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Class Osteichthyes
Cleaner wrasses are of interest to me on a few counts; but especially
academic and photo-making. They’ve been favorites of study for me before
literally and actually diving into their study off the coast of
California as a teenager. One of the three species of Labrids here is
the Senorita (Oxyjulis californica); a facultative (non-obligate)
cleaner of many important game fishes. Its presence and population have
been positively correlated with abundance and health of host fishes; as
have the members of the genus in our topic here. Is the positive
correlation a matter of advantage for one or the other species, both, or
simply chance? Conditions favoring the wrasse and its hosts?
As a content provider for the dive-adventure travel as well as
ornamental aquatics genres I’m always looking for “good shots” to sell,
mostly “verticals”, portrait format that might sell as covers or for
advertisement use. There are no more productive places to find such
scenes as at cleaning stations. All one needs is to identify these
aquatic barber shops and keep circling about; eventually, most all fish
and more come in for a cleaning, including gigantic Manta Rays. There
are several erstwhile cleaner organisms, including shrimp and several
fish species. Amongst the five species of cleaner wrasses
that make up the genus Labroides, the most commonly occurring in the
wild and ornamental aquatics interest is the Bluestreak. Unfortunately,
it is also historically the poorest survivor amongst them; but not to
despair; there are records of folks successfully husbanding them for
months to years. In this brief piece I will share with you the practical
biology and impressions concerning what works to keep Labroides wrasses,
in particular, L. dimidiatus in captivity. Distribution et al.:
Habitat: Wild & Captive:
Labroides dimidiatus is reef associated. This species is always found in
relatively shallow (20-40 foot depths) near substantial reef structure;
rock and coral. There, usually as pairs, though may be solitary or in
small groupings with younger individuals, they “operate” established
cleaning stations. All manner of fishes, singly, in schools… small to
VERY large (like Manta rays) happen by for removal of necrotic tissue,
and possibly parasites.
Current should be medium to brisk; water quality must be per keeping a
proper reef system of size. Due to the need for stable conditions and
stocked potential host fishes, Cleaner wrasse systems should be large;
at least a hundred plus gallons. Selection: Critical
I want to re-emphasize the dismal historical survival of this one
species of Labroides and make a plain statement concerning conservation
of congeners. NONE are easy to keep; and though L. dimidiatus is quite
abundant throughout its wide range; it should not be purchased casually.
There ARE far hardier cleaner species; many shrimps and gobies of the
genera Gobiosoma and Elacatinus especially; that are suitable for most
reef and semi-reef systems.
I have campaigned to restrict the Hawaiian endemic, L. phthirophagus for
commercial use, wondering if its limited presence on Hawaiian reefs was
important in maintaining fish health there. The “verdict is still out”
here, scientific studies asserting and denying this role; however, all
the “other” species of Labroides I’d leave on the world’s reefs rather
than removed for ornamental use. IF you are going to try one, I implore
you to do your best to keep it alive, healthy. Okay, off my soap-box.
Wait!
Labroides dimidiatus itself is “soft bodied” and due to low price
to collector-divers and shipping agencies in turn, they are not handled
gently, too often over-crowded, and as usual, not fed through the chain
of custody for a week, perhaps two till arriving at your r/e-tailer. Due
to mostly this lack of care, a good deal of Bluestreaks are lost
prematurely; I’d hazard a guess that more than half don’t make it from
the ocean to your dealer; dying enroute. The ones that do survive up to
this point are worse for wear as you might imagine; starved, likely
net-beat, and STRESSED.
As with shopping for small blennies, gobies, basslets… you need to
balance how long the specimen/s you’re considering with awareness that
you neither want them to be “too new” or “too old” as in how long
they’ve been on hand. Too new is a day or two from arrival at your
dealers. Most newly arrived marine organisms that are going to die do so
within the first 24 hours of arrival. On the other hand, specimens that
have been on hand, and likely not feeding for a week or more are also
highly likely to perish. You want to choose amongst those who’ve been
about between these times generally; unless you’re incredibly fortunate
to be offered ANY specimen that is actually feeding.
