African cleaner wrasse experience?

lkoechle

Cleaner Shrimp
#1
I placed a fish order with aquamart and they mistakenly ordered an african cleaner wrasse instead of the neon cleaner goby I wanted. I told them I would take it anyways (paying for qt for the bunch, so if I don't want it, it will be a well qted fish in the end) and I have been doing some research on it. Some reef central reviews are pretty conflicted. Some people say they are great and eat everything, excellent cleaners (what most people said on RC) but liveaquaria has them marked as difficult. What are your experiences with this fish or should I pass?
 

SkyShark

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#2
How big of a tank is it going in and how many other fish will be in with it? I've really only seen these guys do well if they are in a big tank with many fish.
 

lkoechle

Cleaner Shrimp
#3
85 shallow (same foot print as a 120, but half the height. 48 inches long 24 deep 18 tall). Heavy stocked. A kole tang and scribbled fish (juvis right now, 3 inches and 4 inches respectively), clown pair, and a flame angel for medium fish, and a McCosker trio for small fish and a couple tiny fish (yellow clown goby and target mandarin)
 
#4
I've found in my 30 some years being in the saltwater business that African Cleaner Wrasses generally survive much better than a "regular" Cleaner Wrasse. You'll pay a little more for them and it's still a 50-50 chance that they'll survive for more than a few months. With that being said I've also had customers have African Cleaner Wrasses live for many years too. They will usually learn to take live or frozen foods and when they do that they do MUCH better!
 

lkoechle

Cleaner Shrimp
#5
I think we are leaning towards giving him a try. I feed live black worms and have had good luck getting mandarins to eat that, maybe the wrasse will like them too and then I can get try getting him on other stuff.
 
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