When will my leopard wrasse change sex?

Perpetual Novice · Sep 17, 2019

I have two leopard wrasses 4 inch and 3 inch roughly. They both have the speckled female color pattern and look roughly the same except for size. They are active, eat well, and get along great. Usually they are within a foot of each other at any given time so they seem to prefer to swim and hunt together. The were added to the tank a few weeks apart and purchased at different stores. They have been in my tank for about 4 months now and I have heard that they will develope a hierarchy with the larger one becoming male and changing color. When can I expect this to happen. And will any complications arise when it does?

OrionN · Sep 17, 2019

I got a trio that sleep together at one spot. They are going great and fat, but not changing sex after 2 years. I think Leopard sex change is unpredicable. I think you should enjoy them as is, if one of them change sex then it is a plus. If two change sex, this happened to other people, it is a disaster.

Perpetual Novice · Sep 17, 2019

OrionN said:
I got a trio that sleep together at one spot. They are going great and fat, but not changing sex after 2 years. I think Leopard sex change is unpredicable. I think you should enjoy them as is, if one of them change sex then it is a plus. If two change sex, this happened to other people, it is a disaster.

Oh no! I didn’t realize that could happen. I’ll gladly take two females and hope nothing changes.

saltyhog · Sep 17, 2019

They may very well not transition to male. Leopards are not nearly as predictable as fairy and flasher wrasses are. In short they will do it if and when they do it. Good news is most leopard species are very beautiful as females...some more so than males to some people.

jordan10 · Sep 17, 2019

I have been looking into get one. But hear they are hard to keep? Any reasons why?

Perpetual Novice · Sep 17, 2019

jordan10 said:
I have been looking into get one. But hear they are hard to keep? Any reasons why?

They’re supposed to be hard to feed. They survive for a while by picking things off the rockwork. But when they deplete that food source they starve unless you train them to eat prepared foods.

I’ve heard some kinds of leopard wrasse are easier to train than other but I don’t know much about that. I just found ones at stores near me that had already be trained to eat frozen food.

I feed them primarily spiralina brine. And they love it and are fat. They’re supposed to need frequent feedings because they have a high metabolism. But I feed once a day and it doesn’t seem to be a problem.

jordan10 · Sep 17, 2019

K that's the same thing this girl told me at this fish store by this hotel we are build said. She say she won't sell it unless see has it eating and then keeps for another 4 5 day to make sure it's eating so I told her to call me when they get one. Thanks I was just checking to make sure