The usual “acid test” of whether an animal is feeding or not applies
orders of magnitude more with this Wrasse; so ask that the dealer
proffers various foods and see which, if any are interested.
Tankmates & Order of Introduction:
Cleaner wrasses should only be introduced to fully established systems
that lack overly aggressive tankmates, though triggers, big puffers,
morays and more will generally recognize cleaner organisms for what they
are and eschew inhaling them. You want to have a large enough system,
with a good deal of other fishes to provide a “customer base” for your
cleaner. Opinions, observations vary, but genus
Labroides wrasses are generally considered obligate rather than
facultative cleaners; that is, they “have to” clean to gather sufficient
nutrition. Again, in captivity I have witnessed personally, and read
several accounts of people who’ve had L. dimidiatus learn to accept
other foods; sufficient to not clean at all. About Foods/Feeding:
To initially get your specimen/s feeding, I suggest offering a wide mix
of live and frozen/defrosted foods as appropriately small pelleted
foods. Recent years have proven the palatability of the last; with many
fishes taking pellets with gusto.
Ongoing, it’s important to sustain your wrasse with frequent small
feedings during lights-on hours. Pellets are easily offered regularly
through automated feeders; live food organisms via large refugiums and
otherwise hand feedings three times or more per day. Other Cleaner Wrasses, Labroides:
There are several other known cleaners of the family Labridae; some
purposeful as juveniles like the Hogfishes of the genus Bodianus and Larabicus
quadrilineatus (Ruppell
1835), the Fourline or Arabian Cleaner Wrasse. The last is rarely seen
in the trade though it is a beauty, it is not aquarium hardy. I should
mention there are other families of fishes that include important
cleaners as well; the angelfishes, family Pomacanthidae and some gobies,
notably the Neon species of the genera Gobiosoma and
Elacatinus. Captive-produced specimens of these goby species are
very useful and hardy for most all tropical aquarium use; whether your
fishes hail from their range in the wild, most all come to recognize
these little cleaners as useful and not food items.
And of course there are numerous cleaner shrimp species; mostly of the
families Hippolytidae, Palaemonidae and Stenopodidae. The last, the
Boxer Shrimps need to be kept with larger fishes as they themselves
grow, as, like crabs, they are really opportunistic omnivores. Cleaner
shrimp may be consumed by fish tankmates, particularly when they’re
molting or the fishes are hungry; otherwise they make fascinating
additions to systems with reef-like conditions.
The other four species of Labroides are
decidedly splashier in color and overall trend to be captive suitable;
surviving capture, handling and shipping better and adapting to prepared
foods more readily. This being stated, none of the Labroides are easy to
secure good specimens, or acclimate to captivity; most dying within a
month of purchase; with only a few percent living more than three
months.
Cloze:
The Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse is still not an easy species for
aquarists, professional or advanced to keep in captivity; the vast
majority perishing in transit from collection through distribution,
likely more than ninety five percent dying within a month of being
installed in their main/display systems. However, there are proven means
of improving ones chances. These are identification and selection of
initially healthy specimens; acclimation to suitable settings; and
provision, training on to prepared foods. Bibliography/Further Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluestreak_cleaner_wrasse Burgess,
Warren E. 1981. The Genus Labroides.
Tropical Fish Hobbyist 2/81. Fenner, Bob. 1990. Cleaning Symbiosis Amongst
Fishes. Freshwater and Marine Aquarium 7, 8/90. Fenner, Robert. 1995. The conscientious marine
aquarist, with notes on Cleaner Wrasses. TFH 5/95. Nelson, Joseph
S. 1976. Fishes of the World. Wiley & Sons, N.Y. Parker, Nancy
J. 1973. Cleaner Wrasses. Marine Aquarist 4(3)/73. Sims, C.A.; Riginos, C.; Blomberg, S.P.; Huelsken,
T.; Drew, J.; Grutter, A.S. 2013. Cleaning up the biogeography of Labroides
dimidiatus using
phylogenetics and morphometrics. Coral
Reefs. 33: 223–233 |
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