Cleaner wrasse diet

[Raphael Dalmeida]

Hi All,

While there's plenty of articles and topics mentioning "how difficult it is to keep them", i couldn't find much around an ideal diet for them. (E.g.: mix of flakes, meaty foods, nori, x times per day).

I'm wondering if the experienced people here have an idea of the best things to feed it and what sort of nutrients should i look for in preparing their food.

I'm very glad my newly acquired cleaner wrasse seems to be doing great, he's readily eating frozen copepods and as funny as it might be he prefers my Ocean Nutrition Prime flakes (devours it).

In fact he turned out to be my favorite fish in the tank, love seeing him clean other fish and "clean" my arm sometimes when I'm adjusting the aquascape in the tank.

I have been soaking a mix of the flakes with on of the 3 meaty frozen food (mysis, krill and copepods) with a few drops of SELCON vitamins and a bit of garlic extract.

So far he seems to spit mysis and krill mostly, but he eats the pods and the flakes readily.

I've been feeding smaller feedings to my tank but more times per day (now that i work from home most of the week i can do that).

I usually avoid flake food and prefer meaty foods (due to phosphates) - though im keen to make it work well for him.

The OF Prime flakes ingredients and guaranteed analysis are:

"
Crude Protein (min.) — 53.4%
Crude Fat (min.) — 16.6%
Crude Fiber (max.) — 0.2%
Moisture (max.) — 8.0%
Ash (max.) — 4.2%
Phosphorus (min.) — 0.6%"
"

Plankton, dried fish protein digest, salmon, fish meal, wheat gluten, wheat flour, wheat starch, brine shrimp, lecithin, cochineal (added color), salmon eggs, fish oil, annatto seed (added color), paprika, dried kelp, kelp meal, mussels, choline chloride, magnesium sulfate, iron, inositol, a-tocopherol acetate (source of vitamin E), zinc sulfate, manganese sulfate, calcium carbonate, biotin, calcium pantothenate, niacin, sodium selenite, pyridoxine hydrochloride (source of vitamin B6), riboflavin (source of vitamin B2), L-ascorbic acid (source of vitamin C), potassium iodide, vitamin A supplement, citric acid (preservative), folic acid, thiamine mononitrate (source of vitamin B1), menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of vitamin K3 activity), cobalt carbonate, vitamin B12 supplement.
"

Would there bet a better flake food for him? With higher fat content perhaps?

Cheers,

 

[Slocke]

I raised mine from a tiny fry. I started it on PE calanus and now it’s on a variety of frozen foods but mostly mysis. She also supplements with nori.

I also find it’s a good idea to add stimulation. Having a lot of fish will do it but simply putting food in clips or hidden in boxes helps. As does a mirror which they love.

 

[Raphael Dalmeida]

I raised mine from a tiny fry. I started it on PE calanus and now it’s on a variety of frozen foods but mostly mysis. She also supplements with nori.

I also find it’s a good idea to add stimulation. Having a lot of fish will do it but simply putting food in clips or hidden in boxes helps. As does a mirror which they love.

Beautiful wrasse.
Do you feed him multiple times or just try to keep things dynamic with the nori sheet and some food perhaps hidden at it's cleaning station or sleeping rock? Also will the flake be good for him as well? (It contains quite a few ingredients to give him some extra nutrients maybe not found in the meaty frozen foods).

Also regarding the mirror, i do see it having fun with it's own reflection on one side of the tank, and I've read on reef builders very interesting article that they seem to be able to recognize themselves.

Cleaner wrasses recognize themselves in the mirror | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

A research article published in the Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences has found that cleaner wrasses, Labroides dimidiatus, have the capacity for mirror self-recognition (MSR).

reefbuilders.com

Currently I have 3 tangs, 1 swallowtail angelfish and 1 foxface (in matter of larger sized fish). Some other small like blennies, clowns, valentini though they don't seem to get a clean other than the blenny.

And my mimic tang seems to hate anything slender, she's mean on the wrasse and blenny but seems manageable as it's mostly during feed time.

 

[Slocke]

I try and feed several times a day due to its high energy. Sometimes it gets flake food but I always prefer frozen. As for food games I noticed it seemed to enjoy figuring out the fish trap and is also pretty much my only fish that eats Masstick. It just seems an exceptionally inquisitive wrasse and I think it’s probably beneficial to do things for that.

 

[Raphael Dalmeida]

I try and feed several times a day due to its high energy. Sometimes it gets flake food but I always prefer frozen. As for food games I noticed it seemed to enjoy figuring out the fish trap and is also pretty much my only fish that eats Masstick. It just seems an exceptionally inquisitive wrasse and I think it’s probably beneficial to do things for that.

Awesome, i didn't know about this masstick sounds like a great way to feed fish as well.

Just seems a bit scarce here in Australia, so I will try see if there's another brand doing a similar product.

Yeah I just go this fish but he has such a huge personality. Him and my little valentini puffer are my favorite (and thankfully he doesn't harass the puffer).

 

[Raphael Dalmeida]

My gentle giant - like a puppy dog when he sees the cleaner wrasse, never get tired of watching this beautiful interaction - apologies for the blue light

I'd be curious to know how they instinctively know the cleaner wrasse, and if captive bred fish would have a similar behaviour towards cleaner wrasse.