doctor fish

[mAriNe_enthusiast]

Hey,

I wanna ask u guys abt doc fish.

U see, i juz got one doc fish.

i added into my tank and it swam ard. The next thing i noe, it's out of sight liao.

Could it be that it's hiding due to the stress or it kena ...

[[d]3v|L]

Yes maybe it is stressed by the new environment and aggression by other fishes.. give it some time to appear again

[Cleartank]

How would we know???

No lah... hehehe. Maybe hiding maybe dead in the midst of your rock maze?

[mAriNe_enthusiast]

That's what i am worried...that it's dead.

Maybe captured by the shrimp

Hope it comes out tom...

Thanks for the replies.

[metals99]

yeah doctor fish rarely survives in captivity..

it will die and not in sight and the body get eaten up by your scavengers...

[mAriNe_enthusiast]

It's that hard to keep a doc fish?

IN tat case it's more advisable to remove the body i guess.

have to move the corals and rocks liao...

sigh

[FuEl]

Yep..doctor fishes hardly ever know to care for themselves in captivity. They normally only do well in large tanks with lots of fishes. You still might have to try a few fish before 1 really survives. Think it's because of their high metabolic rates and the shipping process. Imagine being caught from the ocean and being starved before someone buys you. Combined with stress....hence the low survival rate...

[KingFish]

Doctor Fish or Common Cleaner Wrasse are obligate parasite feeder. So unless you have a large enough fish community as hosts for the parasites that it feeds on, it will never find enough food.

LiveAquaria is a good source of information, do read up and determine if you have the capabilities to take care of your next fish/coral purchase.

[Fireclown]

My cleaner wrasse feeds on cyclops. Will it survive? It's eating well...

[acce]

yeah bought 2 doc fish for my tangs but oni the more agressive one survive.

Mine feeds on brine/mysis even trys eating the pellets

[Dispar_Anthias]

Hey IMO read more about doctor fish, they are in fact have very low survival record so i suggest we all leave them in the wild.

[Regal]

Although they are very low survival record , but Still had some body kept it survival . IMO they may be some way to keep it ..... Any Tips ????

[air701]

Already try abt 5 of them.

None survive.

Too bad cos they help to cure sick fish.

[Octopuffy]

I bought 1, put them in and they disappeared.

Only saw it 2 times after that.

The worst $4 ever spent.

Cheers!

[chrislwp]

As usual.. the fish is probably hidding some holes.

My 1st doctor disappear after 1 day,, found dead after sometime on sandbed.

2nd doctor disappear after 3 days.. found hidding in hole after another 3days.. but still die later.

[Dispar_Anthias]

Although they are very low survival record , but Still had some body kept it survival . IMO they may be some way to keep it ..... Any Tips ????

somebody??? you mean my uncle's doctor???? IMo they thrive better with fishes around, not sure how and don't understand why the doctor can survive BTW they have hrive for 10months already

[hoppinghippos]

I had one doc a few weeks back, it took to eating brine shrimps, seemed quite healthy and all, then one day it became weak and died, had a red (bloodied or wounded?) lower mouth. And for the life of me, I really don't know what was wrong with it, no signs of disease only the red mouth.

[mAriNe_enthusiast]

I think there's a lot about this fish that we are not aware of...

So it may be better to strike them off the fish list

[IcecruncherZ]

I had one doc a few weeks back, it took to eating brine shrimps, seemed quite healthy and all, then one day it became weak and died, had a red (bloodied or wounded?) lower mouth. And for the life of me, I really don't know what was wrong with it, no signs of disease only the red mouth.

You're not alone on this... my Red Sea Cleaner also had a sudden death...

I got it to eat flake, but it just perished suddenly about 2.5 weeks later. Very depressing... cos it's not easy to get the RS Cleaner to feed... *sigh*

[hongqixian]

they are very prone to diseases themselves. They also tend to get attacked by crabs/worms when they find a hole in the rockwork to sleep at night.

[junyong84]

probably its dead if it dun cme out for abt 2 days...