

~Bruce

 

[KMench]

Should i try to get my first dose of prazi in now, or wait until she starts to eat? I’ve offered a variety of food to no avail yet with her (much to the chagrin of other QT mates). I have only seen her outside swimming once or twice to offer food so far. Otherwise she’s been hiding in the sand

 

[Cment]

I would let her settle in before dosing prazi. I usually wait a week or so and make sure they are eating first. I would start with smaller foods like nutramar ova, cyclops, or calanus along with live black worms then eventually add the larger foods in like PE mysis. It also wouldn't hurt to add some pods on a regular basis so she knows theres food in the tank. You also have pod competition with the mandarin so be mindful of that.

 

[KMench]

Ok. I’ve been offering cyclops when l see her. And I’m aware of the pod competition. l started a separate culture of pods a few weeks ago knowing there would be competition between the two and to ensure they had enough

 

[Cment]

Ok. I’ve been offering cyclops when l see her. And I’m aware of the pod competition. l started a separate culture of pods a few weeks ago knowing there would be competition between the two and to ensure they had enough

Solid plan. You can also offer gut loaded brine too in addition to the pods.

 

[KMench]

Thanks, I'll throw some pods in the QT after I get home from work today. I hope the mandarin eats & the wrasse.... the mandarin actually ate some cyclops yesterday

 

[KMench]

I’m asking around to see if I can find blackworms locally. At what day do you become concerned about a fish not eating in QT?

 

[KMench]

Found blackworms locally! But tonight she does seem to be leaning a bit to the side and breathing faster than she was initially....

 

[KMench]

Today she was out swimming, but continued to refuse to even look at any food. She just stays in the corner and swims up and down until she decides its time to go back to the sandbed. @evolved is this normal in your wrasse expertise? I snapped two pictures of her today while she was out and about. Tried to feed her brine shrimp, cyclops, and bloodworms without even a cursory glance.

 

[eatbreakfast]

It should be feeding at least a little by now. Getting a good eater in there, such as a chromis may get it to recognize what you are feeding as food.

 

[KMench]

She’s in there with a yellow longnose butterfly who’s eating like a pig, and a tangaroa shrimpgoby who’s being a pain and not feeding either I have been trying to feed every time I see she’s out, so the butterfly is getting nice and fat, but nobody else is eating.

 

[KMench]

@eatbreakfast I added her to my DT since she will be the only fish in there. Just finished my fallow period (ich I believe). I caught her while she was swimming in the QT. I did a round of prazi while she was in QT before transferring her. Immediately after I moved her over she started eating pods off the rockwork in the main tank She stayed out all day and picked at the rockwork, then went to bed like normal lat night. This morning she came out when the lights came on and picked at the rockwork all day today too! I only added her to my DT after reading the Leopard Wrasse Primer on another forum and how many people only treat with a round of prazi due to their sensitivity. I plan on just leaving her solo in the DT for a while to monitor her for any problems. I attached a picture of her, glad she's finally happy and acting normal.

 

[BigJohnny]

@eatbreakfast I added her to my DT since she will be the only fish in there. Just finished my fallow period (ich I believe). I caught her while she was swimming in the QT. I did a round of prazi while she was in QT before transferring her. Immediately after I moved her over she started eating pods off the rockwork in the main tank She stayed out all day and picked at the rockwork, then went to bed like normal lat night. This morning she came out when the lights came on and picked at the rockwork all day today too! I only added her to my DT after reading the Leopard Wrasse Primer on another forum and how many people only treat with a round of prazi due to their sensitivity. I plan on just leaving her solo in the DT for a while to monitor her for any problems. I attached a picture of her, glad she's finally happy and acting normal.

You really need to do 2 rounds of prazi, one for the worms on the fish and the second for any more that hatch from eggs.

BTW, live blackworms >>>>>> blood worms

 

[KMench]

Ok, then I have a question. Are the eggs attached to the fish, or free floating in the water? Clearly when she was moved from the QT to DT I did not transfer any water, so that would make it easy to avoid a second round of prazi. If you believe she still needs a second round of prazi, I could always dose it in the DT.

 

[lion king]

You still want to get her eating prepared foods, mine took live brine then frozen brine, then frozen brine and mysis mixed, then almost anything. What happens is in most tanks the pods eventually run out, then the leopards slowly fade.

 

[BigJohnny]

Attached, you should do 2 rounds regardless, having said that, I've never done it outside of a QT so make sure you research. I think it's safe for most things though....

 

[BigJohnny]

You still want to get her eating prepared foods, mine took live brine then frozen brine, then frozen brine and mysis mixed, then almost anything. What happens is in most tanks the pods eventually run out, then the leopards slowly fade.

Agreed, I feed my leopards 3x a day. I only consider the pods/worms/whatever else they find a supplement. Imo getting leopards to eat prepared foods is 50% of the reasons to QT them. Having said that, your display is empty so it won't have competition atleast. Still continue to offer foods 3x a day. I agree that live baby brine is a good place to start if it won't accept live blackworms or nutramar ova (my go to foods for finicky fish)

 

[KMench]

I'm culturing pods in a separate room specifically to keep the tank full of them. I also have a refugium and have introduced pods there so that they'll flow into the main tank. The 'fuge has plenty of macroalgae and flows at a fairly slow pace. I've also read that prazi in the DT is fine I've seen posts saying it is ok for shrimp, feather dusters....etc...etc.... I'm still trying to get her to eat frozen food, but I was getting concerned that she wasn't eating at all. She's still the only fish in my DT so I figured it wouldn't hurt. I was honestly surprised at how calm she was for the move between tanks.

 

[KMench]

I can try live baby brine, I know a local place that carries them. I have cyclops (is it close to the ova?) that she wasn't even looking at. I was getting a bit nervous based on her behavior in the QT as well as her lack of eating in there.