The Potters Wrasse experiement

[Hookup]

Well, I found one at marinescape this past weekend.  Wasn't eating in their display, had really just arrived a day or two before.. (thanks marinescape for the up-front honest warnings ... as always you guys are champions)

I've wanted leopard wrasse for my display, and the potters, to me is the king of those fish.

My research shows that they are an easy to keep fish.  Once you get a healthy eating one that doesn't have intestinal worms.  Unfortunately, 80% or higher (random internet hobby statistic, not mine) arrive in any one of a number of bad conditions the most common being intestinal worm infestation.

Saturday: The fish arrived home direct from the store with no issues.  Their bag-of-water was at 1.020sg, a HUGE delta to my system which runs at 1.025.  This was a long 7+ hour acclimation process, and though everyone is fine, i really should have acclimatized them over a 24hour period using a dosing pump for constant drip.  Next time.

Sunday:  Fed some frozen mysis and put some food-energizer into the water for feeding response. He tracked several pieces and I think I got a positive on him feeding one bite.  The wrasse spent the entire day trying to figure out what was on the other side of the glass wall.... all of them, even the euro bracing... stupid fish..

Monday:  He got over his obsession with the glass walls but is not "hunting the rock work" looking for food.  Just hanging out.  Color is low, but seems that towards the end of the night he got really rich in color.  Fed all of the usual.  He definitely chased down mysis readily and was eating.  I normative feed 4x a day over a ~2hour period, this time I fed 8x at least over a 4 hour period... same total amount.  he did chase and I think I saw him eat some bloodworm.  He rejected some for sure.

Tuesday: Fed the regular mix same way as monday.  Ignored all Nori but is accepting mysis readily.  Color seems to be improving, but could be wishful thinking on my part.  Definitely took several large bloodworms.  He seemed to get interested in some of the pellets, but did not take any.  He is now hunting 50% of the time or more on the rockwork for food.  Good to see the normal behaviour here.



So at this point I figured i have beaten some of the odds, he is eating.  It's only mysis and bloodworm so far, but i suspect more will follow with the response I see when other food is in the water.

Im not observing any change in his weight (stomach shape or size), which is my current focus.  If he is eating that's good, but if he has intestinal worms he's in trouble and pretty much doomed.  I do not have access to the medication required to rid-him of these, nor do I have a QT setup to medicate him in.

More updates as I things progress.  This is one cool fish, IMO anyhow...  And I will have more of this family as they become available in the LFS's, though for now, just having this one is enough until he's fat and happy.

[JetJumper]

Thats a very nice fish!



Sorry, had to post a picture for people so they don't have to google if you don't know what it is.

I hope he does well for you!

[sas]

Wow that is a gorgeous fish.
I'll admit I googled and came up with some terrible pics.
In fact I said to myself yuck why would anyone want such a drab looking
fish.

Thanks Jetjumper

[CanadaReef]

Good choice Hookup! Great looking fish  I love wrasses

[Hookup]

Tonight's feeding update:

Fed the usual mix, no reaction on pellets.. boo... i'm dissapointed there... He didn't go for the bloodworm as much either and seemed picky on which mysis he wanted... this did not make me happy.

Also, tonight I added some more fish... I know, I couldn't take it any longer.. the tank has been so empty...
I stopped in and bugg'ed az for a good hour and picked up some AWESOME wrasses. 



and another I cannot find a photo of... (Az?)

Awesome x100

Anyhow, the reason I post that in this thread is
a) it impacts the success of the potters
b) they will consume copods... so they now compete for food...
c) they are both already eating pellets... so maybe they will teach the potters to eat pellets too...

potters colors are good given the change...   Thanks for following.

PS: Jet.. thanks that is a very good photo and very representative of the fish.

[az]

I think your potters wrasse will be fine.

the 2 wrasses you got today are red velvet and excuisite fairy wrasse.

[Hookup]

I think so also... It's only been 30min or so, but already no one is bugging anyone and the potters is ignoring the other two and vice-versa..

I looked for a photo of the other wrasse.. the excuisite fairy... definately there are photos.. .but nothing comes close...  the pink/red on this guy is visible anywhere in the house.. (even when you cannot see the tank..)  It's an amazing fish and I was so lucky to get it...

It's lights out now for me... and the fish.

[reefdava16]

It took mine months before it started eating pellets. Just be patient, I'm glad yours is eating, thats good news.
One thing I like about this fish, it keeps the sand constantly turning over. Any pics?

[Hookup]

Friday:  day 6

He is eating very well.  Mysis and bloodworms appear to be readily accepted.  He has learned what I look like and follows me around when I'm close to the tank looking for some food.

He did understand that food was being fed when I dropped pellets into the tank, but could not take a bite... It must still seem to forgin to him.

color is improving...  Hunting all the time.  Pretty much ignores all the other fish and does his own thing. 

