hawaiian rainbow cleaner wrasse

[DopeCantWin]

:bounce1: :beer:

I think the poor survival rates of the ones that do eat has more to do with the food, and the amount of times a day the food is offered.

And the collection method, and distributor, And the guy at the fish store, and the guy that buys it.... Lots of variables.

My only point was if we gave up on everything that was a little hard to keep at one time or another, there wouldn't be much in our tanks.

And this would be true for 99.9% of the other species of fish. This is the only exception I can actually think of to that rule. And that's my point.

 

[3.99AfterTaxes]

Isn't the bigger problem given that areas of the reef from which these fish are taken suffer visibly after their removal? All for the sake of having a flashy sliver of blue? Seems legit....

 

[finsurgeon]

I've tried a couple. I tried every food that has been mentioned, at every time of day, and in every surrounding. Among other things, I even tried holding the food in between the fingers of my hand, which gave me some hope because the fish would swim into my hand looking for parasites to clean off and look right at the food. I had cyclopeeze, mysis, live brine, ova, reef "plankton", live blackworms, bloodworms, insect larvae, several flakes, baby-size pellets, and others. I have had success with many fish that have low survival rates. I agree that the african variety and the more commonly seen blue stripe variety are much more likely to eat and may survive. I vote that this fish is best left in the ocean, and I think it's irresponsible to suggest that the people who have failed to sustain them in their tanks are just doing it wrong. You've got to know that people like me are going to look at this beautiful fish and think "Yeah - i can do this, I'll just try REALLY hard, and this one will make it." I bet less than one in fifty makes it, and I won't try again on this fish.