Sustaining a true cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus)

[BabyPuff]

Sustaining a true cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus)

I was wondering if anyone ever had success keeping a cleaner wrasse? Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ve read that they die after only a short time in the tank, even when accepting live/frozen food. I see them at the LFS from time to time.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

Has anyone ever had success? Yes. Do I have any idea how they did it? No. Our LFS has had the same wrasse that has been eating prepared foods for over a year now.

 

[Julio]

You really need a large population of fish to sustain them as they will harass the fish to death if you do not have enough fish. Joe at Atlantis Marine World in River Head New York, has 4 in a 20K tank with aboout 700 fish and they still harass the fish.

 

[BabyPuff]

Yes, I've seen the harassing behavior. They are persistent.

How about adding a neon goby? They're much smaller. Any experience with them? I'm reading a book that suggests adding a cleaner fish if you have several tangs.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

The reason why they say to add a cleaner for tangs is because tangs are more susceptible to ick than most other fish. The addition of a cleaner is thought to help keep it under control by having the cleaner pick and/or eat cysts that form on the fish. Not all cleaners will pick at ick cysts though. There in lies the problem. Finding a suitable animal to keep to help out. A Neon Goby is definitely a better option than a Cleaner Wrasse. But there are other choices, such as a Skunk Cleaner Shrimp that will ocassionally help clean ick cysts, along with other species of Cleaner Wrasse and Neon Gobies. If you are insistent on getting something to live with your tangs for the sole purpose of cleaning, you will definitely need to research the topic heavily just like you are doing :thumbsup: On the other hand, if you keep proper husbandry, tank parameters, quarintining techniques, etc there is only a slight chance that something bad could enter the tank and have you rely on a cleaning animal.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Julio]

why no just go with cleaner shrimps, they will perfomr pretty much the same tasks just not harass the fish.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6801184#post6801184 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Julio
why no just go with cleaner shrimps, they will perfomr pretty much the same tasks just not harass the fish.

If anything, on occassion, the fish harass the cleaner shrimp

 

[Julio]

never seen any fish harass the shrimp. but it coudl happen. But is better than having hte wrasses harass the fish.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6801254#post6801254 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Julio
never seen any fish harass the shrimp. but it coudl happen. But is better than having hte wrasses harass the fish.

I got to get you a picture of the adult Pink Tail Trigger at our LFS then. It's amazing it doesn't eat the shrimp in one bite.

 

[BabyPuff]

The water is in good shape. Zero across the board with nitrates between 7-12, pH 8.1, Alk 3-4.5 meq/L. The chiller and heaters keep the temp within 1 degree F.

I have one purple tang that will have one small beige colored, tiny particle of something on its side about once or twice a month. I may see this thing for a few hours up to a day. It's always gone by the morning and it is driving my wife and I nuts. We can't tell if it is a tiny grain of sand stuck to the tang's slime coat, a microbubble or something troublesome. All other fish are fine. No signs whatsoever.

I thought about different species of cleaner shrimp, but I'm afraid my 8" reticular puffer will consider them a tasty snack. Since the puffer leaves the other fish alone, and it eats krill as part of its diet, seems better to look for a cleaner fish than a shrimp. Besides, I love to see the smaller fish dart in and out of the LR.

The puffer did try to snack on my sand stars. Had to find a new home for them.

The puffer always has sand grains stuck on it. The engineer goby and the panther grouper have some on an almost daily basis.

I'm ready to add something new to the tank. Why not kill two birds with one stone?

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6801381#post6801381 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BabyPuff
I'm ready to add something new to the tank. Why not kill two birds with one stone?

If it wasn't for the risk the puffer presents, I would definitely suggest a cleaner shrimp. They are a joy to watch the symbiosis between them and whoever promptly comes to the cleaning station, they are fairly cheap, fairly easy to come by, and are small and impact only a fraction on your bioload. As for the purple tang having reoccuring symptoms, I would guess that something is actually causing it stress. Just because the other fish don't have it doesn't mean that ich is in your system. Their immune system is just high enough to handle it. But if your tang, which is already prone to ich, is getting ich than something is in there. Do you ever see the puffer chase the tang? Does the tang fight with any inhabitants? Do you have your hands in the tank often? Been doing any house work, moving, cleaning, or light changes? Do you have any stray voltage in your tank? All these and more could produce just enough stress to cause it to lower its immune system just enough.

