Real cleaner wrasse vs false cleaner wrasse

Ming_ · Mar 12, 2019

Hi,

Just saw my cleaner wrasse that was with me for almost 2 months killed my purple firefish.
The fish have become more and more aggressive, started by killing my newly purchased neon goby and now my firefish.

After a search, realised that there is a real and also a false cleaner wrasse.

Photos are not that great as they are constantly swimming around. But can someone ID if mine is a real or false cleaner wrasse.

Also, any suggestion how i can catch the bugger out of my display tank?

N8 the Gr8 · Mar 12, 2019

The only way to tell is to look at the jaw. If it’s “underneath” the wrasse it is false. If it is real the mouth is on the very tip of the face of the wrasse.

mort · Mar 12, 2019

What other fish do you have? From the picture it looks like a normal cleaner wrasse but they can be really aggressive, especially if there aren't suitable clients for them to clean. So I'm wondering if it's because you don't have enough large fish to keep it happy. These fish clean a constant supply of fish in the daylight hours so can quickly become ravenous and a pain in a confined space. They don't really make great fish for normal tanks.

False cleaners are designed to take chunks out of fish, not aggressively kill them.

cdhappy · Mar 12, 2019

I’d say you have a “normal” Blue Streak Cleaner Wrasse (L. Dimidiatus).

The two can appear deceptively similar. the “Mimic/False” Cleaner Wrasse (A. Taeniatus) is closer to a fang Blenny relative and the easiest way to tell is by looking at the mouth/head. Pictures below for reference.

I really dig Cleaner Wrasse and have Dimidiatus (common) and Pectoralis (black dot)... would love to find another Phthirophagus (Hawaiian) someday (mine jumped

last summer).

About the feeding / killing; it’s (presumably) only been in captivity a few months, you have a few other Wrasse in your tank, and as mentioned above there may not be enough of stuff to pick/clean off of the other fish in your tank -he may be bored and/or hungry. One of the things I love about CW is that they’re pathological in their explorations/activity, but just like other fish, dogs, and even people when we’re pathological, bored, or hangry... not always do good things happen -we get into S*.

I find that when having several Wrasse, my pod populations are *very* managed, even to near/depleted levels in the display sometimes. I feed PE Clanaus (basically arctic pods frozen into cubes) and I find Wrasse, especially Cleaner Wrasse, love it (also your corals, smaller fish, Anthias, pipefish, etc will appreciate it). So just a thought (you may already be feeding PE Clanaus or the like) but for what it’s worth hope it helps.