Figuring out why my cleaner wrasse died?

lilfish717 · Apr 26, 2019

Can someone please help me figure out why my blue streak cleaner wrasse died. Yesterday I noticed him missing all day. I came home from work and he appears to be dead laying on the sand. I really liked this guy. He was eating good. Water quality is great besides my high nitrate problem. About 80 ppm. I had him for almost 2 months. Only problem was my maroon clown would not stop picking on him. I was literly just about to set up a quarantine tank for the clown to go in, hopefully come out less mean. I also added a Lubbock's fairy wrasse 2 days ago. Could this be the reason? He just came out today. I think it's weird both Lubbock's and blue streak were hiding and the bluestreak dies and the Lubbock's suddenly comes out.

Big G · Apr 26, 2019

Sorry for your loss

Clowns can be incredibly tough on their tankmates. Aggression with injury and stress which often results in a bacterial infection, could very easily been the reason for the wrasse passing.

HotRocks · Apr 26, 2019

Sorry for the loss

I agree if there was aggression, that is likely the cause here.

Lukas75 · Apr 26, 2019

My money is on aggression as well. Maroons can be downright vicious. Mine is if anyone gets near her nem, including me.

lilfish717 · Apr 26, 2019

Big G said:
Sorry for your loss Clowns can be incredibly tough on their tankmates. Aggression with injury and stress which often results in a bacterial infection, could very easily been the reason for the wrasse passing.

HotRocks said:
Sorry for the loss

I agree if there was aggression, that is likely the cause here.

Lukas75 said:
My money is on aggression as well. Maroons can be downright vicious. Mine is if anyone gets near her nem, including me.

thanks guys. He was a really awesome fish. If I had to do something with the tank, the instant I stuck my hand in he would swim all around me and rub up against my hand. He had a great personality. I even just rearranged what the maroon called "his territory" bringing in the new wrasse. Putting rocks over the area. I was literly about to set up a quarantine for him. The wrasse shouldn't have put up with that. It's like it's not my tank and it's the clowns. My girlfriend likes my tank and I am also about to start setting up a nano for her. She want a clown and nem tank and I told her she can have mine if we can get him to chill out. You guys don't think it had anything to do with the fairy wrasse. I couldn't find any info on keeping the two together besides different types of wrasse are typically okay together.

Lukas75 · Apr 26, 2019

lilfish717 said:
thanks guys. He was a really awesome fish. If I had to do something with the tank, the instant I stuck my hand in he would swim all around me and rub up against my hand. He had a great personality. I even just rearranged what the maroon called "his territory" bringing in the new wrasse. Putting rocks over the area. I was literly about to set up a quarantine for him. The wrasse shouldn't have put up with that. It's like it's not my tank and it's the clowns. My girlfriend likes my tank and I am also about to start setting up a nano for her. She want a clown and nem tank and I told her she can have mine if we can get him to chill out. You guys don't think it had anything to do with the fairy wrasse. I couldn't find any info on keeping the two together besides different types of wrasse are typically okay together.

I don't think so, fairy wrasses are usually pretty passive. That having been said I'm not a wrasse expert so I'll defer to someone more knowledgeable about them. Maroons really are a more aggressive fish tank clown, so it may pay to move it into it's own tank. Mine is in with larger tangs, a large foxface and more aggressive wrasses. I would not trust her with more passive wrasses or smaller fish.

Bossman · Apr 26, 2019

Sorry to hear. I have a cleaner Wrasse in 2 of my tanks and I really like them as well. I haven't had any issue with them getting picked on. But I have had other fish lost from being picked on before.

How big is your tank? I have 2 cinnamon clowns and 2 bta's in a 55 gallon. As long as the other fish stay away, and they do, I have no issues. The clowns bite my wife's and my hand every time we do any tank maintenance. But no issues with other fish at this point.

Softhammer · Apr 26, 2019

Cleaner wrasses are probably one of the worst fish you could have unless you have a truly massive system. Google them, it does untold damage to wild stock and they almost never survive long term. Talking years, months don’t count.

lilfish717 · Apr 26, 2019

Lukas75 said:
I don't think so, fairy wrasses are usually pretty passive. That having been said I'm not a wrasse expert so I'll defer to someone more knowledgeable about them. Maroons really are a more aggressive fish tank clown, so it may pay to move it into it's own tank. Mine is in with larger tangs, a large foxface and more aggressive wrasses. I would not trust her with more passive wrasses or smaller fish.

Yes, I haven't noticed anything with the new wrasse getting picked on yet.

lilfish717 · Apr 26, 2019

Bossman said:
Sorry to hear. I have a cleaner Wrasse in 2 of my tanks and I really like them as well. I haven't had any issue with them getting picked on. But I have had other fish lost from being picked on before.

How big is your tank? I have 2 cinnamon clowns and 2 bta's in a 55 gallon. As long as the other fish stay away, and they do, I have no issues. The clowns bite my wife's and my hand every time we do any tank maintenance. But no issues with other fish at this point.

