Cleaner Shrimp and Flukes

[Empress]

Here's a question I haven't seen yet:

Can those red and white cleaner shrimp eat or remove flukes from the gills and mouth of tangs (and other fish)?

The reason I'm asking is because I put my tangs back in the DT last weekend and immediately upon putting them in, the cleaner shrimp went crazy with their cleaning services.

I know the shrimps like to pick dead skin off after an ich/ velvet outbreak but then I got to thinking about flukes in the mouth and gills.

Im pretty sure I don't have flukes, but now I gotta wonder....[emoji227]

 

[Humblefish]

Cleaner shrimp/wrasses usually eat dead skin/scales off of fish. Or remove debris from inside the gills. However, they theoretically could pick off "surface" parasites & worms such as flukes. But deeply embedded parasites (ex. ich) are out of reach for them because those burrow in under the epithelium (outer skin layer).

 

[Empress]

Interesting. I'm glad I asked. So they could possibly pick off surface worms but I wonder if they could EAT them? Maybe.

If I still have flukes on the surface would I be able to visibly see them?

 

[Humblefish]

Interesting. I'm glad I asked. So they could possibly pick off surface worms but I wonder if they could EAT them? Maybe.

The thing is I don't see how they could pick off ALL the worms before more eggs hatched producing another generation.

If I still have flukes on the surface would I be able to visibly see them?

Flukes are translucent, so you'll typically only see them on dark colored fish (photos below).

 

[Empress]

What's the life cycle of a fluke? I suppose I could research it online, but I don't know scientific name for a marine fish fluke. Thanks for all your help.

 

[Humblefish]

What's the life cycle of a fluke? I suppose I could research it online, but I don't know scientific name for a marine fish fluke. Thanks for all your help.

Look here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/flukes-–-general-guidelines.224423/

 

[Empress]

Look here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/flukes-–-general-guidelines.224423/

Xcellent read. Thanks. I'm actually starting to understand all this nerdy scientific stuff. [emoji225]