edward_tun
Member
Has anyone experience a cleaner wrasse ?? are they ez to care ?? what they eat ? Please give me some info. Thank YOu
Cleaner Wrasse
- Thread starter edward_tun
- Start date
gmusick
Member
From what I little I know, cleaner wrasses are prone to picking off scales of fish. I have heard that you should stick to a cleaner shrimp or a cleaner goby (neon goby is a good one). Cleaner wrasses are easy to keep, but may not be the best tankmate to your other fish.
Glen in Alanta
Glen in Alanta
rubberduck
Active Member
actualy you are thinking of the FAKE cleaner wrasse. cleaner wrasses are not a good pick in the trade and should IMO be avoided. cleaner shrimp or even my favorite, neon gobbies, are better
dogstar
Active Member
Cleaner wrasses feed off bio orgs. and body slime from other fish. You need a lot of fish for them to be able to stay healthy. Only after a long time do they learn to eat regular food. I have had my Blue Streak for 2.5 years and it now will eat food from my hand but took a long time befor it would. Not all fish will alow them to clean them. To have one you should have a large system with 10 or 20 fish first.
iceemn360
Member
I agree, generally it is a good idea to keep them with lots of larger fish like tangs and angels that they can clean. I visited one whole sale facility that kept the poor cleaners with damsels. The bottom of the tank was littered with nearly 20 of these litte guys. Removing cleaner wrasses from reefs has a very negative impact on the other fishe there and the wrasse itself.
90reefkepr
Member
they are easy to care for IMO i have one for 2 weeks now and he has been eating food i hive it since day 2...
i feed it pellets and frozen mysid
i feed it pellets and frozen mysid
scubadoo
Active Member
I am not positive but I beleive it has been illegal to remove cleaner wrasses from the Hawiian waters since the mid 90's
Why are they sold? Because we keep buying them.
Many, many die for every one that happens to survive and thrive in the home aquarium.
This anaimal is one that you always see on the delicate fish list...and the better left in the ocean list.
Remember , success with keeping an animal alive and happy in this hobby is not measured in days, weeks or months but years.
Should you decide to buy one....it will most likely be dead in a breif period.
Why are they sold? Because we keep buying them.
Many, many die for every one that happens to survive and thrive in the home aquarium.
This anaimal is one that you always see on the delicate fish list...and the better left in the ocean list.
Remember , success with keeping an animal alive and happy in this hobby is not measured in days, weeks or months but years.
Should you decide to buy one....it will most likely be dead in a breif period.
ophiura
Active Member
IF you are lucky enough to get one that eats prepared foods you MIGHT get it to live long term. But they are in NO WAY easy to keep in general. Many of these animals take a long time to starve, or die from other nutritional deficiencies.
As an example, Moorish Idols - probably one of the most difficult fish to keep - pretty commonly live a year in captivity, eating all sorts of things, and dying for no apparent reason (probably of nutritional deficiency). Ditto for many seastars and other animals that are actually slowly starving to death while appearing to do well.
But the majority of cleaner wrasse do not do well, most dying long before they reach hobbyists tanks or en masse at the LFS.
There is no reason, IMO, to keep one of these fish unless you have a very large tank with very large fish. They do no service that is not done by other (easier to keep) animals. And I am not sure why the color would be reason to want one (a blue neon goby has similar colors, is a cleaner, and easier to keep).
Also note that there is a mimic of the cleaner wrasse that is far easier to keep (excepting it takes bites out of other fish instead of cleaning them). Very very difficult to distinguish from a true cleaner and much more likely to eat prepared foods.
As an example, Moorish Idols - probably one of the most difficult fish to keep - pretty commonly live a year in captivity, eating all sorts of things, and dying for no apparent reason (probably of nutritional deficiency). Ditto for many seastars and other animals that are actually slowly starving to death while appearing to do well.
But the majority of cleaner wrasse do not do well, most dying long before they reach hobbyists tanks or en masse at the LFS.
There is no reason, IMO, to keep one of these fish unless you have a very large tank with very large fish. They do no service that is not done by other (easier to keep) animals. And I am not sure why the color would be reason to want one (a blue neon goby has similar colors, is a cleaner, and easier to keep).
Also note that there is a mimic of the cleaner wrasse that is far easier to keep (excepting it takes bites out of other fish instead of cleaning them). Very very difficult to distinguish from a true cleaner and much more likely to eat prepared foods.
tangmaster
New Member
Hey fellow SALTY'S!!
I was just in Maui Hawaii a feew weeks back. Beautiful place to say the least. While 150ft down on a reef peering hard out an ATLANTIS submarine window..out of all the thousands of reef fishes I saw, which were ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL to witness in THEIR HOME, I saw only ONE Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse.
I asked why. They said that they are PROHIBITED from being collected in Hawaii because of the environmental damage done by parasites on the reefs that come from the WRASSES' absense! Only one lone Wrasse that I saw amonsgt thousands of KONA GOLD TANGS and other reef fish. If u have a Hawaiian cleaner Wrasse..take care of it..there won't be many more in the trade. I have one in my 180g and he is doing great and seems to be happy and eats everything I put in the tank.
PS..It was also PRIME HUMPBACK WHALE watching..got some beautiful "Money Shots"!!! Will try to post some pics for guys to enjoy.
I was just in Maui Hawaii a feew weeks back. Beautiful place to say the least. While 150ft down on a reef peering hard out an ATLANTIS submarine window..out of all the thousands of reef fishes I saw, which were ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL to witness in THEIR HOME, I saw only ONE Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse.
I asked why. They said that they are PROHIBITED from being collected in Hawaii because of the environmental damage done by parasites on the reefs that come from the WRASSES' absense! Only one lone Wrasse that I saw amonsgt thousands of KONA GOLD TANGS and other reef fish. If u have a Hawaiian cleaner Wrasse..take care of it..there won't be many more in the trade. I have one in my 180g and he is doing great and seems to be happy and eats everything I put in the tank.
PS..It was also PRIME HUMPBACK WHALE watching..got some beautiful "Money Shots"!!! Will try to post some pics for guys to enjoy.
ophiura
Active Member
Take care of it because there won't be many more in the trade because collection is prohibited (they are being protected)?
:notsure:
Refuse to buy them and any other cleaner wrasse Hawaiian or not, because there won't be many more left in the wild!!
Wouldn't it be sad to have one in a cube of water in your living room, generally not displaying its normal behavior (if it survived), but NOT seeing them where they came from (and are needed).....
I could go into a LFS and see a half dozen.
Discourage their keeping, emphasize their importance in the wild, their poor survival in captivity and propose better alternatives!
:yes:
:notsure:
Refuse to buy them and any other cleaner wrasse Hawaiian or not, because there won't be many more left in the wild!!
Wouldn't it be sad to have one in a cube of water in your living room, generally not displaying its normal behavior (if it survived), but NOT seeing them where they came from (and are needed).....
I could go into a LFS and see a half dozen.
Discourage their keeping, emphasize their importance in the wild, their poor survival in captivity and propose better alternatives!
:yes: