Cleaner Wrasse

[chris13115]

If you remember i got ich and I'm restocking and i think an intresting add would be a common cleaner wrasse. I want him to clean ich and such, but what should I feed him? I do have tank mates to clean but I'm afraid it won't be enough for him, what foods would he take? Would he take hikari mysis or brine? flakes or pellets? any help would be great.

(Ive worked with cleaners at work, but I've never really had one personally)

 

[chort55]

I personally would go with a cleaner shrimp over the wrasses that are really better left in the ocean. Many starve as they don't always take to prepared foods and they can also cause more stress going after healthy fish even just trying to find something to eat.

 

[chris13115]

If I do decide to get it, feeder shrimp ghost shrimp and brine would be acceptable?

 

[wysiwyg]

most dont take to eating prepared foods as already stated better of getting cleaner shrim

 

[303travism]

I have had 2 cleaner wrasse and they both ate everything lol they would even eat the algae sheet they are pigs lol!
I lost my first one cause it jumped out but my second one I've had for a long time and it still looks good.

 

[SDguy]

I have cleaner wrasses in both my reef and my FOWLR. They do nothing for ich. They are just neat fish to have. Don't buy one if you think you are getting something that will help with ich.

 

[kingfisherfleshy]

+1 very hard to get onto prepared foods, however I just got back from working (interning) with one of the largest and best wholesalers/importers in the nation and some of them there (3 out of maybe the 150 there) were taking mysis and brine with vigor.

 

[chris13115]

Thats a problem, I forgot to take him out of my cart in live aquaria. I will see how he does

 

[mtmesser]

I got mine from LA, has done well, not much on ich but has ate everything I throw in my tank from algae sheets, nls pellets, and frozen food. Mine ate since day 1, but seems that I got lucky

 

[majicmike]

I was talking with Ron At our LFS He was saying the african ones tend to eat better. I got one from him and he will eat pellets, flake, seaweed sheets, anything really.

 

[chris13115]

pics of him up tuesday with the other livestock

 

[Quinn123]

I have a cleaner wrasse to keep all my fish clean, and he is eating everything, the trick is to have enough fish for the wrasse to clean. Had him for a year and still going strong. Knock on wood!!

 

[evolved]

Here's my take on cleaners:

Labroides: I hesitate to even include this genus, as I big reservations against even buying them, let alone keeping them or recommending them for a reef tank. These are the “cleaner†wrasses, as in the wild they remove parasites and dead scales/tissue from other reef fish. My reservations against buying/keeping this genus are due to the following two reasons: they cannot be sustained long term in a closed system as a diet of prepared foods does not offer them the range of nutrition they require, and mostly the mere collection of this species negatively impacts the overall health of a wild reef. There are a few success stories about keeping a cleaner wrasse long term, but for each success there are hundreds of failures. Please leave this fish in the ocean where it’s best suited. If the demand for sales of these species would cease, so would their wild collection.

Sure, they can be kept in the right circumstances, but we're talking a very small percentage of tanks.

 

[Heller792]

My cleaner is 4 years old and happily eats flake, its the only food i put in the tank. Oh, it eats nori too.

 

[Reef Fixations]

IME they have always been easy to get to eat frozen, nori, flake and pellet BUT eventho they ate like crazy, from one day to the next many would die. Sometimes with an Ich epidemic, they can sometimes turn bad into worse from constantly stressing out fish that may not want to be cleaned. Perhaps fish like Blue or Black spotted Boxfish that have white spots all over them or maybe even a Mustard Tang that is also covered in white spots; Cleaner wrasses can just harrass fish to the point that they are no longer part of the solution and are part of the problem. I've kept a few successfully for years but it was 1 or 2 out of 10 that actually survived long term. The bigger ones are even worse as they can be relentless and they can pack a punch when they try to "clean" another fish and really aggitate or stress out the "dirty" fish (so to speak).

I agree with the other person that suggested cleaner shrimp (skunks/scarlets over blood shrimp). I'm also a fan of Tank-raised Cleaner gobies. ORA and I think Proaquatics breed them. Wildcaught ones don't have a very good survival rate and they don't seem to harrass fish IME.

