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EDITORIAL by TERRY SIEGEL
Like most, if not all tropical wrasses Macropharyngodon is a protogynous hermaphrodite. That is, most begin life as females and males develop from females as needed. To complicate matters there are primary males (those born as males) whose coloration is more intense and whose testis are cylindrical and white with a seminal duct. Generally, there is one dominant male, usually primary, to a number of females. However, if that primary male is eliminated the highest ranking female transforms, often in a matter of hours, into a fully functional male. These are called secondary males, and though fully functional and able to maintain control over the harem, their coloration is not as intense as that of primary males and their testis “reflect their ovarian origins." (Baensch, Marine Atlas) A number of years ago, I began with one female Macropharyngodon meleagris and about one month later added a second female. Within several weeks the first female's coloration significantly intensified, possibly indicating a sex change. Because I was unwilling to dissect said wrasse I can only speculate. Exactly how my secondary Macropharyngodon male (assuming the transformation took place) would resemble a primary male was unclear.
Compatibility Macropharyngodon sp. are ideal reef aquarium fish: they provide a valuable service to Tridacna clam owners, do not disturb the majority of animals kept by "coralaholics," and according to Scott Michael (confirmed by mine and other's direct experience) are peaceful community fish, not even bothering members of their own kind. That is, they display neither interspecific nor intraspecific aggression. In fact, I introduced a Macropharyngodon meleagris female to a tank with an established female. When they met they hung vertically in the water column for a few moments, apparently checked one another out, then swam off to continue their continual search for food. Captivity As with all animals we seek to house in our aquaria initial acclimation is the most dangerous period. Starting with a healthy specimen is the first priority. Poor capturing and handling are problems. Most specimens from the time that they are collected to the time that they reach a dealer's tank have not been fed for up to 4 weeks. This is a particularly serious problem for Macropharyngodon spp. Leopard wrasses are active swimmers and require a great deal of food to keep them healthy; they easily loose weight and can reach the point of no return quickly. Therefore, do not purchase one that has a pinched belly, or especially one that is concave between the eyes. Only consider one that is actively searching every crevice of its tank for food. Once you have chosen a healthy specimen you may have to deal with what Scott Michael calls “piscine jet lag." In your tank it may begin its day foraging for food in the middle of your night. My second Macropbaryngodon meleagris reburied itself at 6 AM.; consequently, I got up at 5 AM and fed it mysis shrimp. In my experience, most leopard wrasses will bury themselves for at least a few days when first introduced. This can be a problem, as this active fish can lose weight easily. Fortunately
for me it soon adjusted its inner clock and was up during my daylight
hours. It took me several months to bring this wrasse up to normal weight.
Like most wrasses it is laterally compressed; mine began about 6 inches in
length, about 1 inch from dorsal to belly, and only 0.5-cm in width. It is
now better than 1cm in width. I am of the opinion that it is difficult
to bring a starving fish to nutritional health with only live or frozen
foods. With a fish like Macropharyngodon
meleagris, a reef tank, or at least a live rock tank, will allow it
to begin a search for micro invertebrates, hopefully with some success.
Within a day or two it will readily take Mysis, blood worms, and other
such foods. However, I have seen far too many fish starve in the long or
short run on just such a diet. It is important to get Macropharyngodon
meleagris to accept a good quality flake food. Frozen and live foods
are mostly water, flake foods mostly food. Unless you can supply it with a
constant source of micro invertebrates it is important to teach it to eat
flake food. Teach a fish to eat? It will learn to eat from example and the
stimulus of a community feeding frenzy. Healthy fish live to eat, and a
newcomer, unless it is a very specialized feeder, will soon join the
party. Generally, it is only when fish begin to eat dry food that they
retain their coloration and reach nutritional health. You may wonder if
it's possible to feed flake food daily or even twice daily without
producing an undesirable nutrient rich condition in a reef tank. Powerful
protein skimmers and natural nitrate reduction in the living sand appear
to make this possible. I was able to keep that pair of leopard wrasses for
about 4-years, before they mysteriously disappeared. Recently, pictured here, I added a new Macropharyngodon meleagris to my 10–foot reef tank. It buried itself for three days before emerging. It is feeding very well now on flake food and frozen plankton, and perhaps more importantly has a large, established reef tank to hunt for small micro invertebrates. Evidently, it is getting enough to eat – it has gotten fatter and has grown. I’m of the opinion that the difficulty most aquarists have with leopard wrasses is starvation. It is an extremely active fish, and it requires a constant supply of food; that is, a large reef tank to hunt in. Also, the availability of frozen plankton increases the aquarist’s chances of keeping leopard wrasses nutritionally healthy. In
closing I want to emphasize that leopard wrasses are very active fish and have an unusually high food budget. They must be fed a lot, and require a large established reef tank, where they can continually successfully hunt for small crustaceans. If the small crustaceans in your reef tank have already been eliminated by other fish you will probably not be successful introducing one of these fish. Bibliography Delbeek, J. Charles, and Julian Sprung. The Reef Aquarium. Florida: Ricordea Publishing, 1994. Debelius, Helmut, and Hans A. Baensch. Marine Atlas. United States: Tetra Press, 1994. Scott, Michael W. "A Guide to the Leopard Wrasses, (Genus: Macropbaryngodon)" SeaScope, Aquarium Systems, Inc., U.S.A., 1992. Burgess, Dr. Warren E., and others. Dr. Burgess's Atlas of Marine Fishes, 2nd ed. United States: T.F.H. Publications, Inc., 1990. Wilkens, Peter and Johannes Birkholz. Marine Invertebrates. Germany: Karl‑Heinz Dahne
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