Bucket list fish ✓
Just hit 60 days since acquiring this choati leopard wrasse. Big thanks to High Tide Aquatics
@under_water_ninja for sourcing her for me. Still cautiously optimistic since choati are a notoriously difficult fish to keep, more so than other leopards. Most don't make it past 30 days, but it's still a big hurdle to get past a year.
This is actually my third attempt with this fish. First one did not eat for 30 days while in QT so I made the call to put her in the display to hunt pods and learn from the others. After a week in there she finally started eating PE mysis, a lot of it, and I think it was a shock to her starved digestive system because she ended up dying from a prolapsed anus. Second one only lasted 7 days in QT. Ate here and there but was constantly zooming up and down the glass so something else was wrong or was in stress shock from environment change. This third one was very difficult to get eating while in QT and finally took to live brine shrimp. Eventually weaned her on to frozen brine, hand feeding one by one since she was picky about eating only the best whole looking pieces. Finally got her eating herring roe by scattering it on live rock which wrasse pick at for pods. This was a relief since roe is much more nutritious than brine.
Acclimation into the display went very well. The other leopards, who are much bigger, sized her up but no aggression. She's now a glutenous pig that eats everything the others eat do and is very comfortable cruising the tank. No hiding in the sand for days/weeks like leopards commonly do when stressed in a new environment.
My leopard wrasse collection is now 6.
Pictures of others on page 3
- Macropharyngodon choati
- Halichoeres lapillus
- Macropharyngodon meleagris
- Macropharyngodon bipartitus
- Macropharyngodon ornatus
- Macropharyngodon negrosensis
My moyeri went missing earlier this year and I assume she aged out after 4 years of having her. I've read their lifespan is about 5.
I'll always be on the lookout for more leopard species but the remaining ones are hard to come by. I may also get another jeweled (lapillus) because they female that I've hard for 2 years did a slow transition to male and the colors are not as brilliant as when I first got her. I do hope that by having this male prevents the other females from transitioning.
December 2023
August 2025
