Lawnmower Blenny

[syeve]

Hello all,

I recently bought a lawnmower blenny, I was told by my LFS that he would be fine in my 28 cube. He is not. He is very thin and won't touch anything prepared. I have tried mysis, seaweed, pellets, flakes etc.

Does anyone have a lawnmower that has taken anything prepared?

Thanks

[xtreme]

Mine shows no interest in anything I feed. I feed pellets, mysis and nori and have never seen him even look at the food. He has a good size belly on him but that is because he is constantly grazing on my LR and glass. How long has your tank been running? Do you have any algae growing in the tank at all?

[syeve]

I have some algea growth, I just don't think it's enough to sustain him. He is competing with algea crabs and snails also. Any idea's on what I could try to feed him?

edit: tank has been up for about 3 months now. I have had him for a month and a week now so he is defn eating, I just don't think it's enough.

[Delphinus]

Have you tried nori (I know you said seaweed but that could be a number of different things). If memory serves, they are a scraper of film algae, and it's only chance if they take to other things like filamentous algae (not guaranteed) or prepared foods (also not guaranteed, like you've noticed). So nori might be a good bet if you haven't tried it because it's soft and might be the texture he's looking for. But don't just offer it loose or in a clip: roll it up around a 1/2" PVC tube so that he can "scrape" it off. Or try a small rock to make it more natural but I've never been able to get nori onto a rock very well, a smooth surface like PVC is better IMO.

IIRC mine did not take to prepared foods until well after a year. Then he went nutso for food (mysis in particular) and looked like he was about to pop. He lived around 4 years for me, towards the end he just stopped eating again, got thin and eventually disappeared. I have no idea what their natural lifespan is, 4 years might be average or it might be terrible compared to what it ought to be.

Good luck.

[brickwood]

Mine didn't eat any food for a couple of weeks. I tried a lot of things. Someone told me to try frozen bloodworms. It worked. It's like a Big Mac for fish. He went nuts over them. As did everyone else. I mixed it in with the regular food and gradually backed it off to none. Now he is the fattest blenny you will ever see. He eats whatever goes in the tank. Hope that helps.

[syeve]

Sweet, I have some frozen blood worms in the freezer for my beta. I will try that and nori on some pvc...I will try anything!

Thanks again!

[Keri]

Mine eats Anything I put into the tank, but takes all frozen foods with particular gusto! He's not a nori fan but grazes on my rocks and "blenny kisses" the glass all day as well.

[naesco]

Try spirulina discs. They fall to the bottom and he may eat them later.
Leave one end of your glass unclean so that he can suck the algae off the glass.
Throw some smooth stones (the blue ones about 1.5 inches) in a highly lit area of the tank.

He should be plump. If he is thin he is starving so you need to add algae (nori is great) to the tank.

Soak the nori in garlic extreme as the garlic has been know to get a fish that is fussy about eating, eating again.
Good Luck

[syeve]

Perfect, gonna try all these. Thanks guys/girls.

[my2rotties]

Hope you little guy is doing okay. Mine was really shy the first couple of weeks after he came home. He was eating lots of hair algae and now he LOVES flakes. I just have a pinch and sink it down so it floats more towards to bottom and mid section of the tank. Mine was really shy so I could not stand there and watch him for a little while. Now he doesn't care who's watching him.