Cleaner wrasse

Redneckreef90 · Apr 16, 2016

i just added a cleaner wrasse to my 90 gallon DT. He has become my new favorite fish. My question is could I put 2 in my tank?

Jmas4 · Apr 17, 2016

Cleaner wrasse do not live long I a aquarium it will starve to death because it eats parasites only and you need a a lot of parasites which a aquarium can not have. If by somehow it eats mysis, flakes it will live for about a few months. 2 wrasse will fight unless you have a huge tank but I would not get 2.

Sabellafella · Apr 17, 2016

Jmas4 said:
Cleaner wrasse do not live long I a aquarium it will starve to death because it eats parasites only and you need a a lot of parasites which a aquarium can not have. If by somehow it eats mysis, flakes it will live for about a few months. 2 wrasse will fight unless you have a huge tank but I would not get 2.

Deffinitly have to disagree with you on this one bud, yea i get the whole they dont live long because of parasites but its different for everyone. You could supply them with live foods and the right nutrition with success if you dont originally buy them skinny. Ive seen way to many tanks on r2r and the internet including myself that kept them for atleast over 4 years with out any problems. . But they are best kept for the wild. Theres also tons of takes completely dedicated to all types of wrasses and theyll chase eachother around. Not necessarily going to kill eachother lol

Redneckreef90 said:
i just added a cleaner wrasse to my 90 gallon DT. He has become my new favorite fish. My question is could I put 2 in my tank?

If you wanted to keep 2 i suggest you add both of them at once. They may or may not fight you dont know until you do. Make sure there fed a variety of frozen and nutrient rich food and not spitting it out.

eatbreakfast · Apr 17, 2016

Cleaner wrasses can form pairs, but if they are not a pr one will kill the other.

Some cleaner wrasses do quite well in captivity. Though some don't transition to eating prepared foods, others do.

https://reefbuilders.com/2015/10/23/cleaner-wrasse/

TUSI · Apr 17, 2016

Mine is 8 yrs old and eats like a pig. They are a great addition to any reef. If you did not introduce them as a pair, I would not add another cause they will probably fight

sc50964 · Apr 17, 2016

My LFS is telling me this and I'm concurring that there is more luck getting ones from Africa to eat.

TUSI · Apr 17, 2016

sc50964 said:
My LFS is telling me this and I'm concurring that there is more luck getting ones from Africa to eat.

Don't know we're mine came from cause it was one of the first fish introduced when I started out. Mine started eating right away

eatbreakfast · Apr 17, 2016

I've seen just as much success with Indo and Filipino cleaners as African.

ca1ore · Apr 18, 2016

I've had two of these fish. The first one I had for almost 7 years before it failed to show one morning. It was a picky eater, but would take some frozen. The second one I've had now for almost 2 years and it will eat anything I offer to the tank, including nori. It's doubled in size since I've had it. Both fish were represented as being African wrasses.

sanchoy · Apr 20, 2016

I had a pair for 6+ years, then they died due to old age. They spawned every evening, magnificent sight. Link to a old video, RIP miss this pair dearly.

This pair accepted everything from flakes, pellets, frozen, you name it. They were bought at Petco, so whoever said statements about eating parasites and short lived, that is nullified.

Redneckreef90 · Apr 21, 2016

Happy to report my wrasse has settled in nicley and eats like a pig. So far so good. Thanks for the input guys.

Breakthecycle2 · Apr 23, 2016

Cleaner wrasses do NOT eat parasites whatsoever. They pick on the dead skin. They also do NOT only eat dead skin, they eat mysis, ROE and almost anything else that other fish will eat.

Naiad · Apr 23, 2016

Breakthecycle2 said:
Cleaner wrasses do NOT eat parasites whatsoever. They pick on the dead skin. They also do NOT only eat dead skin, they eat mysis, ROE and almost anything else that other fish will eat.

Cleaners do eat parasites, just not the ones we get in our tanks most commonly. They like the meaty type like parasitic pods not microscopic ones like ich.

Breakthecycle2 · Apr 23, 2016

Naiad said:
Cleaners do eat parasites, just not the ones we get in our tanks most commonly. They like the meaty type like parasitic pods not microscopic ones like ich.

That might be so, but it is a myth that cleaners we commonly get for our tanks will eat parasites.

eatbreakfast · Apr 23, 2016

Breakthecycle2 said:
Cleaner wrasses do NOT eat parasites whatsoever. They pick on the dead skin. They also do NOT only eat dead skin, they eat mysis, ROE and almost anything else that other fish will eat.

Breakthecycle2 said:
That might be so, but it is a myth that cleaners we commonly get for our tanks will eat parasites.

Not according to scientific literature. In the wild a large part of their diet is parasitic isopods, and in captivity they have been documented eating ich. So they do eat parasites, and although not a significant part of their diet in the wild, it is something they do eat in captivity.

While they should not be relied upon for complete parasite control, they do help in other ways for the overall health of our fish:
Their cleaning behavior is therapeutic and lowers cortisol levels in their clients, which supports immunity.

Cleaning dead and damaged scales prevents access for parasites.

The cleaning also promotes the production of a healthy slime coat in client fish, the first line of defense against parasite attack.