cleaner wrasse or cleaner shrimp?

[dviper150]

I have a blue hippo tang and it has craters on its body. It is getting better but the the cleaner wrasse isn't helping. It keeps biting at the holes and stressing out the tang. I do have a cleaner shrimp in the tank and wanted to know if that is normal behavior or no? If the cleaner shrimp does the same job like cleaning the fish of parasites, I might as well take the wrasse back to the lfs if it keeps stressing out the tang like that. Any suggestions on what to do?

 

[snorvich]

Neither cleaner shrimp nor cleaner wrasses clean fish of parasites. That is a common myth.

 

[dviper150]

Then why do the fish stop swimming and let the shrimp climb on them and the cleaner wrasse go into their gills to pick stuff off? I had a queen and I had seen that it would open its gills and let the wrasse go in.

 

[sedor]

What snorvich means is that cleaner wrasses and shrimp will eat the visible signs of the parasite off the skin of the fish, but the parasite actually lives beneath the skin which fish or shrimp cannot get to. They do however provide relief for the fish and IMO help shorten the life cycle of the parasite.

 

[dviper150]

okay that makes more sense. As for the wrasse, it seems to be stressing out the tang by nipping at the holes in its body. Should I just take it back to the lfs or leave it?

 

[CUZ]

i've heard of many cleaner wrasse that continue picking the wounds as it is a known food source leaving open sores and a way more stressed out fish bringing the ich back!!

 

[tcmfish]

Or what he meant was they don't eat parasites lol. http://glassbox-design.com/2010/male-cleaner-wrasse-punishes-female-for-cheating/ There are other sources, that also back this up. One of my books sites a few others sources proving this myth false. Most of the fish in the wild that go to the wrasses or shrimp aren't even sick, they just like the feel of it. Some parrotfish in the caribbean have been known to just sit in gorgonians with the same behavior as if a shrimp or fish was pecking at them.

 

[snorvich]

Or what he meant was they don't eat parasites lol. http://glassbox-design.com/2010/male-cleaner-wrasse-punishes-female-for-cheating/ There are other sources, that also back this up. One of my books sites a few others sources proving this myth false. Most of the fish in the wild that go to the wrasses or shrimp aren't even sick, they just like the feel of it. Some parrotfish in the caribbean have been known to just sit in gorgonians with the same behavior as if a shrimp or fish was pecking at them.

What I meant was what Tim said. There has been a lot of research done on this subject and the bottom line is that there is no discernible benefit, from a parasite perspective, from fish being with cleaners (of any kind). It turns out that fish like the feel of it. But if a fish has sores, cleaners will be detrimental rather than beneficial.

 

[snorvich]

Ok, one last little anecdote about cleaner shrimp. As a diver with nearly 3000 dives, I used to go to cleaner stations, take out my regulator, open my mouth, and let cleaner shrimp clean ME. When I needed to breathe, I just pushed them out of my mouth with my tongue and went on with my business. They will also clean your hand. It tickled but felt sort of good. However, this experience is NOT why I posted above, there has been actual research on the effect of cleaners and parasite control which is that there is no positive efffect

 

[engineeronh2o]

my cleaner shrimp clean my angels quite often. I notice the wrasses to pester fish.

 

[small alien]

It seems that maybe the "cleaner" notion as such is a bit of a misnomer.

 

[jefathome]

On the reef, even tangs and angels are "cleaner fish". If a large sunfish comes up from the deep covered in worms, they will pick them off.

This is on the reef though... I doubt that your fish are getting 3in worms on thier skin. Most of it is under the skin.

 

[dviper150]

For now, I will try to put the cleaner in a specimen container in the tank until I figure out what to do with it because it is just stressing out the tang and not letting it heal properly by repeatedly harassing the sores.

 

[tewkes]

I bought a blue tang a month ago. Over the last week it started to show signs of ich. He's the only fish that shows spots.
It started to look bad. two days ago I picked up a cleaner wrasse, and the next day the blue tang no longer had "white spots". He isn't itching on the rocks anymore.
This is the second cleaner wrasse I've had. The first one was a little more of a pest, I ended up putting him in my sump because he kept trying to "help" me lineatus wrasse that had a swim bladder issue.