Cleaner Wrasse

[KittyKatFishGrl]

I moved my cleaner wrasse to my 55g DT last week and he was doing fine. Now he won’t eat and stays in the rock all day and night unless I coax him out, then he only swims around a bit and goes back inside. No visible sores or discoloration..

My parameters are as follows:

55g
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 5
Salinity - 1.022
Calcium - 440
Phosphates - 5
dKh - 7
PH - 8.2
Temp 79


2 Firefish Gobies
1 Coral Shrimp
13 snails
2 hermit crabs
60lbs Live rock
60lbs Live sand
Canister Filter rated for 200g
Protein Skimmer

[bribo12]

Was it ever eating? These guys are notoriously difficult to keep as they mainly eat parasites and such off of other fish hence the name.

[KittyKatFishGrl]

It was... funny thing he was so lively in the 15g QT, eating prepared doses of brine & mysis shrimp along with krill, cleaning my (gloved) hands when I went in, swimming all around the tank. They all looked good, eating and actively swimming which is why I moved them over to the DT. Now the 2 firefish swim around, eat and greet me when I come over. The cleaner only comes out now and again or if I prod him out but he won’t eat the prepared food or the food that sticks to the glass... I see him pick here n there off the fires when he comes out but nothing like he was doing in the 15g...

[54seaweed]

probably lost in a big tank with not alot of fish to clean .

fire fish are quick making it hard for him to keep up and clean I'd add a few other fish he can keep up with .

maybe a dwarf angel or something like that , cleaner wrasses are hard to keep as they are very finicky fish they'll only eat certain things . try enticing him with a small piece of clam most wrasses can't resist .

[KittyKatFishGrl]

Originally Posted by 54seaweed

probably lost in a big tank with not alot of fish to clean .

fire fish are quick making it hard for him to keep up and clean I'd add a few other fish he can keep up with .

maybe a dwarf angel or something like that , cleaner wrasses are hard to keep as they are very finicky fish they'll only eat certain things . try enticing him with a small piece of clam most wrasses can't resist .

Thank you so much for this feedback. I’m keeping a peaceful tank, are there any peaceful fish I could get for it - I believe most angels are semi-aggressive and the 2 that I found that were peaceful were also extremely expensive... I’m looking into getting blue reef kardinals and clownfish but it would be about 2-3 weeks before I could get them into the DT and I’m not sure another transfer for the wrasse to the QT would be good...

I contacted my LFS where I got him to return him, maybe they will hold him for me.. I’m still waiting to hear back.

[54seaweed]

this is my stock
coral beauty is a class A resident so is my black and white both dwarf angels

blue green chromis , dark blue reef chromis , valenti puffer , engineer goby , there all pretty mellow ,

even my yellow striped maroon clowns are pretty mellow ,

green coriss wrasse , yellow coriss wrasse , red coriss wrasse one big happy family
all basically mellow

and a bunch of small rock minnows that stay within the rocks

the only true butt head I got is my vlimingi tang, who I just found a new home for .
now just got to catch him he's also huge

this chart can help you pick your stock
Compatibility Charts for Marine & Freshwater Aquatic Life

[bribo12]

My helfrichi firefish beats up my clownfish...lol. I don’t really think any sw fish is “peaceful” per sw. Almost all fit the semi-aggressive area and almost all are aggressive towards same sex conspecifics.

I have a potters angel who fights my melanurus wrasse sometimes but no harm is ever done. Sw fish are very hard to tell how aggressive they’re going to be towards tankmates when you get them as existing tankmates will usually bully new fish over territory and such. But usually that’s just a short period and everyone sorts things out. Seldomly you run into a problem fish, even a “peaceful” one who won’t stop bothering that new fish.