Cleaner wrasse

[iujj012]

I got myself a cleaner wrasse for my 75 gallon reef tank this weekend so far he has been a great fish to watch very active loves to eat about whatever I put in the tank mysis shrimp cyclopods etc I had heard they were picky eaters but I haven't seen anything like that out of him also gets along with my clowns goby and cardinal just fine anyone else have one of these?

 

[Daniel Reef]

Any status update? I'm thinking of putting a cleaner wrasse on my wishlist.

 

[snorvich]

I have one, and I wish I did not. Has no value for parasite prevention and drives my fish crazy. Eats anything, however.

 

[Daniel Reef]

How does he drive them crazy?

 

[small alien]

I have one, and I wish I did not. Has no value for parasite prevention and drives my fish crazy. Eats anything, however.

Interesting. I've avoided them due to their ecosystem service on the reef. I can imagine them pestering other fish. For the record, there are other cleaner organisms available. Cleaner gobies, cleaner shrimp, etc. I would imagine cleaner wrasses are appropriate for only the largest tanks. And since Steve has very large tanks and is against them, I would avoid the species.

 

[SDguy]

I have one, and I wish I did not. Has no value for parasite prevention and drives my fish crazy. Eats anything, however.

Interesting...what fish do you have it with?

Mine is in my reef, and is a model citizen..will clean if asked, but otherwise leaves my fish alone (which is 90% of the time).

 

[xxtriggermanxx]

Interesting...what fish do you have it with?

Mine is in my reef, and is a model citizen..will clean if asked, but otherwise leaves my fish alone (which is 90% of the time).

+ 1 , mine has been in my tank almost 3 years with no real problems.. tics my cheveron tang off every now and then but nothing to worry about...

 

[RyanAlan]

I have two of these in my system. Probably one of the most interesting fish that I have kept thus far. Crazy little kids..

They are always all over the place, eat everything, but have been known to attack other fish and inverts that I have introduced after they got settled. Mine have killed about 3-4 other animals. You just never know how they will react.

I have 4 tangs and they do their thing on them, but I don't know if I would keep them if I could do it over again.

Depending on what you plan to keep I would opt to have cleaner shrimp or gobies.

 

[SDguy]

They are always all over the place, eat everything, but have been known to attack other fish and inverts that I have introduced after they got settled. Mine have killed about 3-4 other animals.

What have they killled?

 

[snorvich]

My anthias love being cleaned by my pair of blood red cleaner shrimp but will not allow the cleaner wrasse to touch them. My firefish (Helfrichi) hates the cleaner wrasse, my various leopards will not allow the cleaner wrasse to touch them, My Bellus Angel pair will not allow him to touch them. But killing fish or anything else is not in the cards, IMO. Not all fish will allow cleaning and those that do not are harassed a bit by cleaner wrasses. Cleaner shrimp is a different issue as they establish a cleaning station where participation is more voluntary.

 

[snorvich]

Oh, by the way, African cleaner wrasses seem to be much more survivable.

 

[SDguy]

My anthias love being cleaned by my pair of blood red cleaner shrimp but will not allow the cleaner wrasse to touch them. My firefish (Helfrichi) hates the cleaner wrasse, my various leopards will not allow the cleaner wrasse to touch them, My Bellus Angel pair will not allow him to touch them. But killing fish or anything else is not in the cards, IMO. Not all fish will allow cleaning and those that do not are harassed a bit by cleaner wrasses. Cleaner shrimp is a different issue as they establish a cleaning station where participation is more voluntary.

My cleaner wrasse's "station" is in the big chasm off center in my tank. Any fish that swims through the area must pause and flare its fins to be cleaned, otherwise the cleaner wrasse doesn't touch them.

 

[Daniel Reef]

I understand that Peter and Steve both have "African" cleaner wrasses. I wonder why their cleaning behaviors are different. But I would like to know if cleaner wrasses do kill like RyanAlan says and whether they are a risk to coral and a CUC.

 

[SDguy]

Mine definitely would bury its head in coco worm crowns. I have no idea if it was doing them harm or not.

 

[Gandolfe]

My puffer doesn't like my cleaner wrsse but my Foxface lets him clean his mouth, I found they eat flake if it is in pieces not larger than the wrasses mouth. I would get shrimp but i hate giving my very large Engineer gobies $22 snacks every time they molt! I've lost at least 6 cleaner shrimp like that!

 

[xxtriggermanxx]

Oh, by the way, African cleaner wrasses seem to be much more survivable.

I was told mine was "african" as well when i got it. wasn't sure if that was a load of bull just to make the sale . But this is the longest I've ever kept one. always thought of them as a disposable type fish (never lasting a few weeks) guess it could be true .

 

[snorvich]

Well, mine is at least a couple years old, so probably not a disposable fish. On a different note, Peter, what do you feed your coco worm?

 

[SDguy]

yeah, mine has almost tripled in size... a couple years old... definitely not a disposable fish

Bah! Coco worms didn't survive. I was hoping they would love the bacterial consequences of my vodka dosing the way all my sponges do, but I guess I was wrong.

 

[Daniel Reef]

How can you tell that a cleaner wrasse is African?

 

[Haksar]

Heard its diffcult to keep clams if you have cleaner wrasse...