doctor fish

[Black]

Is it true that there r 2 types of doctor fish??? and they look alike. i m asking this becos I hv a doctor fish which attack any new fish ..not nip but "cheong n whack" Now I am told that there are 2 different types..mine eats anything and they survive for 4 mths liao. Guru, pls advise please.

[Glare]

There is a blenny that looks alot like the cleaner wrasse. However , the blenny imitates the wrasse and bites off chunks of fins and flesh instead. The only way to tell the difference is to look at its mouth.

The true cleaner has its mouth on the front of its face. The blenny's mouth is located below the front of its snout, kinda like a shark.

Hopefully yours is a true cleaner......

[andysho]

yes there are two types which look alike

One will nip at the fins~~~

Dr Fish dun seems to be able to live long in tanks

due to the feeding habit~~picking up harmful stuff

on the bodies of fishes in their nature

Once my fishes were infected with white spots and so on~~

the Dr fish was able to survive long~~ after that which my

fishes have no more sickness~~ the Dr fish died~~

anyone experience that before

Correct me if i am wrong

thanks

[arcanehacker]

Is it true that there r 2 types of doctor fish??? and they look alike. i m asking this becos I hv a doctor fish which attack any new fish ..not nip but "cheong n whack" Now I am told that there are 2 different types..mine eats anything and they survive for 4 mths liao. Guru, pls advise please.

dunno what 2 types but is yours a Cleaner Wrasse?

[jc85]

False Cleaner here

Stripped Cleaner Wrasse here

Lance Benny here

Hope these helps

JC

[arcanehacker]

yes there are two types which look alike

One will nip at the fins~~~

Dr Fish dun seems to be able to live long in tanks

due to the feeding habit~~picking up harmful stuff

on the bodies of fishes in their nature

Once my fishes were infected with white spots and so on~~

the Dr fish was able to survive long~~ after that which my

fishes have no more sickness~~ the Dr fish died~~

anyone experience that before

Correct me if i am wrong

thanks

yeah.. if tanks with not many fishes or no ich, the fish will starve itself to death..

not sure about the false ones though.

[Black]

THANK YOU for all feedback.

Mine looks exactly like the picture shown by arcanhacker.

Thanks Glare

You juz confirm the facts which somebody told me. They look exactly the same and the only difference to look for is the mouth. Now I understand why mine survive so well in my tank with so little fish which also puzzle me at its well-being when others told me it doesnt survive long. mine happens to be a FALSE doctor (no licence one)

[eaquarist]

Just to add on..

Indeed there are many mimics around, in fact, many fishes have such unusual diets of feeding off others-- slime, scales or fins....a well known example would be some species of pirahna... For marines, watch out for these sabretooth blenny species too...Plagiotremus tapeinosoma, Plagiotremus rhinorhynchus

Although there are some accounts of successful keeping of cleaners, most perish after a while , they just hide in some crevice and never appear again. Recent research has shown that cleaners play a vital role in the reef, cleaning many large fishes like groupers and sharks. In fact, th mystery of large congregations of hammerheads near some islands in Philippines was solved after divers observed the sharks coming in to get cleaned.

To collect them in large numbers for the aquatic trade should be discouraged at the moment, perhaps in limited numbers for the experts to get it right. EAP has never stocked the species until more is known about them. ... the first step to successful keeping could be done in this forum, any success stories to share?

[andysho]

i pity those DR fishes

Sometime ppl just buy them to throw into their tank

full of infected fishes, hoping that they can do a cleaning

up~~ after which their job is done~~ they dun really

care about feeding them~~ and let them die slowly

In my view It is best not to keep them~~

[jc85]

To collect them in large numbers for the aquatic trade should be discouraged at the moment, perhaps in limited numbers for the  experts to get it right. EAP has never stocked the species until more is known about them.

Thumbs up to EAP. That's responsible reefing from a LFS.

[dersuz]

Dr Fish dun seems to be able to live long in tanks

due to the feeding habit~~picking up harmful stuff

on the bodies of fishes in their nature

Once my fishes were infected with white spots and so on~~

the Dr fish was able to survive long~~ after that which my

fishes have no more sickness~~ the Dr fish died~~

Ya, I kept my dr fish for almost 1.5 years and died last week due to no available parasite for it to eat. Although it eat mysis shrimp/nori/algae/cyclop but getting thiner day after day then last week went missing till now.

[andysho]

Just imagine removing our Dr from the hospital~~

what will happen to us if we fall sick ??

Climb up the high mountain wiht a basket and a cutter

and find some chinese herbs ~~~

Sounds like some chinese kunfu show

""thousand yrs ginseng or White lotus?