Ornate wrasse & a cleaner wrasse

[Tourkid]

Hiya leebeca

Hope your day is going well!

I had a quick question for you.
I bought a new qt and added an ornate wrasse yesterday, and a cleaner wrasse (blue streak one)

They both looked great yesterday. ate etc. This morning the ornate wrasse has white dots on her face. (great. pretty sure the lfs is using somthing in theyre system that keeps them looking good)

so anyways.. the cleaner wrasse is... cleaning the ornate wrasse up

whats your opinion... will this be enough? or go ahead with cupramine?

also.. poop yesterday was red (red flakes)

today, as soon as he woke up he pooped white. not stringy. internal parasites? never had it white without being stringy....

thanks!
Maggie

[leebca]

I'm unsure of the cleaner wrasse you have. If you know its scientific name, that may be helpful. However, there are some generalities about 'cleaner' fishes that you should be brought up to date on. Most are covered in this post:
Why Do Fish Clean? OR Picky Fish!

Knowing what fish do in the wild can help us determine what to expect from them in captivity. Unfortunately, at first glance, it was thought that 'cleaner fish' just pick parasites off of other fishes. It was further thought the reason why cleaner fish, obligated to getting nutrition from this source, would not survive in a display tank, or would slowly starve to death, would be the reason to avoid them. The facts are as outlined in the above post.

If you will also review the Myth and Fact post: Marine Ich - Myths and Facts and put the whole picture together you should come to the conclusion that a cleaner fish do not pick Marine Ich parasites from under the skin of the fish it cleans. It just doesn't happen.

Regarding the poop, no need to risk it. Do the treatment. It's easy, no mess, no fuss. Even if the fish doesn't have internal parasites, the prophylactic treatment does no harm.

[Tourkid]

got it. I read quite a few debateable sites yesterday on cleaner wrasses.. lotz of opinions out there! This one is cleaning the other wrasse... but it is also scratching on the rocks.... so I guess ill add my first dose of cupramine today.

Just want to double check although I cant see why it would hurt, but I can use both the cupramine and the gel tek internal parasite meds at the same time?

I already did the first internal parasite dose this morning. they ate it up pretty well! so no problem there!

[leebca]

The two treatments don't interact. So it should go well. One of the (few) advantages of the treatment for internal parasites is that the treatment can be done on any eating fish, under almost any circumstances.

[leebca]

One thing many aquarists fail to see is a rather simple thing:

Assuming the cleaner fish IS able to eat and cure other fish of Marine Ich -- what fish then cleans the cleaner fish?

You see, it's a never ending cycle.

[Tourkid]

that what got me. the cleaner looks free of parasites, but it was scratching. the ornate isent scratching, but it had spots on the top of its head. I added my 1 ml of cuprmine.. just got home and the spots are gone, who knows if the cleaner ate them or the cupramine knocked em off. the cleaner was cleaning the ornate early this morning. i donno. After these go in the reef, ill be adding an angel and then a tang or two and then im done adding fishes. I want the cleaner for the tang(s) I had a sailfin for a breif period (gave him a bigger better home of 600 gallons) but i had treated him for ick with copper and one day a few weeks after he was in the reef i saw ick! I fed garlic and it was gone, but i like the reassurance. cool to see them set up cleaning stations too.

off topic.. byerlys closed for good this week. very spur of the moment. they announced three days b4 they closed, and had a sale, threw all theryre display tanks in a dumpster and they were gone. kinda weird.
with phishys open now, and reef systems (a green house set up all propagated coral) I guess the compition was to much. always sad to see a business go under

[leebca]

Sorry to hear of Byerly's demise.