Common Cleaner Wrasse – Should he stay or should he go?

Yep, it's a cleaner wrasse. The mouth of the blenny is actually under the snout, as shown in the pic in the link Vinny provided. As is possible with most anything, you may have an aggressive specimen.

 

+1^^Tono you have mad photo skills.A little jealous.lol;D

 

LOL, thank you.

I was actually pleased with these shots. The wrasse doesn't usualy make it so easy. I think it has to do with the camera lense. I'm sure, to a fish, it looks like a giant eye looking at them. I'd swim away too

 

FWIW, I have a couple Fairy Wrasses and my Flame Angel that love to pick at the snouts of Nassarius snails. Every time they come out, they go after them. Never any swinging that your Cleaner does though...

 

One of our clients used to have a killer cleaner as well....well, actually still does. We just keep him well fed with snails ;p

 

Well- the jury is still out on this guy. I have not made a decision one way or the other just yet.

But, I did a survey of the tank last night and found 3 Nassarius snails roaming around. Seems like a few have learned to only come out at night when the Cleaner Wrasse is asleep. :

ya - I've never seen that either from any fish unless they intend to eat it. This Cleaner Wrasse, just does it until the snail is mostly dead, and then just leaves it there.

That's one o the options I'm considering - I just want to makes sure he's not also causing any other issued with the fish by being over aggressive with his his cleaning efforts.

Another strange thing I observed the other day was he was actually eating some Nori put in for my tang. I observed him eating flake at the fish store, but a chuck of Nori

 

What exactly are you feeding him? Over-aggression or other odd behaviors can be a sign that something is missing from his dietary needs. FWIW, I feed my tank Ocean Nutrition Formula One and Prime Reef flakes. Quite a variety in both. I started that when I acquired the cleaner as a rescue, and everything has been a lot happier ever since.

 

i own a cleaner wrasse as well, they are very delicate and interesting fish. the reason why i would keep mine is that i am unable to keep cleaner shrimps in my tank due to my toby who has a sweet tooth for crustaceans.

Ironically it is now my cleaner wrasse that bothers and chases my toby and his "white spots" (natural pigmentation) all around the tank, and this to the point where the poor little guy semi jumps out the water at times to get away from the wrasse.

These events happen maybe a couple times in one day and last not longer than a couple mins.

so yea i would keep the fish over the snails and maybe get another critter to oxygenate your sand bed. maybe a goby and pistol shrimp combo? or a diamond goby?

 

Right now I'm feeding a mixture of frozen Mysis, Frozen Vitamin Enriched Brine, Ova (prawn eggs) and Cyclopeez. the tank gets fed three times per day. Each feeding is relatively light with the mornings and afternoons being a heaver feed, and the mid-day one being lighter.

I also proved a few clams on the half shell once per week (usual on the weekends), I may also mix it up with some flake once in a while and provide sheets of small nori for the tail spot and Kole tang.

I also try and make sure they get a good variety of foods.

Here's a (mostly) full list of the inhabitants: OnlyTono's 125 Gallon - Stock

the only ones missing from this list in link above is a male scooter blenny and an ORA Orchid Dottiback and the pistol

Ya - I have a tiger pistol and goby pair. They do a really good job of keeping things mixed up at one end of the tank. I designed the rock work in the tank to try and keep them to one end - so far so good. I though about a sand sifting Star, but then my Harlequin would take care of that :-/ LOL

 

They usually starve in the tank anyway.