May have found secret to feeding cleaner wrasses!?

[jamal-188]

I know the whole lecture about cleaner wrasses. I've read in book after book about their dismal survival rate due to lack of eating and how they are valuable to the reefs they live on. I wish they were not taken from the oceean but since they are I decided to try and keep on.

My fist cleaner I got hooked on cylopeze so I bought him at work. He lived a while until my tank crashed and I lost all my fish. So, I decided to try again. I got a yellow headed one for $8 after reading from a guy on RC who has had great success with them to eat beefheard to swiching to other food. He has one in each tank, 7 in all that are all doing great. So I got some beef heart at work and he tore into it!!! I figure I can add some viatamins to make sure he's getting more of what he needs then switch him over to some other varieties of food.

 

[loganj]

While I don't know anything about cleaner wrasses, other than they are difficult to keep, I know many marine fish need [acronym="Highly Unsaturated Fatty Acid"]HUFA[/acronym] (high unsaturated fatty acids? jeez, I can't remember what it stands for) in their diets to stay healthy. Anyway, I doubt that beefheart has this in it. But, I think I remember reading that Selcon does...you might try supplementing with that. Sorry for all the speculation...memory isn't what it used to be (never was ).

 

[captivereefs]

just soak it in selcon and you are set!

 

[jamal-188]

just soak it in selcon and you are set!

Yep, got some on hand! I"m anxious to see how he holds up!

 

[delsol650]

I had one for about 2 years...

Had him since he was about .75 inches or so... and grew to about 1.25 or so...

Fed him about basically everything... from flake food, frozen type food, pellets, pieces of shrimp... name it he ate it...

Besides picking off stuff from his tankmates...

 

[rayjay]

Well, I'm down to 6 now.
I bought a rose bubble anemone and it kept hiding in the rocks so on an instinct I raised my hood up about a foot to lower the light intensity to see what happens.
The anemone came out after a few days and has been doing well now for a week or so. I'm going to lower the hood in stages starting tonight.
The cost: a cleaner wrasse jumper.
After all the posts I've made and remarking about the fact these fish tend to jump if left uncovered, (when being chased after too big a nip) I did the unthinkable, and the cleaner paid the supreme price. I didn't cover the tank when I raised the hood.
By the way, when feeding beef heart, don't plan on it being the sole means of nutrient for the cleaner to eat. I can usually get them eating everything I feed all the fish in my tanks, including spirulina flake food, within about 3 months.
The main thing to remember is that they have small mouths, are used to small prey, so grind up the different food to size it appropriately for the size of the cleaner you have.