Cleaner Wrasse red in colour with white spots..plz help

[tabsta]

i have a blue streak cleaner wrasse and he was going fine for the first few weeks, now he has this red colouring where he's supposed to be black, and is getting white spots all over. my trigger fish and seargant major, star fish, etc are all doing fine. paramaters 'seem' to be ok.

is this a common thing? how do i solve this? i've done water changes and they only help a little.

 

[steve-s]

It may or may not be a bacterial infection but the blue streak cleaner wrasse (labroides dimidiatus) has some red coloration naturally. The water changes as well as feeding a good vitamin fortified diet will help if it is a bacterial infection.

The spots on the other hand are not normal and could be ich. Are they raised "bumps" like small grains of sugar?

Cheers
Steve

 

[tabsta]

my poor sick cleaner wrasse

as for the red colouration, he was never that red when i got him, and now its red about half the way down his back. the white spots are kinda raised, not significantly, but they are there. my other two fish, blennies etc dont seem to have a problem.

he appears to be eating, feed them anything from brine shrimp, blood worms, marine green, this pellet food which is supposed to help fight bacteria, prawns etc but whethere or not he really is is a different question. he has been picking at the filter etc lately, but he always looks like he's eating when i feed them all.

i'll have to try and get a picture of him tonite, but he moves so fast its quite difficult. also i heard they are hard to keep? are they were sensitive to water conditions? as he's in with a red tooth trigger and a seargant major who are ALOT bigger than him (4ft tank with 4" DSB and live rock)

 

[steve-s]

Your Niger and damsel should not bother the wrasse at all really. If there was going to be an issue, it would have happened by now

The spots definately sound like it could be a parasite and you should take steps to quarantine the wrasse as well as the others and treat with hyposalinity. If you baught the wrasse with the intension of parasite prevention then you have been lead astray. They do not really function that way and are not a good aquarium fish at all. They have one of the poorest survivability rates and should be left in the ocean.

Cheers
Steve