My tank is also a 55. It's a beautiful fish. I got it for 20$ at the local fish store. It's a gold dot maroon. It hasn't developed any of its gold yet. I would hate to have to get rid of him. I consider what I got a steal just with how beautiful he is. The thing is, he's this aggressive and isn't even close to an adult yet.

lilfish717 · Apr 26, 2019

Softhammer said:
Cleaner wrasses are probably one of the worst fish you could have unless you have a truly massive system. Google them, it does untold damage to wild stock and they almost never survive long term. Talking years, months don’t count.

He did not even clean the fish like supposed. He was fully fed on mysis. He was the nicest fish I have seen yet.

Lukas75 · Apr 26, 2019

lilfish717 said:
My tank is also a 55. It's a beautiful fish. I got it for 20$ at the local fish store. It's a gold dot maroon. It hasn't developed any of its gold yet. I would hate to have to get rid of him. I consider what I got a steal just with how beautiful he is. The thing is, he's this aggressive and isn't even close to an adult yet.

It sounds like he is still so small it is still a he! In the absence of a female most males change to a female fairly early on. Mine is a gold stripe at about three inches or so definitely a female at this point. For that size of tank I would definitely avoid a cleaner wrasse in the future though. As was mentioned earlier they are very hard to keep long term due to their natural diet of parasites and fish slime. It sucks though that you converted yours over to aquarium fare and it still died

lilfish717 · Apr 26, 2019

Lukas75 said:
It sounds like he is still so small it is still a he! In the absence of a female most males change to a female fairly early on. Mine is a gold stripe at about three inches or so definitely a female at this point. For that size of tank I would definitely avoid a cleaner wrasse in the future though. As was mentioned earlier they are very hard to keep long term due to their natural diet of parasites and fish slime. It sucks though that you converted yours over to aquarium fare and it still died

Yup, not quiet sure the gender yet. I call it a he. Yea, I did my research before buying. I asked the fish store Ig he eats anything besides cleaning fish and he said yes, so I asked him to show me and there he was eating mysis. I considered that a rare find. I knew if he didn't I wouldn't be able to get him because he would starve. They also had a Hawaiian cleaner wrasse. It was only 30$, they're typically 100$. A very beautiful fish. I was in love. They said it was eating mysis so I asked them to show me and unfortunately he didn't go after a single shrimp. :/ it's a really sad loss.

Softhammer · Apr 27, 2019

They all eat mysis and they all die. Just because it eats doesn’t mean it will survive. Ask around, everyone has tried one, very few people STILL have one. If you want a cleaner type fish, go for the cleaner gobies. They even captive raise them now.

Bossman · Apr 28, 2019

Softhammer said:
They all eat mysis and they all die. Just because it eats doesn’t mean it will survive. Ask around, everyone has tried one, very few people STILL have one. If you want a cleaner type fish, go for the cleaner gobies. They even captive raise them now.

I just did a quick search on this forum. There are plenty of people that keep their cleaner wrasse for many years.

norfolkgarden · Apr 30, 2019

Bossman said:
I just did a quick search on this forum. There are plenty of people that keep their cleaner wrasse for many years.

With a 300 gallon tank and lots of large fish it becomes more possible.

Scale of cleaner to cleaned is important with the cleaner wrasse.
They are known for "over harvesting" slime coat from other small fish in an effort to not starve and then being shunned by the other fish.

We have 2 of the neon cleaner gobies because all of our fish are small and our tank is just a 75.

If you find the right cleaner wrasse you might be able to keep it alive for 3 months.
That is not success. :-/

They are cheap and easy to get at many LFS. You do have the option to spend the $25 every few months until you finally convince yourself that they are a bad choice for most smaller tanks. :-/ (75 gallons is a small tank)

But the fish shouldn't be available in the first place.
Their 4 year success stories are close to zero.
The needed service they perform on the reef is important to the other fish on the reef.
And to assist in continuing to allow other healthy fish to be available to the hobby.

Please consider not buying another one.

Bossman · Apr 30, 2019

So, you need at least a 300 gallon tank with lots of large fish to support a cleaner wrasse. I just love the opinions I hear on this forum.

Lukas75 · Apr 30, 2019

Bossman said:
So, you need at least a 300 gallon tank with lots of large fish to support a cleaner wrasse. I just love the opinions I hear on this forum.

I've seen cleaner wrasses do well in very few tanks. Long term survival really is the exception, not the rule. For every one success story you read about there are many, many failures that people don't want to talk about. I love them and wish they would be the perfect fish in my tank to clean newcomers, etc. The fact is this is sadly usually not the case. I've left the impact their collection has on reefs out of the conversation, but it really should not be ignored. The one that I physically saw that was doing well was in a heavily stocked 220. So not far off of that 300. This is the only one I have ever been able to visually confirm surviving over a year. I've been in this hobby for almost 30 years.

WMR · Apr 30, 2019

Leave cleaner wrasses on the reefs, unfortunately, sometimes, our hobby has a supply/demand mentality. If we keep buying them, they’ll supply them.Add your clownfish as one of your last fish,dominance/ territorial issues