Hawaiin Cleaner Wrasse

[blk822822]

I may have made a mistak yesterday and bought a Hawaiin Cleaner Wrasse. The guy at the LFS put some food in the tank and it was swimming around so fast you couldnt tell if it was eating or not. Now in my tank I have fed the tank and I think it is eatting but it's hard to tell. Anyone know what I should try to fed this guy to get it to eat if it's not?????

 

[lvsuckerfish]

ova I think is how it is spelled I had mine eating that when I bought him. prior set up.

 

[aquariumdebacle]

Try baby brine shrimp

The newly hatched (less than 3 days old) brine shrimp are the most nutritious. You can gut-load the older brine shrimp with omeg-3 fatty acids and spirulina alage.

These animals are very difficult to acclimate to the aqaurium and should be left in the wild where the perform a very important ecological purpose removing parasites from fish on the reef.

 

[blk822822]

Well I googled ova and found some interesting stuff, but nothing to feed a fish. If you could remember what that was it would be great.

 

[blk822822]

Yea It should be in the real reefs of hawaii but I figured it would have a chance with someone that wants to take care of it , than sold to someone that just thinks its pretty.I guess I could send it back...LOL

 

[DBM Reef]

I think that he is talking about this stuff

http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+7927+18988&pcatid=18988

Which barrier reef sells to localy

 

[blk822822]

thanks I'll see if I can get some.

 

[DBM Reef]

id call ahead and make sure its in stock though
some parts of the season they seem to be out
which i think is due to availiability .

last time i was there a few weeks ago they had a bunch though

 

[rayjay]

I've never seen a Hawaiian cleaner wrasse survive in hobbyist tanks.
There was an extensive thread once on Reef Central and the consensus was that they should remain in the ocean as no one had been able to keep one alive for very long.

 

[blk822822]

I've never seen a Hawaiian cleaner wrasse survive in hobbyist tanks.
There was an extensive thread once on Reef Central and the consensus was that they should remain in the ocean as no one had been able to keep one alive for very long.

O....I didn't want to hear that. I wish the stores wouldnt sell fish like this, and they would stop capturing them if they are to just die in someones tank. I feel really bad for buying it now. Plus the $20 I'm out of if it dies, or when.

 

[leebca]

I feel the same about stores and the importing of such specialized wrasses. It is unfortunate. They can be trained to eat prepared foods but it is hard to do this. It requires they be in a quarantine tank so you and the fish can focus on each other. Once in the DT it will be very hard to convince it to change its live-long and genetically driven habits. The hobbyist actually doesn't want one. If it keeps 'hitting' on the captive fish, the fish can be harmed. Here's some info on the cleaner fishes you might like to know:
Cleaner Fishes - Avoid the Specialized Ones

 

[blk822822]

I feel the same about stores and the importing of such specialized wrasses. It is unfortunate. They can be trained to eat prepared foods but it is hard to do this. It requires they be in a quarantine tank so you and the fish can focus on each other. Once in the DT it will be very hard to convince it to change its live-long and genetically driven habits. The hobbyist actually doesn't want one. If it keeps 'hitting' on the captive fish, the fish can be harmed. Here's some info on the cleaner fishes you might like to know:
Cleaner Fishes - Avoid the Specialized Ones

I wish I had all that info from the start. Thanks, and I will never support a LFS that sells cleaner wrasses again by buying one. I really feel terrible that I may have bought a fish just to see it die. I don't have a QT to put it into. I may see if I can barrow a small tank from my brother tonight.

 

[returnofsid]

O....I didn't want to hear that. I wish the stores wouldnt sell fish like this, and they would stop capturing them if they are to just die in someones tank. I feel really bad for buying it now. Plus the $20 I'm out of if it dies, or when.

I wish I had all that info from the start. Thanks, and I will never support a LFS that sells cleaner wrasses again by buying one. I really feel terrible that I may have bought a fish just to see it die. I don't have a QT to put it into. I may see if I can barrow a small tank from my brother tonight.

