octoman
New Member
Originally Posted by Robdog696
http:///forum/post/2581587
The cleaner wrasse's difficulty to keep in the home aquarium stems from three predominant factors. Firstly, cleaner wrasse of all four types have very small mouths as juviniles. As a result, they feed on very small parasites that live on other fish. Within the last 7 years marine aquarium hobbyists have "by accident" discovered this fact. By chopping their fish food into smaller pieces than intended, it was observed that cleaner wrasse actually ate many meaty preparations.
This is how i acclaimated my cleaner to eat meaty food. I bought the fish for 9 dollars from LFS. Once i got home i didnt drip acclimate. I put him in directly in the tank. At that time i only had a sailfin, yellotail damsel, yellow tang and clown fish. The following day, i chopped up some clams in very tiny pieces. I scattered in my water the the cleaner started muching on it. I notice that when i supplemented it with brine he would only eat the clams. so for 2 weeks i was hand feeding this guy with finely chop clams. After 2 weeks i introduced him to finely chopped scallops. He love that. for the next to weeks i was feeding clams, mussles, scallop, finely chopped. Once this guys felt comfortable eating i was able to feed him finely chopped shrimp. It has been over a year since i bought this little booger and has grown over 1". He Is not a picky eater. He will eat anything from brine,flakes, pellets and other meaty homegrown food i make. As long as the food is small enough to enter his mouth he will eat it.
This guy is the integral piece of my reef tank. All of my fish are very healthy becuase of him.
http:///forum/post/2581587
The cleaner wrasse's difficulty to keep in the home aquarium stems from three predominant factors. Firstly, cleaner wrasse of all four types have very small mouths as juviniles. As a result, they feed on very small parasites that live on other fish. Within the last 7 years marine aquarium hobbyists have "by accident" discovered this fact. By chopping their fish food into smaller pieces than intended, it was observed that cleaner wrasse actually ate many meaty preparations.
This is how i acclaimated my cleaner to eat meaty food. I bought the fish for 9 dollars from LFS. Once i got home i didnt drip acclimate. I put him in directly in the tank. At that time i only had a sailfin, yellotail damsel, yellow tang and clown fish. The following day, i chopped up some clams in very tiny pieces. I scattered in my water the the cleaner started muching on it. I notice that when i supplemented it with brine he would only eat the clams. so for 2 weeks i was hand feeding this guy with finely chop clams. After 2 weeks i introduced him to finely chopped scallops. He love that. for the next to weeks i was feeding clams, mussles, scallop, finely chopped. Once this guys felt comfortable eating i was able to feed him finely chopped shrimp. It has been over a year since i bought this little booger and has grown over 1". He Is not a picky eater. He will eat anything from brine,flakes, pellets and other meaty homegrown food i make. As long as the food is small enough to enter his mouth he will eat it.