 

[sphelps]

I've had a cleaner wrasse in my predator tank for almost a year now, I've tried a couple times to keep another one but with no success. The cleaner wrasse I have now seems to have adapted to tank life as it actually eats the food I feed the rest of the fish, plus he cleans the fish all the time and he did a great job cleaning ick off the fish when I had a huge outbreak when my last UV broke.

I found this strange as I read cleaner wrasses do not eat ick, but another type of external parasite, and they can not survive off any other diet other than there natural diet.

I guess I'm just lucky!

BTW: it's also shown an excellent growth other the past year, and even went through a stage where it's lower half turned yellow, but the yellow faded again over time. Kind of weird eh??

 

[BabyPuff]

I've heard stories of the cleaning shrimp's routine. Look forward to seeing it in my next tank. I'm happy with the puffer and will keep it for a couple of years until we move.

Yea, I've been playing a little. Just changed the lighting and lighting schedule after adding a DSB. I'll calm down for a couple of weeks and see what happens.

The tang nibbles on the puffer occasionally, mistaking it for a piece of LR. The puffer shakes a little and slowly rises off the bottom like a blimp and looks around to see what happened. I imagine the puffer will bite the tang one day and that will be that, one way or anotherââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¦or the tang will discover the puffer is not LR. Either way it's out of my control (unless they start fighting-then I'll intervene).

Overall the behavior of the fish is lively with no scratching. Their appetite is great. They donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t chase each other.

The tang rules the tank and has a voracious appetite. It gets greens daily (soaked in garlic and vitamins 3-4 times a week). It seems extremely happy and very colorful. No reason inside the tank for it to be stressed (only meââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¦.on the outside). Darn it.

Your comments about a possible infection do make me a little nervous. Of course I must have already been a little concerned or else I wouldnââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t have started looking for a cleaner fish in the first place.

Do most fish accept the neon cleaner gobies in the same manor as a true cleaner goby? I have a small bird wrasse in there now (1 1/2") and no one seems to care. It swims in and out of the LR. These tank raised gobies are about 3/4" when they come in.

 

[BabyPuff]

Sphelps-how many fish in your tank?

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

Unless you have a predator fish in there that eats fish, then a neon goby will be easily overlooked by the others.

I hate to say it, but you already have ich in your system if you have seen signs on any fish. Albiet, it probably isn't in plague porortions or you would see it on every fish. All in all, just finish your cleaning and playing in the tank and leave it alone. If you add something to the tank, you might actually increase stress. It sounds like your tang is actually pretty sensitive to changes, so be careful. Watch your temperature swings, your salinity swings, evaporation rates, etc or he could get some ick worse than a single cyst or two.

 

[BabyPuff]

Thanks. I'll keep an eye on everything. Try to keep it as constant as possible. The chiller went out for 1/2 a day last week and temp rose 4 degrees. Scared me to death. It was an accident and won't happen again.

Smooth sailing and small to no changes in environmental conditions. That's my goal. Sometimes changes can't be helped, only minimized (new lights and LR). That's over or in the process of being over. It takes a while to slowly adjust the lighting schedule.

 

[MDboyz]

I have one which have been with me almost 2 years...
and yeah.. it's eating everything I put in my tank.. even Nori.. . Since I have him, no fishes in my tanks ever got Ich.

 

[sphelps]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6801892#post6801892 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BabyPuff
Sphelps-how many fish in your tank?

8" Panther Grouper
Koran Angle
Moorish Idol
Snowflake Eel
Blue Ribbon Eel
Porcupine Puffer
Sebae Clown
Lunar Wrasse
Spotted Mandarin

and one cleaner wrasse.

 

[BeanAnimal]

I have had a True Cleaner Wrasse for about 4 months now and he eats every day, is very active and seems to be doing well. I purchased him from the LFS before I knew about the large hot button issue surrounding these fish. He seems to be doing well and I hope it stays that way.

Bean

 

[KevinFJB]

I've had a cleaner wrasse since June 2004. It eats evrything it can fit in its mouth and goes after nori on the clip. It still cleans the other fish occaisionally. I also have a neon goby.