Cleaner Wrasses

[CynicalCnidaria]

This is a good thread! I like what everyone is saying, I have been learning quite a bit here

 

[Gandolfe]

I've had my cleaner Wrasse for almost 7 months now and he eats a variety of foods, mysis,shrimp,flake(as long as the bits are small enough for his mouth) pellets(the tiny ones) and also drives my coral beauty nuts picking at it, it sometimes annoys the other fish but eats well. They can be jumpers also. I like watching it swim around and it does sometimes pick at my hands when in the tank. The last one i had was in my tank for almost a year but jumped out(probably scared by one of my 2 - 16" engineer gobies)

 

[fishfreak2009]

I bought one a while back that was brought in by Quality Marine. It was $12.99 and he had been in the store a month when I bought it. It's extremely fat, hasn't really pestered any of my other fish, and is very beautiful (I really like the yellow streak on its head). The cleaner eats clams on the half shell, nori, brine, mysid, IO gel food, even flakes. I was always afraid to try one and am so glad I finally did. It's an absolutely beautiful fish, and I think I'll always have one in my tanks from now on.

 

[SoLiD]

Tried to post this last night but my internet crapped out, so here goes:


Way back when I went through about 3 blue stripe cleaner wrasses and it really bummed me out because I liked them so much. After much research and reading, about 7 years ago I've found that introducing them into the aquarium via a breeding net\enclosure allowed them to be trained to eat beef heart with extremely positive success. After they get the idea of eating the beef heart they will start eating other foods. Since then, I've never lost another one. I have one in my newer tank that was transferred from my old tank. He is almost 2 years old.

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f46/cleaner-wrasse-can-u-keep-them-in-a-reef-tank-29424.html

 

[JSeymour]

Cleaner wrasses aren't as hard as many people think, although they are not a beginner species. IME/O from working with hundreds over the years at my store, they don't ship well and are often covered in large wounds. They are also not typically fed properly at distributors. Because of this, I rarely ordered them. A couple years ago I read an article about starting cleaner wrasses on finely ground beef heart. I decided to try it out. They absolutely love it, if they are healthy already. The ones with wounds never recover. Once they eat this well, I start mixing mini-mysis and reef plankton with it.

A side note about beef heart. Beef heart has been used for decades in the freshwater community to power-feed for growth due to it's high protein and fat content. Beef heart should never be fed on a long term basis. It has shown to cause fatty deposits, which will shorten a fishes life.

 

[SoLiD]

Thanks for the confirmation, Jason.

 

[thelizardkin]

when I started my reef 6-7 years ago I had some and they did great I remember them eating well I thought they were easy before people told me they're hard

 

[10g reef]

Boycott? No. Restrict/Expert only? Yes.

I think it depends a lot on how the fish are caugth and handled. I've seen many, like snorvich, have success with African. Myself I have great luck with some that are Phillipine. I've seen my LFS bring in a few from his Phillipine supplier and they all seem to do well. A big key to my sucess is that they don't bother the other fish much. They clean when asked, for the most part, so they are very well accepted. They also eat really really well. I'm sure they are spawing as the females belly gets really big, they seem to be doing the mating dance and the next day its back to normal.

+1. They will never be completely boycotted, but people definitely need to be informed on their care before they purchase them. I think they can be a very helpful fish in a large tank, but because of their importance to reefs I think more care should be taken to ensure that their population is sustainable at these collection rates.

 

[youngspecialist]

I got a rare and awesome red sea or fourline cleaner wrasse that I bought off divers den, been eating mysis, brine shrimp, crushed pellets, and occasional acropora frags (obligate corallivore as an adult). Very lovely fish that is possible to keep. Should be sustainably collected, but very rarely make it into the trade so the species seems ok...

 

[walvis]

The blue line always do well for me, however, I tried many time's the rainbow's/tri color with luck for only 2-3 days a live.

 

[NautilusQ]

I got mine when I got an Ich outbreak, the one eith white spots already visible on almost all of my tang. Sohal died, achilles, blonde and yellow survived. At least maybe the eggs didn't have a chance to incubate on the rock and substrate anymore for no more outbreak since then. I just love the way my fishes stops, open up their gills and fins to nimbled upon. Looks like they got ultimate mobile salon. This cleaner wrasse also is streamlined enough to swim in between branches and frags, and ocassionaly nimbling on some parasites, thats usually hard to get for my six line, mystery and rainbow. It also eats crushed flakes which is the staple diet of my fish aside from fish roe.

 

[gohstwrighter]

i have a blue line in my 125 softy reef it cleens my other fish 3-4 times a day my yellow tang seems to love the atinchion demanding cleaning several times a day.and it seems to winde threw the corals eating copods and other micro foods.