Neon cleaner goby

[primereef]

I have 2 neon cleaner gobies. When the fish 'come over' they bite the fish and the fish turn and chase them. Only one fish allows them to clean. The fish in question is a Purple tang and two watanabi angels. Is this normal or jst need more time?
Thanks

[The R/C Man]

Hey!

Hmmm good question. I have no experience with any those fish but I am sure someone will chime in......

Kevin you are the fish expert..... (now that you are on the spot ) What do you think?

[Pooty Tang]

Hi, I actually just came to this site wondering about the same question about the same fish. I have a purple tang in my 125 and when I put a neon cleaner goby in there, the other fish seemed fine with him but when he cleaned the purple tang, he seemed to "bite" the tang and he chased after the goby. One time the tang actually had half the goby in his mouth before spitting it out. Unfortunately, the goby since died of an unknown disease that killed a couple of my fish, but my purple tang now has some fairly large white spots on him that are too big to be ich and don't protrude like lymphocytis. I'm starting to wonder if those are bite marks from the goby cuz they showed up at about the same time as the goby started cleaning. Any thoughts?

[leebca]

WELCOME TO REEFLAND!

The relationship between the so-called 'cleaner fishes' and the fish they 'clean' is rather interesting. You see, people think the job of the cleaner fish is to, well. . .clean. Not so. Read on.

In the wild the cleaner fish performs a service to marine fishes, however that service is very limited. The 'things' that the cleaner fish will clean off of another marine fish are surface parasites. This is different than those parasites like Marine Ich and Marine Velvet that burrow into the fish, past the skin. These kinds of parasites the cleaner fishes, cleaner shrimp, etc. can't get to. Even in the wild, this doesn't present itself a good enough source of 'living' for the cleaner fishes and shrimps. So, these fishes and shrimps have evolved to also eat dead skin, shedding mucous coating, etc.

In the wild, there is often enough fishes that need cleaning to keep the cleaner fish healthy -- up to a point. In captivity, there is no way that the cleaner fish can obtain enough parasites and dead skin from the tank mate fishes to provide a good 'living.' The proper thing to do with a cleaner fish like the Goby, is to put it into quarantine and train it to eat prepared foods. This doesn't stop it from picking at 'imaginary' parasites and skin off their tankmates, but it will for sure provide the proper nutrition in the long run.

When the (untrained and sometimes even the under nourished) cleaner fish runs out of parasites and is still (very) hungry and low on nutrition, what they eat is the mucous coating off the fish they 'service.' The mucous coating of marine fishes is very nutritious to these fishes. It contains great proteins, minor elements and some fats. Put this together with the occasional parasite and dead skin and it's a good diet (if you can get away with it). However the cleaner fish can go further and things can get out of hand. Not enough dead skin, or not enough good mucous, so a nip now and then of healthy tissue is sometimes 'stolen.' And that leads to the point of aggressive behavior (of the fish being cleaned).

The fish to be cleaned presents itself, the cleaner fish goes to work, finds no parasites, is hungry, and starts picking mucous off the fish it is servicing. Sometimes that gets out of hand and the cleaner fish will take a chunk of living skin from the fish. The fish being serviced turns on the cleaner. Only the alert and fast cleaner fishes with a nearby bolt hole survive to do this again.

I've seen groupers turn on their cleaner after such a 'nip' and cut the cleaner fish clean in two.

Now, back to the Tang. Tangs of all marine fishes have a very thin mucous coating. This is one reason that, in captivity, they are very prone to show parasites early. With less 'food' for the cleaner, the cleaner may take liberties and try for more living flesh from these mucous-short fishes.

In extreme cases, this may cause the Tang to have bruises that become infected. This could be what you are seeing, but without clear photos and a lot more information, I could not say for sure. If they are such bruises, then the fish should be quarantined and treated with an antibiotic. The cleaner fish should be removed from that tank if the Tang goes back in.