Blenny nipping at tangs and clowns...

[dc4]

Anyone ever have their blenny nip at other fish when they swim by? I bought a bi-color blenny a few days ago and it decided to set up shop in a hole right under the rock where the bta's that my female clown host in are. I read that they are peaceful before I bought it but its going after anything that swims by even though its the smallest fish in the tank! My new tomini tang has a new rip in the tail and its either the female clown who is very protective of the bta's or the new blenny. I have tried getting the blenny to relocate to the bottom where a niece piece of calcified barnicle with 4 holes are but it shoots back into the hole in the rock anytime I get near it.

[Rice Reef]

I used to have a bicolour blenny and a tomini tang and had the same situation but the blenny was never aggressive towards my regal or yellow. The blenny did eventually settled down after a couple months. I think it is b/c that the blenny considers the tomini a competition for food source.

[fishytime]

yup.......mine did it all the time.......funny as heck........he would wait for my regal to swim by........then quickly dart out, nip the regal in the rear and then bolt back to his hole......the regal would then spin around and take his frustration out on what ever fish happened to be in the neighborhood......made me bust out laughing more than once....

[dc4]

Don't think my female clown thought it was that funny, I was just watching the tank and within 2 minutes, it nipped the clown and the clown grabbed the blenny by the head, pulled it out of the rock and flung it around like an alligator until I smacked the glass and the clown finally let it go. Hopefully the blenny learned its lesson and settles down cause I really like the blenny but I don't want it to stress the rest of the fish.

[Maverick00]

Originally Posted by dc4

Don't think my female clown thought it was that funny, I was just watching the tank and within 2 minutes, it nipped the clown and the clown grabbed the blenny by the head, pulled it out of the rock and flung it around like an alligator until I smacked the glass and the clown finally let it go. Hopefully the blenny learned its lesson and settles down cause I really like the blenny but I don't want it to stress the rest of the fish.

LOL!!!

[MKLKT]

My starry blenny leaves suction cup mouth marks on the side of my foxface, it's hilarious but took me a while to figure out what it was originally.

[lastlight]

You just can't beat a blenny for comedic relief. And yeah they're sometimes equal parts a-hole and comedian.

Currently only have a tailspot that sticks to himself munching algae but my bi-color was pretty feisty.

[Bloodasp]

Cute little buggers. Would always come out whenever it saw the algae scraper move and would just swim beside it. It had a fight with my tang when I first got it over a sleeping spot, the tang didn't sleep in that spot but i guess it didn't want the blenny being there, It settled down eventually.