Fingers crossed 

[Hookup]

Week 1 complete:  Well this little guy is getting the feel of things in the tank.  With 100gal of water changes on the system this weekend everyone is happy and swimming and now chucky is starting to behave like one of the group... he knows what I look like, or at least knows when it's feeding time and follows the herd around the tank to where ever i stand... he still in into mysis and bloodworms and whatever else he finds that's alive... though pellets are getting more of a look each day.

The blochy coloring on him is fading.  It's still there but now much improved from the first days in the tank.  I'm suprised that it is stress related lasting this long, but it seems the logical assumption.

All things looking good...

[Hookup]

Week 2 complete.  Not much has changed.  I cannot tell if the wrasse is getting fatter but it docent look smaller...   The color is improving... Eating most frozen food, but prefers mysis over all else.

Thanks for reading

[Hookup]

Another week passes... All frozen foods are readily accepted!  Lots of sniff sniff at pellets but no takes yet...  Size looks stable, but you'd swear you see him shrink if you do a light feeding one day...  . 

Model citizen, and a great fish... Really happy to have him.

[Hookup]

Well it's time for an update. The Wrasse is doing very well.. Fat and healthy!  I'm installing an anti-jump screen tonight so I can take the pressure of losing this beauty to the carpet of the great beyond...

I've lost a few and the time has come to put an end to this... 

Anyhow, I can report success with this wrasse and look forward to my next difficult fish... The red tail tamarin wrasse!  (or/and yellow tail version )

[kole18]

a week ago i was at big al's kanata, i saw this yellow tail tamarin same as this wrasse from mscape at their coral tank. i was tempted to buy it but my tank its only a few weeks old not gonna survive in my tank, anyway just letting you know maybe they still have it there, nice fish though better than darn sixline wrasse.

[dan2x38]

Hook-up great news congrats on the successful transition hope your next wrasse acclimate too.

I discovered a trick to get a finicky eater to take pellets or flake. I had a hard time getting my square spot anthias to eat anything but frozen. He was not in the best condition with a sunken stomach but I had to have him. I bought a bag of raw shelled calms in Chinatown. Then I minced one carefully (they have small throats) making sure all pieces were tiny. In a small glass with some tank water added the minced calm and the juice then dumped in a few NLS marine pellets let this sit for awhile. I feed some of the concoction kept the rest in the fridge. Over several days feed my usual mysis and/or brine shrimp then would throw in some of this stuff. After several days he started to nibble at the pellets. Within 2 weeks he was eating the pellets. I did the same with spirlina flakes and he eventually would eat some of those. I was able to stop doing the soaking and he still ate the prepared foods.

The sad news I changed food about 6 months later and he wouldn't eat it. By the time I realized what was happening I couldn't get him to eat again. He started hiding and was dead after another couple weeks.

Any ways thought I'd share it might work for your wrasse. OH great idea with the jump screen my Solar wrasse jumped so I added a jump screen.

[Hookup]

a week ago i was at big al's kanata, i saw this yellow tail tamarin same as this wrasse from mscape at their coral tank. i was tempted to buy it but my tank its only a few weeks old not gonna survive in my tank, anyway just letting you know maybe they still have it there, nice fish though better than darn sixline wrasse.

Thanks!  I'm going to call them as soon as they are open!  Woot!  That would be most excellent!


Update: called... He's sold. 

[kole18]

  darn this fish is so nice, I would it gave you a msg if your after this kind of fish hookup. anyway next time

[dan2x38]

Thanks!  I'm going to call them as soon as they are open!  Woot!  That would be most excellent!

Update: called... He's sold. 

LMK I can check when I go to Mtrl. I go often and Aquatica carries a lot of wrasse and great pricing too. Only thing I get back usually close to 10pm. Can be meet at either BA location, near airport by Hunt Club or Old Ottawa South. Also LMK what you are looking for will watch for any of those too.

[Hookup]

Well, I can hardly believe it has been 5months so far with this fish.  He is doing very well, eating still only what he hunts and frozen foods (no pellets yet) and most of the time has a big-fat belly...

He likes to dive into the sand and come back out again quickly... just to stir up the sand-bed and see what he can find... he'll do this a few times a week looking for sand-bed critters... it's neat to see such instinct.

His colors have improved dramatically from shipping which is nice to see.  And compared to some of the other more active swimming fish he is a nice addition to see poking and lurking around... picking his way thru the corals and rocks...

He did win picture of the month, in may I think, and we are very proud of our over-achiever.  LoL


All-in-All we were very lucky to have one of the more difficult species do well in our system and are all very pleased.

Potter Wrasse experiment results: Pleasantly surprised success.

[xiaan]

I was thinking about Gettting a Potters Wrasse. Do you still have the other Wrasses in the tank? how are they doing?

[Hookup]

I have 3 other wrasse in the tank.  All doing very well.

Velvet Wrasse
Hawaiian Flame Wrasse (m)
Melenarus Wrasse (f)

Everyone gets along just fine... but the leopard wrasses are so different it's hard to call them "wrasses"...

[Greatwhite]

You should get a Dragon Wrasse... Coolest wrasse I've ever seen.  Too bad they dig beds in the sand at night and make a mess.