[reeferaddict]

Troy,

While I can appreciate your view, I also ask that you open your mind to the potential future of this hobby. According to Sprung, Delbeek, and Tullock, (the only ones I have read), there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that collection of "cleaners" for the hobby has any negative impact on the wild reef. All of these assumptions are presented by bleeding heart environmentalists that target our beloved hobby as being the most visible of the problems facing the natural reefs. As hobbyists, we share the responsibility of ensuring the proliferation of species both in the wild and in captivity. A single oil spill or a season of food fishing will decimate any reef many times more than the collection of specimens for us to study in our captive environments. The more we are able to studay and maintain these species, the better our chances are of captive propogation and self sustainment within the hobby.

As for a "healthy system" being the best treatment for disease, I tend to disagree. A healthy system will have scores of variety of organisms, including parasitic ones. Any time we add livestock to our tanks, the typical stress response is parasitic infestations of various types. My experience with quarantine systems has been abysmal at best, even though many expert aquarists swear by them. Even after successfully quarantining specimens, I have observed parasites upon transfer to the display tanks. On some specimens this is a temporary condition that goes away in time, but I have had others where it is persistent until the death of the animal. I have always kept cleaner shrimp, not only for cleaning, but because I enjoy their character and habits in the tank. Recently I have had a desire to keep a Powder Blue Tang. After acquiring my first specimen and quarantining, it died before I could get it transferred to the main tank, I suspect of starvation as it never grazed or picked at anything and I never saw it take food. My second specimen I added directly to the display tank, and he promptly developed a fine coat of ich, but would never use any of the cleaner shrimp to get cleaned. At the time I removed him he was eating heartily, swimming actively, and otherwise healthy. Upon placement in the treatment tank he stopped eating, and succumbed within 10 days. At this point I was distraught and pretty sure Powder Blues were not in my reefkeeping future. My LFS agreed to have one more brought in at a reduced price, and I decided that this would be my final stab at keeping one. I did with this one what I had done previously, put him right in the main tank, and to my chagrin he immediately developed that fine white powdery coat. Again, the cleaner shrimp had no effect on him, and as the previous one, he seemed otherwise healthy. I fed garlic diligently, hoping that it would disappear, which it didn't. Some days the coating seemed worse than others, but his behaviour was always that of a healthy fish, so I chose to leave him.

After a few months of reading everywhere I could find info on a cleaner wrasse, I decided I would try one. Almost every other fish I have added to any of my systems have had a period of 3 or 4 days of hiding before becoming comfortable. Not this little guy! He swam out of the net and made a beeline for the Powder Blue and within 2 days had him completely clean. He has been clean ever since, and the Cleaner Wrasse is actively foraging and eating any other food I put in the tank. I have every reason to believe he will be a long term tank inhabitant, but I will keep everyone posted.

My point here is that our closed ecosystems have to mimic nature as much as possible for us to have success. While we can certainly exclude predator species in our reefs, the biodiversity that we strive to maintain is only a fraction of what is available in nature. I can only think that the exclusion of species due to political reasons will only hamper our efforts. If someone can present a conclusive argument that proves a negative impact on natural reefs by the collection of these species, I will be the first one to NOT buy these species. Meanwhile, the fellow that buys a $10 cleaner wrasse to protect his $100 prized specimen just MAY be the person that discovers the real secret to maintaining and propogating these species.