question on cleaning shrimps n wrasses

AquaAdam

New member
Currently I've got 2 cleaner shrimp in my 50 gal. cube plus about 6 fish. I'm just wondering if I should be purchasing a wrasse as well for the fish, or do the cleaner shrimp do the same sort of thing?
 
Cleaner wrasse and cleaner shrimp are not going to be able to prevent or remove any sort of parasitic infection that we see affect the fish in our tanks. Cleaner wrasse are also known to not do well in captivity.

You're better off pursuing quarantine/hospital tanks for the prevention/treatment of disease.
 
I'd avoid them altogether: in the limited conditions of the tank, they can become a pest and pain for the fish, who can't swim off and avoid them. I've seen them way overdo cleaning. And they do absolutely no good, re ich, which is one of the major parasites we contend with.
 
My LFS had a few once and they quickly started looking ill from malnutrition. Price reduced to 5$ I decided to try and help one of the little guys....he is fed 3x daily a frozen coral food mix which is not the only thing he eats but the only thing I think I can give him that he doesn't die....super active bothers all the fish that are perfectly clean. All those extra feeding tho do add up to a lot more water changes. 30% every week. Also I don't think he will live very long from what I read and he was NOT doing well with 2x a day feedings. My wife is a stay at home mom so she feeds. And when she misses a feeding I notice it. He has survived 3months now but that seems to be one of the longest stretches I can find.
 
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