Snowflake + cleaner wrasse?

[MandarinFish]

I would like to move my cleaner wrasses over to the tank where my baby snowflake eel is.

Thoughts?

 

[MandarinFish]

Bueller?

Do you think they would be compatible?

 

[suckair]

If the wrass won't fit into the eel's mouth I would say it will be just fine. Also eels don't free swim mutch and fish easily escape them. However if the wrass will fit in the eel's mouth and the eel can get at it he will eat it!

 

[MandarinFish]

Don't eels like cleaner wrasses?

On Blue Planet, there was footage of cleaner wrasses darting in and out of a moray's mouth. Fearless!

Luckily my eel is still very small and the wrasses are full grown.

 

[M.E.Milz]

I have kept a snowflake, a zebra, a Hawaiin dragon, and a whitemouth. In my experience, the only type of fish that should NOT be kept with eels are wrasses and fish with a similar tubular body shape. For example, I am pretty sure that is was the snowflake that ate my 6" corris wrasse, and I am pretty sure that it was the whitemouth that ate my 5" salfin dottyback. I have also lost a few damsels to eels over the years (although I have an electric blue damsel that has been co-exisitng with the latter 3 of the above listed eels for almost a year now).

My theory is that most eels, even if well fed, will prey upon any fish that tends to sleep in, on or next to the sandbed.

 

[FishDaddy]

I have a Chainlink, which is very closely related to the Snowflake (Both are Echidna Genus), and we tried a Coral Banded Shrimp, based upon the peaceful symbiotic cleaning relationship observed in the ocean. We documented this for my daughter's Science Project last year. Conclusion: "Animals in captivity don't always behave the same as in the wild"!

At the time, the Chainlink was about 8~9". They co-existed just fine for about 3 weeks. One evening, we were watching them and then: Wham! The eel struck the CB, taking off a large claw! Next morning, the CB was gone!

Can't say how a Cleaner Wrasse will work out; probably become food, but even if it works, Cleaner Wrasses have a poor record in aquariums due to the lack of parasites for food. I've heard of a few taking prepared foods but many don't survive. Neon Gobies also exhibit cleaning behaviour and are about the same size and appearance, but do quite well in aquariums, readily taking flakes and prepared foods. (I've got two in the reef tank but haven't tried them in the eel's FOWLR) You will run the same risks with the Snowflake, however.
Dick