cleaner wrasse

[tonyyammine]

i did the stupid inpulse buy thing.i bought this little guy and now i need some info on him. does anyone have any experience with one of these? thanku all for the help.

 

[DevIouS]

http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum...s-them-how-long.html?highlight=cleaner+wrasse

http://www.aquahobby.com/marine/e_cleaner.php

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/labroide.htm

 

[scarf_ace1981]

i tried to keep these fish twice but no luck. they eat the frozen food but then misteriously die.

i know several members have successfully kept them. not an easy fish

 

[scumonkey]

I had one for years before I had to break down my tank.
It shared the water with large angels, puffers, and tangs-
always picking at the inside of their gills. I even saw it go in
an angels mouth and out it's gills a few times!
I think you need other fish for them to clean if you want them to live long.

 

[e.muehlbauer]

Against my better judjment, last year my son convinced me to buy a cleaner wrasse. To my surprise, it did very well....it was the most aggressive feeder in the tank, and gobbled down anything offerred to it. It actually seemed to do very little cleaning. It lasted at least a year, maybe more, than abrubtly disappeared. I don't know what happened, could have jumped out of the tank...Take care, Eric

 

[marrone]

Most cleaners either die fairly quick, some will start to eat food and last about 1 year and then just disappear. Regardless that they're eating food it doesn't seem to be what they need to survive in the long run.

 

[lfsmarineguy]

In my experience I have found it a lot easier to keep the juveniles. They are more receptive to the different foods. I have had a red sea cleaner wrasse (awesome looking fish just jet black and royal blue stripes) for almost 6 months now and he has grown from under 1" when i got him to almost 2" now and he is fat and active. Get them small but even then it's no guarantee, just a better chance.

 

[marrone]

Red Sea Cleaner are supposedly hardy than the Blue Stripe type. Though in the end they usually don't make it. Just one of the fishs that should be left in the ocean as they are many others to choose from that have much better survival records.

 

[reefman]

i did the same thing. but with no high hopes. i know they have a very high death rates. beside mike stern, i donno 2 many people keeping these for long time. i will buy no more if this 1 dont make it.

 

[tonyyammine]

thanku everyone

 

[Tonyscoots84]

i had 2 of these guys and they were doing great up until they beat the crap out of each other ...

 

[DEEPWATER]

Well ,i can say that im really lucky with these guys .4 years or so and they love eachother ,always shaking their wrasse with eachother

i just lucky to have them for so long

IMO there are not worth selling.they are one of the top 3 if not the hardest to keep alive that is available to us

Ronen

 

[ATJ]

I currently have 4 cleaner wrasses (in different tanks) with a range of "ages":
~ 8 years
~ 6.5 years
~ 2 years
~ 11 months

I recently lost another one that I'd had for over 7 years. I have never had one starve and have only lost them to silly things like jumping out of the tank.

The main problem with keeping them is the myth that they will only feed on parasites in a tank and so people don't make the effort they do for other fish to get them feeding on prepared foods. Once you get them feeding and feed them a variety of meaty type foods they generally do well.

I should add that this is an Australian experience and all mine I have caught myself as juveniles. However, most Aussies have few problems with keeping L. dimidiatus even when purchases from the LFS. It may be an issue in the US due to shipping stress.

 

[phk36]

Mike Stern has them. I picked up one from him it is very healthy. He told me many jump out or in to the overflow. I think that it really comes down to where you get the fish from.

 

[DEEPWATER]

Mike Stern has them. I picked up one from him it is very healthy. He told me many jump out or in to the overflow. I think that it really comes down to where you get the fish from.

Thats is not true ,,,cleaner wrasses are one of the hardest fish to keep alive .if they last longer then 6 months to a year feel lucky .

It is not often that you see these wrasse as old as mine or ATJ.
dont kid yourself with these fish ,no matter where you get them


phhht ..why do you think they are so cheap :shhh:

 

[charliethetuna88]

ive had my cleaner for about 1 1/2 years now he love and mysis shraimp he is a great fish cleans eveyone especaily my anthis had doubts about buying him but glad i did .oh yeh and for the first 3 months i never seen him once thought he was long gone and then 1 day i get home from work and there he is swimming around