Red Sea Cleaner Wrasse - 4 Line Cleaner Wrasse

[jackson6745]

I believe that I made a rookie mistake. I made an impulse purchase of this cleaner wrasse. I did a quick search from my phone to see requirements and it seemed easy to care for. When I got got and already acclimated + introduced it into my tank, I read further about others experiences. Apparently this fish feeds on SPS polyps as an adult So far I saw this fish nip once at a stylo, but not at other SPS. I'm currently trying to get this fish out of my tank but it won't be easy. It's a small, fast fish that darts into holes and doesn't really feed aggressively enough to be lured into a trap. Maybe I'll try scooping him from the sand bed when the lights go out. Or perhaps get a larger reef safe cleaner to give him a hard time

Just curious if anyone had/has this fish and your experiences. Thanks.

 

[albano]

I'm not positive, but I think there is an 'identical twin'/mimic of this fish, that is very aggressive and will attack other fish...sometimes shipped with and mislabeled as cleaners.

 

[jackson6745]

Avoid this fish like the plague! It started munching on all of my SPS. Had to take the whole tank apart to catch him. What a pain.

 

[reefiness]

Avoid this fish like the plague! It started munching on all of my SPS. Had to take the whole tank apart to catch him. What a pain.

did you get him?

 

[jackson6745]

did you get him?

Yea he's in my sump. Going to see if the store will credit me since it was sold to me as reef safe. Still my fault as I should have done more research, I usually don't rely on fish stores to tell me what I can have in my tank. It's not a common fish and I didn't see the SPS eating experiences until I read further. This fish is the SPS devil!

 

[reefiness]

glad you got it out. and good to know this guys isnt good with SPS. He looks cool and I may have made the same mistake as you if i saw this guy at an LFS.