Cleaner wrasse

K

KAPFishous

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Dec 25, 2002
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Rahway, NJ
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I know that I can look at other places for info - but I really enjoy and trust the opinions, and experiences of the folks here....so let me apologize again for what may seem a silly question.

I got a few fish yesterday... including a cleaner wrasse. He's really cool looking, and the other fish seem to allow him invitingly to remove the unwanteds from their bodies.

One question I have is that while at the lfs, I noticed that they had quite a few of these guys... the only thing is...they were all located seperately in about 10 different tanks. Are these guys aggressive towards each other - and that was why they were alone?

ps.... mine seems to like to retire to a large shell that I have for a small hermit that I have... a shell obviously too large for the crab. :rolleyes:
 
Yes, one cleaner wrasse to a tank. Also, they sometimes are hard to get eating. If so, mush up some beef heart in a blender so it's like baby food and they'll go for that, eventually going for other foods. I have 8 of them at the moment and the oldest ones even eat spirulina flake food.
Cleaner Wrasses
 
i have 3 Hawian Cleaner wrasses in my tank, never had an issue with agression, Like all life, Fish are individuals.. Some may great and some can be a nitemare.. but generally i have found that they are not agressive.. you dont want to keep to many in one tank becouse of there eatting habbits.. but most LFS's will keep them spead out.. just to get the benifit of them.. while they have them.. they might as well put them to work cleaning while they are waiting to be sold..

Quite often i find that all 3 of mine will be picking away at my Naso tang all at once.. no fighting or anything, and as for them eatting other food.. all 3 of mine will eat at the Nori i put in the tank for my Tangs.
 
Thanks for the info... I like the little guy so much, I may just get another... of course, watching the feeding to make sure they both get their fill...

anyway... i appreciate the feedback!
 
This one happens to be my favorite in the tank, I would hardly think he could be aggressive with anyone.......unless of course, if another one tried to take over his shell-house..... ;)
 
I cant recommend anyone keeping hawaiin cleaner wrasses.

They are not being captive bred, and are vital to fish in hawaii and other places around the Pacific.
 
Hey Slipknottin... that really disturbs me to hear that... after I saw your post, I checked a little online... not only are they sold online - of course, with no guarantees due to the delicateness of them... but they are even sold at Petco stores... kinda sux to know that they are available for sale, and to own them can even be detrimental to their "wild" buddies. Ya never know... huh?
Thanks for the tip.

http://www.marinedepotlive.com/793894.html

http://www.petco.com/newpet/fish/species/fish-wrasse.asp
 
Most of the LFS near me (including Petco) generally carry captive-bred neon gobies rather than cleaner wrasses - much more eco-friendly, and they have much better survival rates as well... and they still provide the cleaning service...
 
I have no problem with survival rates with the normal cleaner wrasse when I feed them blended beef heart. The hawian cleaner wrasses in an lfs in town wouldn't eat the beef heart or anything else, which I read on the net to be the normal situation. Unfortunately this store also brings in other hard to survive livestock.
Around here, people had trouble getting more than a small percentage of the regular ones to eat but now with beef heart there is no problem.
I've never been able to keep two in a tank, and, in tanks that I have set up end to end, the wrasses in each tank attack the glass trying to get at the cleaner in the other tank.
 
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