Cleaner wrasse a no no in captivity

[James]

secret to getting the cleaner wrasse to eat is beefheart. throw that in along with mysis and eventually you can wean them off the beefheart and they will eat anything you put in the tank.

 

[d5332]

I love watching them but I never had one live more than a year.

 

[Paolissimo]

To the OP of the thread - good for you that you read up before buying a fish that will probably do poorly in your tank

I would like to add one other fact to this discussion...there is not just one fish that is called a 'cleaner wrasse'...multiple fish are referred to by this title, so it is best to use the Latin name/genus to discuss the fish properly.

The fish most talked about in the article is Labroides..and according to the article there are 5 species in this genus. Most of you are probably talking about Labroides dimidiatus (the Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse) and some of you may be talking about Labroides phthirophagus (Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse).

There is also another genus called Larabicus quadrilineatus (Red Sea Cleaner Wrasse) that to exhibit the same cleaning behavior of other cleaners..when they are juvenilles but by the time they are adults they develop a taste for stony corals. I have had one of these in my 120 since 2007 and he is quite plumb and happy (I have no colored sticks in there) and they can live well off a diet of meaty foods, flake, algae pellets and whatever else he plucks off the live rock.

Best to be specific about what fish you are talking about so others learn what they must know before purchasing a fish :fish:

Hey Kathy
I was referring to the Labroides dimidiatus (the Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse), which is the one i see more often in display tank and for sale.
@James
is beefheart a discus food? I did a quick google search to see what it was, and there are many recipes and they all seem to be for discus.

 

[roc5288]

Albano listed a bunch of fish that should not be in captivity, not sure if this wrasse is on there. Anybody have the link?