Tennyson, the night before I was randomly reading through The Industry Behind The Hobby section of reefs.org and when I read your thread this morning I remember reading information that had been contrary to what most hobbyist including myself have heard about obtaining the cleaner wrasse.
"If you notice, we have 90% or more of the cleaner wrasses coming from Africa now.....they are much hardier and we have been having great results. They are more expensive, but don't have the mortality issue that the Philipine ones did. We did not import cleaners wrasses for a long time, but now have been lucky enough to find a great source for them. Customers are reporting good success. We keep them seperated in cubes, and feed daily.....no problems."
- sdcfish (Wed Mar 19, 2008)
I've been noticing these guys up for sale lately and thinking to myself how morally wrong it is to sell them. But if the African ones are indeed more hardy there maybe (and I emphasize the word maybe) a change in thinking.