Cleaner shrimp and cleaner wrasse??

[mikko]

is cleaner shrimp and cleaner wrasse compatible? i am planning to add a cleaner wrasse but afraid it might eat my cleaner shrimp..

 

[Superstretch18]

They will be fine together. Just know that cleaner wrasse are extremely difficult to keep long term. Unless of course you have a huge population of parasites in your tank for them to feed off of, but that would obviously mean you have other issues to worry about.

I'm sure that you'll see people on RC that say "I've had one for years and it's doing great!" but that's far from normal. Probably 99% of the cleaner wrasse imported for the hobby are dead in a month. Unless you have a huge tank, or are prepared to specifically care for them, they should be left in the ocean.

If you want a hardy cleaner fish, look into getting neon gobies instead.

 

[snorvich]

Sorry, but cleaner wrasses don't eat parasites. That is a myth. But I do agree they should be left in the ocean.

 

[Superstretch18]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15127105#post15127105 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by snorvich
Sorry, but cleaner wrasses don't eat parasites. That is a myth.

????

Bob Fenner seems to think they eat parasites:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/labroide.htm

Obligates by definition get all or virtually all their nutrient from their cleaning activity; various species setting up permanent cleaning stations with "customer" hosts coming in for regular grooming. Experimental removal of some of these cleaners has demonstrated their immense importance as parasite controls. Local and even large pelagic fish populations are quickly negatively impacted by their removal. Fish populations drop or migrate and remaining fishes lose fitness as measured by increased external parasite loads, sores and torn fins.

You have my attention though. If you have more up to date info, please share...

 

[stumpovrtyme]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15127105#post15127105 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by snorvich
Sorry, but cleaner wrasses don't eat parasites. That is a myth. But I do agree they should be left in the ocean.

What I hope your joking. They eat parasites and dead skin/scales whatever. Ever heard of a cleaning station in the ocean? Iv been lucky and mine also eats frozen angel/butterfly food. Had it for about 3 months so far so good. My freind has bought 3 trying to get one to accept frozen food.

 

[stumpovrtyme]

OK I just found out today wrasses don't eat the parasites but the dead skin caused by them. So sorry for the miss info. Thanx to my LFS which seems to be wrong about everything! I always thought the white spots were the ich, turns out its just the dead skins caused by them!

 

[Superstretch18]

I still need some solid convincing that cleaner wrasse species do not eat parasites. I'll refer to the attached study that recorded the number of parasites within the gut of Labroides dimidiatus (Blue streak cleaner wrasse).

http://www.int-res.com/articles/meps/130/m130p061.pdf

...Most of the parasites in the diet were gnathiid isopod
larvae (99.7 k 0.06%). The remainder consisted of a few caligid copepods and other parasitic copepods. The number of parasites in the diet throughout the day showed 2 peaks, one at 09:36 h and another at 16:00 h (LOWESS regression, f = 0.35) (Fig. 4). The average number of parasites ingested by the time of the first
peak was 343 +-26...

I'll agree that they don't eat ich, but they do serve an actual cleaning purpose on the reef.

I welcome someone to please show me otherwise though...

 

[stumpovrtyme]

I know what your saying thought the same thing! But a couple of the mods seam to think different and also said there studies on it. I know for sure when my regal got ich the wrasse was all over him and he deffinatly got better. Do they or don't they I don't know but I find it hard to beleive that fish swarm to them just for dead skin. I plan on reserching it to be sure but like anything there will always be to sides.

 

[Superstretch18]

I'd love to see the studies. Again, I agree that they don't eat ich (cryptocaryon) cysts. I am certain though, that they eat parasitic isopods and copepods.

I'm not too hard-headed to admit that I'm wrong, but I need someone to point me in the right direction...