6 line wrasse beating up cleaner shrimp

[newfound77951]

I've seen the wrasse take a few passes at the shrimp before, but nothing serious. I'm out at sea until Wednesday, and my boyfriend is watching the fish, and emailed that the wrasse went after the shrimp a dozen or so times in 20 minutes on saturday. my only guess is that the wrasse is cranky as he's only getting fed every other day instead of every day (he's a little piggy fish), and I'm not there, so I can't do anything. Has anyone ever heard of a 6 line picking on a cleaner shrimp? They are about the same size (ie it's a decent sized cleaner, not a little bitty one).

 

[roka64]

I've not heard of a 6 line doing this. Can your BF do some water tests?

 

[MT79]

Wrasses will eat shrimp. They should be kept w/ caution when being housed w/ shrimp, snails, or other small inverts. Some individuals are more problematic than others. FWIW feeding live shrimp is often recommended to get wrasses eating in captivity. If the shrimp is small, I don't think it's too surprising it's being picked on.

 

[Dr.Nate]

I had a sixline who ate my cleaner shrimp. I had to go shriimpless until he passed on. You may want to do the same.

 

[roka64]

Wow, you learn something new every day. Thanks for the personal experiences and new info. I stand corrected.

 

[newfound77951]

Ok so the shrimp is still hanging in there but hiding and gets picked on whenever he comes out. Obviously either the shrimp or the fish needs to go....but I can't choose which one. Removing the fish will give me more fish options but I really love my little wrasse. But cleaner shrimp are soooo cool....and no, I can't set up another tank at the moment!

 

[MT79]

I have the same debate w/ myself. Currently I have an orchid dottyback rather than shrimp, but shrimp always catch my eye when I'm at the LFS heh.

 

[2frosty4u]

A friend of mine has a sixline wrasse, it didn't bother with his shrimp but killed 2 Ocellaris clowns that he introduced to his tank last week. The Wrasse took care of them both within 2 days.

 

[newfound77951]

Mine already tangled with a royal gramma that I introduced after the wrasse. In my case the gramma survived and they now get along great, but 6 lines can be very aggressive, and I don't think this is common knowledge out there. They should probably be the last fish in a tank unless the other fish are much bigger or more aggressive.