Cant tell if cleaner wrasse is eating

[dionysusjg]

Hi all,
I've had a cleaner wrasse in my qt for the last month, however I'm not sure I've ever seen him eat. I've been feeding brine shrimp and baby brine shrimp, however he never seems to touch the adult brineys. He swims around in the cloud of food a bit, but I cant tell if he's eating the baby brines or not.
I suppose the fact that he's still alive after a month may be an indication that he is, as well as the fact I've seen him poop a few times.
Shall I just continue as I have been doing for a couple more weeks before introducing him to the DT? Is there something else I should be feeding him?

cheers

 

[BigAl07]

Mine was VERY obvious when it was eating. There was no doubt about it what so ever. Aggressive and eager would be an understatement.

How does it look? How is it's tummy? (puckered/pinched?)

Just be warned that there is a fish that look identical (almost anyway but unless you see both you can't tell easily) to this fish and it will take advantage of the other fish's natural instinct to open up to this fish and attack them. We saw this first hand recently with a "Cleaner Wrasse" freshly brought in (not ordered) within shipment. It looks so close it's almost scary but there are subtle differences. The actions give it away though.

 

[proenca]

Allen is right,

Check the bellie : although wrasses ( cleaners ) have excellent smell and are eager eaters, so its tad strange if they arent comming out when food is in the water.

Try to vary the food to see if they have a feeding response : one of the challenges of labroides spp is getting them to eat - once past that stage, they are fine fish and do the occasional parasite cleaning on other fishes, which is cool to watch.

Try turning off the pumps when feeding to encourage that food stays somewhat int he front of the tank and he comes out to eat.

Also, do you have very active fish in the tank ? Do you have other small fish that compete with him for food ?

 

[dionysusjg]

He is in a quarantine tank, his only companion being a coral banded shrimp (purchased at same time from same tank). To be honest I can't tell whether his belly is pinched or not. He got quite ill due to bad water quality in my qt, when I first purchased him and I thought he was dead meat, however I fixed the water and he became active again. he has been relatively active the last few weeks, and I would have guessed he would have already starved to death if he wasn't eating. That being said, I havent seen any obvious eating behaviour. :S

 

[BigAl07]

Hopefully it's just "shy" about eating and munching when you're not looking.

Unfortunately they have a VERY dismal survival rate in home aquaria so this actions you're speaking of aren't un-heard for this fish in the home tank.

Good luck and keep us posted either way.

Allen

 

[dionysusjg]

Hey all... update... I'm pretty sure he Isn't eating. I had a good look at him today, and I rekon he's really skinny.
I've tried feeding him: Brine shrimp, baby brine shrimp, blood worms and mush. None seem to get him going. There are also plenty of 'pods in the QT
Can anyone suggest what I should do now.
He has been in quarantine for a month. I would usually go the full 6 weeks, but he has displayed no sign of ich, so I was contemplating putting him in the DT where he would have a greater variety of possible food sources, (as well as being able to pick on the fish in there) Bad idea or good idea?
I realise now they have a bad survival rate, but now that I am in this predicament, what shall i do?

 

[proenca]

try to keep varying the food as much as possible, and live !

does he have some hiding in the QT? if a fish is shy and has a "clean" tank, he doesnt feel confortable and hard to adapt. put some PVC pipes, some pots..

all the best

 

[dionysusjg]

I think perhaps I left it a bit late... He is getting quite lethargic now... still won't eat anything I've given him. I may make a brine hatchery tomorrow and try some live food. I saw a cleaner wrasse in the lfs today, and by comparison, mine is very emaciated.

 

[DaveK]

Generally, I consider cleaner wrasses almost impossible to keep in a typical reef system. I don't recommend trying to keep them.

However, since you already have the fish, and you want to do your best to save it, here is a link (offsite) to someone that has had some success with them - Cleaner Wrasse The primary food used seems to be beef heart, chopped extremely fine.

 

[dionysusjg]

Poor little fellow swam up to the reef in the sky last night... RIP cleaner-wrasse...

 

[BigAl07]

Sorry to hear that. Unfortunately this is the NORM instead of the exception in our industry. A few people have long-term success but the mast majority do not. I'd love it if you would at least "discuss" this with your LFS and ask them to NOT order this animal for sale. It's almost a sure fire DEATH sentence for them and they leave a VOID in the wild where they are captured.