two Leopard wrasses fighting

[shannonlewis1980]

Hello everyone,
I've had two Leopard wrasses in my tank for at least 6 months. . Probably longer. .. And today I noticed that the larger wrasse was chasing the smaller one. Little guy finally just put himself to sleep and the larger one is roaming around looking for the little one. I thought these were peaceful fish but now I'm wondering if there's an issue. Any thoughts? They are both meleagris (I believe my spelling is correct).

 

[sethsolomon]

How do their colorations compare? Is one a different color than the other or are they the same?

 

[jda123]

What type of leopards? Are they both males?

 

[shannonlewis1980]

They are both pretty close in color. The larger one seems to have a bit more blue ish coloring but originally they looked the same. As far as sex. . I was under the impression that the larger was always the male. . Is there a way to tell?

 

[jda123]

If you know what kind of leopards they are, you can Google (or I can post) pictures of the males and females.

Do you know what kind they are?

 

[shannonlewis1980]

Ok. .. Did a quick search and they are both female Macrophara something melagris

 

[jda123]

I have never heard of females fighting. I have pairs of female meleagris in my tanks right now. This is weird.

Are they getting enough to eat? What will they eat?

 

[shannonlewis1980]

Yeah. .I was surprised! And they are both pigs and eat everything including the tangs seaweed.

 

[jda123]

I hope it doesn't come to this, but the only way that I know how to catch them is to get them out of the sand.

I guess I would just wait and see if they calm down.

 

[shannonlewis1980]

So the larger female is still being aggressive towards the smaller female. Every time the little one comes out... the larger one chases her back into the sand... Will adding another female help? Will I have to take one of them out? I even bought some Tiger Pods to make sure there was a full supply of pods and it had no effect. I even turned the lights off to try and trick the larger one into going to sleep but she got up a few min. after I turned them back on..

 

[ialtalal]

your best is to take smaller one out as the larger one will keep being aggressive no matter what. i fought the issue for a couple of months and the one was being harassed ended up dying. how big is your tank? i got three in my tank that been with each other for about a year now.