Neon Gobies as cleaners?

redqueen

redqueen

New Member
Hello everyone,
I have heard that Neon Gobies can be good cleaner fish. I even saw a discovery show were a baracuda let several NGobies clean some parasites out of his mouth.
I would love to hear some feed back from people who have experience with them, thanks in advance!
 
redqueen

redqueen

New Member
Thanks for the reply.
Are they timid or bold when it comes to approaching an infected fish? Do you have more then 1? How do their cleaning performance compare to a cleaner shrimp?
 
spicyballs

spicyballs

Member
i don't have any more.. i had 5.. all in my q-tank.. i usually put all my new fish in there first.. none of them survived.. and they were the only fish in there.. they are not that timid.. they like to perch on live rock, glass walls, or other equipment. cleaning wise, my friend has them and they seem to clean his fish pretty good.
 
spicyballs

spicyballs

Member
each one got ich, one by one.. treatment didn't help. i used greenex... oh well. friend has his for close to half a year? but not without die off as well. not very picky eaters though. haven't been able to pinpoint why they died... they were small though..
 
T

tizzo

Guest
A lot of people get a neon goby when they have an ich outbreak, but they don't realize that nothing will "clean" the ich off of the goby itself... Even LFS's will keep them in tanks that the fish has ich, so it will appear that they don't.
About 6 months ago, my YT got black ich, and after doing some research on this sight, 2 well known advice givers couldn't agree between a cleaner goby or shrimp, or hypo. And since I didn't want to try to catch my tang, I went out and got both the goby & the shrimp. Anyway to answer your question, every mornin' he was slurping up the dots on the tang. He is a very interesting fish and I love his "personality". Every time I vaccuum my cc, there he is cleaning my hands. I love mine, and no problems yet!!! Knock on wood!!!
 
redqueen

redqueen

New Member
Thanks Tizzo, glad the Tang made it. That is very encouraging news about the NGobie.
Spicy... How long have you had the cleaner Wrasse?
 
redqueen

redqueen

New Member
Spicy... does your cleaner wrasse eat introduced food. I saw one at the lfs that was eating brine shrimp. I wanted to buy it because of this. I have been told if you can get one that will eat introduced food it will do very well in your tank even after it has eliminated parasites from the tank.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
There are exceptions but Cleaner Wrasse normally die of malnutrition after just a couple of years. They require a lot of large fish to live normally. They feed off of fish slime and very few tanks have enough large fish to sustain them. Tangs do not count in the equation.
 
harlequin

harlequin

Member
Thats if you have a tang with problems. With all my problems with foxfaces I still have a 100% survival rate on tangs with no problems(had each less than a few months though, as my tank was temping for someone elses). The majority of cleaner wrasses will not take to eating anything but parasites. Being in an enclosed environment such as a tank, there really should not be a need for cleaners in the first place provided proper QT and dipping procedures are done. If there is a problem the source should be found not a quick fix. Especially not a quick fix like a cleaner wrasse which should be banned from importation in the first place.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
A pair of Percula Clownfish will do fine in that tank. It's too small for Ocellaris or any other type of Clownfish IMO. The Goby you mentioned is a very peaceful and very low bio-load animal.
 
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