What happened to my cleaner wasse

[violetnkeegan]

I have a 65 gal, 3 month old tank. Tonight i was moving all my rocks around, as i got a bunch more rock today and a sea anenome.
I had to get to the fluval intake to cove it up, as they appear to be death traps for them.
My problem is i am fighting ich at the moment and he was my only cleaner, except for a peppermint and another shrimp.
I did pull the head off the fluval head of and left is pumping in the water while i places a bio cube in the head.
After doing all my rocks and covering the intake, my fiancee noticed that the cleaner warsse was not around, as he is not shy.
I the rushed to open the fluval canaster to see if i could save him, thinking he went in there. but i didnt see him.
Could he possibly be stuck under a rock that i moved?

 

[btldreef]

He's probably in a rock crevice. Mine does quite often:

This being said, having a Cleaner wrasse and cleaner shrimp is NOT going to solve your ich problem. It will help (and it can be disputed as to how much it will help by some), but it won't rid your fish of ich. They need to be treated. Cleaner Wrasses are also very likely to starve in smaller tanks. I would not even think about recommending one in a tank less than 100G. They need a large community of fish to peck from or many (most) starve. Very few accept prepared foods, so I hope yours is. There is also an issue of many Cleaner Wrasses being misidentified. Many are actually similar looking blennies that eat the scales of fish and can actually cause more damage to your fish, so be positive that you have a Cleaner Wrasse and not a similar looking fish (there are a few).
I have a 155G with ich in it. I can not hypo as many fish as I have at the moment. I'm waiting for my house to be finished so that I can move. Once I do, all fish are getting hypo'd in the new tank, which the reef (the 155) stays up fishless for 8 weeks. This way, my fish will no longer have ich and my rocks/corals/inverts can't carry it over to the new tank either. I currently do have a cleaner wrasse, just to help a tiny bit and a Skunk Cleaner Shrimp. I keep the temperature a little higher, and feed them high quality foods soaked in vitamins. Thus far, it's working, but I know the ich is still there even if I don't see it and they will have to be treated. There are more than 22 fish for the Cleaner Wrasse to pick from, and he eats frozen, or I would not have considered adding one to the tank.

 

[violetnkeegan]

thanks for your reply. I was quite pleased to have found him cleaning the fish this morning. He is a cleaner Warsaw, I am sure of it and he does it, brine shrimp, bloodworms and sometimes even flakes.
he has been helping a lot with ich, as he is always cleaning one of the fish.
I was also recomended a produce called ich attack that is safe for reef systems. so I am trying that BUT we will be getting a quarente tank set up wit ing the next week and treating them with copper for a 2 week period.

 

[al&burke]

I had a cleaner wrasse at one point. One day I literally saw the cleaner wrasse swimming around in the tank, 5 minutes later I notine the puppy (jack russel) chewing on something that looked like blue plastic, say no more, carpert surfer.

 

[btldreef]

Quote:
Originally Posted by violetnkeegan http:///forum/thread/385470/what-happened-to-my-cleaner-wasse#post_3380674
thanks for your reply. I was quite pleased to have found him cleaning the fish this morning. He is a cleaner Warsaw, I am sure of it and he does it, brine shrimp, bloodworms and sometimes even flakes.
he has been helping a lot with ich, as he is always cleaning one of the fish.
I was also recomended a produce called ich attack that is safe for reef systems. so I am trying that BUT we will be getting a quarente tank set up wit ing the next week and treating them with copper for a 2 week period.
Even if you put all of your fish in a QT and treat with copper, your main tank needs to remain without fish for 6-8 weeks for the ich in the tank to die off. Ich can live on all surfaces of the tank for that period of time, so even if you treat your fish in a separate tank, if you return them to the DT in less than 6-8 weeks time, they could very well get ich again. Treat them with hypo salinity in a QT, it's much more effective and less stressful. Copper treatment can be really stressful and sometimes even harmful/deadly depending on the fish.