The information Lee gave you, is the very first Sticky, in the Marine Fish Discussion forum. I'd recommend you read all of his stickies. There's a lot of them, but it's a lot of invaluable information!!

Also, the only way LFS will ever stop ordering these types of fish, is for we, as hobbyists, do our research and refuse to buy them. If the fish die in our tanks, the LFS orders a replacement, to replace the we you purchased. If the fish dies in the LFS tank, pretty soon, the LFS realizes that they're buying replacement fish just to replace fish that died in their own tanks. It becomes less "financially viable," and they stop ordering those types of fish. Once the LFS stops ordering those types of fish, it eventually trickles down through the wholesalers, to the collectors. Eventually, those fish remain on the reef, where they have a chance at survival.

 

[blk822822]

The information Lee gave you, is the very first Sticky, in the Marine Fish Discussion forum. I'd recommend you read all of his stickies. There's a lot of them, but it's a lot of invaluable information!!

Also, the only way LFS will ever stop ordering these types of fish, is for we, as hobbyists, do our research and refuse to buy them. If the fish die in our tanks, the LFS orders a replacement, to replace the we you purchased. If the fish dies in the LFS tank, pretty soon, the LFS realizes that they're buying replacement fish just to replace fish that died in their own tanks. It becomes less "financially viable," and they stop ordering those types of fish. Once the LFS stops ordering those types of fish, it eventually trickles down through the wholesalers, to the collectors. Eventually, those fish remain on the reef, where they have a chance at survival.

It's the first post because he just put it up today. Look at the date. And I know what your saying about the LFS and not buying ,but the guy there told me some false info. I made a mistake and hope I can get this fish to eat. Right now I'm trying brine, copepods,oyster eggs, krill fines and other foods I have.

 

[lvsuckerfish]

I had one in my tank right or wrong he lived and as far as I know still living in another tank in las vegas from when I took my tank down his stay with me was over 1 and a half years. would be a little over 2 yrs now. I always had luck with fish and qt most all my fish until my last lesson was learned. I used ova to get them eating. I do agree with the other post but like you I was not informed of this until after the fact. best thing to do is getting eating and try and keep alive.

 

[WPH]

Hawaiian cleaner wrasse is very difficult to keep. They need to constantly swim and graze on othe fish's dead skin/scales/mucous/parasites. Without these four primary sources of food the Hawaiian cleaner wrasse will starve a
to death. The longest I've kept a Hawaiian cleaner wrasse was a year. I would feed it a mixture of brine shrimp, flying fish roe, and grounded up scales from a fish I bought from the seafood market. I avoid catching these in the wild because I feel they don't belong in captivity but rather stay in the wild to clean the other fish I catch.... Hehehe!Good luck with your cleaner wrasse..... Aloha Les

 

[blk822822]

Hes making freinds with my Foxface and scopas tang. He hasn't started to clean yet but is rubbing on them and they are stopping by the cleaner. I think I saw him eat some random stuff floating around the tank.

 

[lvsuckerfish]

now these are the nice black pink and yellow ones correct I just want to make sure since names of fish sometimes get confused for others...

 

[blk822822]

Yea yellow head pink and blue tail. My wife loves this fish and I don't want to tell her the fish will probly die. And they have another one at the LFS for sale, and it was already in not so good shape.

 

[leebca]

I wish you luck.

returnofsid is very much right-on with the last post. We send a message by not buying these fishes. The one I owned and trained to eat prepared foods was on the condition that the LFS would never ever accept another one. So far the owner has lived up to the promise.

As others have noted, once trained they can live a few years in captivity, but their usual captive lifespan is below a year. There is also the 'rare one' that just takes to eating particles floating in the water, but for the most part they don't recognize this as food.

They are so easy to catch in the wild. They do not fear the diver and come up to the diver as if to clean! In a flash, they are bagged and on their way to market.

I had not posted that post in this forum. However, it is an old post I have copied and moved from another forum where I moderate.