cleaner wrasse
- Thread starter sebaehope
- Start date
pufferlover
Active Member
It has been discussed her and many believe they are marginal at best as far as being hardy. I happen to adore the little darlings and have 5 at the moment in 4 different tanks. I have found the ones imported from the Maldives are very hardy but most others don't eat and don't live and the ones from Hawaii altho beautiful don't live no matter what you do. They are a active fish and usually sleep in a hole in a rock or barnacle at night in a mucus cocoon they expel. As I have said before I have one pair that is now going on 6 years and live in just a 46 bowfront for the last 4 years with a few fish and one Racoon Butterfky they keep very clean. I have learned when buying make sure they are eating and have a round full belly area and then you have a chance. Most lfs just put them all in a tank and sell them like clownfish with no regards to starting them off right and that is where the problem starts.
mr . salty
Active Member
I have had three or four of these fish die on me till I finally got one that made it.Most of them never even made it through the night.They are very delacate fish,they don't ship well,and most will not eat any introduced fish food. In the wild they only eat the parasites that they find on the fish and reef.Like stated,only buy one that is FAT.And insist that the store feed him so you can see him eat .If he wont eat food,dont buy it.
bluto
Member
If these fish are SO delicate and difficult to keep alive, wouldn't it just be better to get 1 or 2 cleaner shrimp (which would accomplish the same thing in your tank) instead of killing (probably) a cleaner wrasse. I just finished cycling my 90g and had been planning on getting a cleaner wrasse (inexplicably, ALL the books state that it's a must-have for every aquarium) until I came across all the negative info on this board. I realize it might be cool to have that fish...but what's more important?
Bluto
"fat, drunk, & stupid is no way to go thru life son"
Bluto
"fat, drunk, & stupid is no way to go thru life son"
pufferlover
Active Member
Having both Cleaner Wrasses and Cleaner Shrimps thruout my tanks I can say that many fish will let the Wrasse near them while many will not let the shrimps anywhere near. I think the Shrimps are neat even if all they do is crawl around and grab food that hits the bottom. I do find that when a fish is sick it allows the Wrasse more access then when its well. I do notice tho the Angels and Tangs I have always let the Wrasses check them out when the Wrasses are trying to do so, while some of the others only when ill will let the Wrasses near. Now for something I found the hard way smooth skinned fish do not like Cleaner Wrasses at all. Had the smaller Dogface that contracted Ick thought I would help it and put a Cleaner Wrasse in its tank only to have the Cleaner pick at the Puffer so badley it turned the Puffers back black going after the mucus I guess. Once the Wrasse was removed in a few weeks the Puffers back cleared up altho I felt lousy for not acting faster in the Wrasses removal.
calvin & hobbes
Member
In my opinion, I believe cleaner wrasses are more of a pest to the other fish, which may cause added stress, on the other hand cleaner shrimp do the same think and only clean when the fish feels like to be cleaned as fore the wrasse it is the opposite...
kdlbem
Member
We bought a cleaner wrasse to put in with a powder blue tang that got ich. It was cleaning a juv. angel at the LFS before we bought it. The wrasse went right to the tang and started picking away. We thought , cool. Kept watching, and the wrasse bit bloody spots in the tang(Tang decided it was time to kill the wrasse). overnight it ate a pretty good sized chunk out of the tangs face, where the ich was. Took it back to LFS, who couldn't believe it. And to prove it wasn't one of the false cleaners, he acclimated the fish, and put it back in with some of his fish. It cleaned away, no problems. Kooky, huh? I don't think I'd buy another, they never leave the other fish alone. Just my 2 cents,
B
B
pufferlover
Active Member
To be sure you are getting the right Cleaner Wrasse and not the flesh eatin false one check out the mouth the real ones mouth is at the extreme tip of the snout the false ones is under the snout. The 2 fish look exactly the same except the false one (Aspidontus taeniatus) is a nasty sucker. The real one (Labroides dimidiatus) is the good one.