Cleaner wrasse advice

[SALTCREEP]

Interested in getting some but I've heard different things about them. Hard to keep easy to keep. Anyone have any time of experience with these wrasses?

 

[brick-brothers]

i just bought 2 over the weekend. So far so good. Got them at max reef

 

[ohana888]

unless you have a lot of fish for it to feed on their dead scales & ectoparasites, they have a high mortality rate - best leave them in the ocean or lfs. out of many, you may get one or two to eat frozen or flakes or pellets. LA/DD usually have some for sale and they tell you what it eats.

 

[Cu455]

I have a pair for a couple of years. They eat pellets no problem. I got 2 more for my predator tank. Ate pellets in QT no problem. Then they got eaten once I put it in my tank.

 

[SALTCREEP]

hmmm. Interesteing. I have 8 decent sized fish in my 180 gallon. I think I'll give them a try

 

[Cu455]

Give it a try. It's a cool fish. Here is one of mine. You can see the cooperband waiting for his turn. All my fish like them. Except my catshark that ate it.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=kSoX1y2iIkE

 

[Waleedwale1]

I had gotten one two weeks ago eating everything including flakes. Disappeared last week

 

[SALTCREEP]

Just when i had hope. Lol

 

[Mattl22]

Just added one to my 220 have 20 or so fish and cleaner seems happy been about a week watching him clean the fish is really cool might get another see if they set up a little station lol

 

[MIKE NY]

I have one that follows my Angel around most of the day, but it does eat all small meaty foods...they don't set up a cleaning station like shrimp do, but will follow larger fish around for a meal. Although they won't eradicate parasites like ich, but as mentioned they do clean up dead flesh/scales etc..helping with the healing process.

 

[Mattl22]

Well I can say my 2 blochies anthais where constantly going to my emrald crab and begging to be cleaned now that I've added the wrasse they seem better !

 

[brick-brothers]

update: the 2 cleaner wrasse I got from max-reef is eating mysis everynight when I feed my tanks. So go for it

 

[SALTCREEP]

bought 2 from max reefs and they're doing great so far

 

[BKLYNREEF123]

I also had one and it ate mysis pellets and even nori. Even though he only lasted 2 weeks disappeared never to be seen again.

 

[homegrowncichlid]

Getting them to eat frozen is not enough, I believe they have short digestive tracts and need to be fed very often. Mine starved within a month while feeding Mysis. He'd keep on eating and eating and eating I couldn't keep up. First it was half a cube, then one, then two...Eventually I cut down to what I was feeding my tank normally. He didn't make it past that.


If I had PE Mysis on the other hand, it might not be a problem (70% vs normal 10% protein of other brands). The disappearing act everyone is talking about is probably them dying from starvation.


Treat the wrasse as you would an anthias the size of a trigger, or a trigger the size of an anthias. Anyway that's a lot of food for a little fish.