Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse Care Guide

Labroides dimidiatus

Difficulty	High
Minimum Tank Size	70 Gallons
Diet	Carnivore
Water Parameters	72-78 F, pH 8-8.4, Salinity 1.020-1.025
Aggression	Peaceful
Size	5 1/2"

The Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse is a beautiful wrasse, sporting a silver front half, blue back half with a black streak down its sides. They are active swimmers and are great replacements for cleaner shrimp.

The Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse is difficult to care for only because of its feeding habits. They are unable to store large amounts of food and must be fed throughout the day. Otherwise, the Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse is quite easy to care for given a suitable tank. They can often live over eight years, with the only difficult hurdle being their feeding.

Tank Specific Need

The Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse needs plenty of swimming space along with enough rockwork to swim through. They will also select a spot in the rockwork to be their cleaning station. Additionally these wrasse should be kept with a sandbed, as they may choose to bury themselves for the night.

Unlike cleaner shrimp, the Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse will not harass corals and steal their foods, making them great for reef tanks in need of a cleaner.

An odd requirement the Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse has is tank mates. They must have multiple fish to clean, as they almost never stop trying to service other fish. With too few fish in the tank this can lead to bullying by the Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse. Large tangs make for great tank mates.

Ensure the tank has a tight cover as well as grates covering any openings/overflow boxes. The Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse frequently upsets other fish with surprise cleanings, leading them to chase the wrasse for a bit and the wrasse jumping.

Tank Mates to Avoid

Avoid small, easily stressed fish as well as other wrasse. The Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse will bully smaller fish while trying to clean them and will actively fight with any other wrasse, even in large tanks.

Diet & Feeding

The difficulty in keeping the Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse comes largely from feeding. Their bodies are not built to store food as well as most other fish, meaning they will need to eat frequently. This makes having multiple fish, which can feed the Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse by simply producing dead scales, mucus and dead tissue for the wrasse to eat, extremely beneficial.

An easy way to feed these fish throughout the day is to use a seaweed/nori clip. While this is not the most nutritious food, it will help supplement their diet when there is not enough other food.

The Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse Can be fed standard fish flakes, frozen foods and pellets, however the most nutritious foods for these fish are the mucus from other fishes slime coats. By keeping moderate to large sized fish in a large tank, the Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse can get surprisingly fat and be easy to maintain. In smaller tanks, where fewer fish and parasites can grow, it becomes more difficult to constantly feed the Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse.

Breeding & Sexing

While the Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse has been known to spawn in the aquarium, the success rates for fry are exceedingly low. They begin the mating dance at midnight/lights out, only mating when in a stress free environment with easy access to food.

Unlike most wrasse, the Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse’s gender cannot be distinguished what so ever. The males are believed to be larger than females, however mating pairs are often difficult to tell apart.