I've had Hawaiian Royal, Common, Bicolor and Yellowtail cleaner wrasses and all were the same. Becareful if you attempt a Red Sea Cleaner if you have SPS.

 

[chris13115]

wow, i think i might return him when i get him to work. i want to see him interact and learn his feeding habits, and if he's a problem, ill give him to my work, they would give it a home there that is better then my tank could be

 

[Reef Fixations]

Don't be discouraged, just be aware. I've had some live happy & healthy long term lives with other tank mates and they were fine. Half the fun of this hobby is proving everybody else wrong when you succeed where others didn't. You can get a 100 fish that end up doing what they're known to do and then get 1 that is the complete opposite. One day I hope to keep a Clown trigger in a full blown reef but it's going to take a lot of patience and I may have a better chance of winning the lottery but I'll keep trying. =)

 

[mcarroll]

No offense to anyone here, but you'll always have people chime in that they'dre keeping unkeepable fish just fine. Check every Moorish Idol thread in existence. Do not use that to decide to get this fish.

If you had any idea how small a minority these fishes are that adapt (as others in this thread have said very well) you wouldn't touch one with a 10' pole.

Plus they will also eat clam mantles - even if they do adapt - so it would make clams off-limits.

If you like the look of this fish, check out some of the fang blennies. Much more likely to adapt and survive, but still one I'd consider difficult. If you're really after a cleaner - you can't beat a skunk cleaner shrimp. Out of all of the cleaner shrimp they are the least shy and the most likely to actually do cleaning. (Far from guaranteed if there's a ton of food being added to the tank..they will be spoiled.)

Good luck!

-Matt

 

[Reef Fixations]

very true.

Keeping hard-to-keep species alive long term is usually unlikely. I've stopped attempting to keep a few fish. Sometimes we gain confidence tho when we have success time and time again and then that reminder called "reality" pokes it's ugly head in when we try another difficult species. I won't attempt keeping a Red Sea Yellow Belly Angel again for the exact reasons that you mentioned. I take it alot more seriously now when I see something that has been proven to be "difficult".

 

[mcarroll]

Not to go too far off the trail here, but I often say that I think the fish in this hobby are a lot more challenging than the coral.

To wit, I can tell you with exacting detail in chemical, electrical and hydrological terms how to set up a system that (if done correctly and consistently) will keep 99% of corals happy and growing. The corals will never jump out of the tank, never quit eating for no reason, etc.

I can tell you a "few things" that "most fish" like....but that advice is mostly not universal, even just among the small number of species in a typical LFS. Even the best salinity for them is still widely debated on forums! When you get down to the individual fish level, they're about as unique as people - down to the fact that some will just refuse to eat in their new "prison" even if it means they starve to death. Unlike corals, there are no tests I can run to see how I'm doing with my fish...can't check their calcium levels, right? LOL. That's a lot to deal with as a keeper!! ;-)

All of this is the reason I actually focus a lot more on coral. (No offense to my three awesome Barnacle Blennies in their 50 gallon castle! LOL. (movie) Perfect size fish for the typical home reef.) To me, most coral are much more adaptable to our little wet boxes than most fish - therefore fish (especially when plucked from the wild) should get a little more consideration than I think they often do.

-Matt

P.S. Here's a link to ORA's Blennies, similar to the type I recommended. A Blackline or Smiths would probably be my choice, but they're all pretty neat looking. You may have to see them in person and how they act to appreciate them. Farmed species like these would be one possible awesome substitute for a Cleaner Wrasse.

P.P.S. Did we all fall down for not mentioning the most obvious substitute - ORA's Neon, Sharknose and Yellowline gobies? (I did....sorry. ) The Neon is a (smaller) dead-ringer for the Cleaner Wrasse, and all of these three gobies are known to clean pretty much like the wrasse. They are known to get along well with clams and just about everything else in existence. And again they're farm-raised. Much less skittish than the wrasses too...ultimately a more enjoyable fish to watch, IMO.