Blenny doesn’t seem to be eating! Help!

[jaymoe17]

As the first fish in my tank I was steered towards getting a lawnmower blenny. I’ve seen online that some people feed them frozen brine shrimp although i understand that they are herbivores. I kept this in mind when buying.

Picked him up and the guy at the store told me that they feed him frozen brine shrimp and recommended that that’s what I should feed him for now.

I’ve had him for 2 days and can’t seem to ever see him eat. Not only that but when he’s just hiding and I put the food in, more often then not it ends up getting pulled up by my filter eventually and I’m afraid he won’t have anything to eat. I haven’t seen it yet but there is a chance he is when I’m not around (I hope). I am thinking of getting algae sheets or something since I’m paranoid being that it’s the first first in my new tank.

Any advice?

 

[ScottJ]

Do you have algae in the tank? How big and how old is the tank?

Don't have any experience with them, but from a quick search, they seem to graze off the rocks fro algae all day. Some said algae wafers worked, someone had luck with herbivore gel food.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

When a fish is alone in a tank, its usually more shy and nervous. It doesn't have other fish to watch them eat and know that its safe, so it will learn on its own slowly at its own pace.

Just keep feeding once or twice a day, don't overfeed to ruin the water quality, sooner or later hunger will give it the courage to eat.

Also don't be afraid to try other foods, try frozen mysis or reef frenzy.

 

[Nano_Man]

Give him time 2 days isn’t a lot of time. New surroundings. I wouldn’t worry yet put some nori on a clip . When he gets really hungry he will be out for food.

 

[jaymoe17]

Do you have algae in the tank? How big and how old is the tank?

Don't have any experience with them, but from a quick search, they seem to graze off the rocks fro algae all day. Some said algae wafers worked, someone had luck with herbivore gel food.

Tank is 1.5 months old and it’s the first fish in there. I wasn’t concerned about the algae since I was told that he eats frozen brine shrimp and it’s a good pair when I get clowns later this week. Not much algae.

 

[FellowSclownfish20270]

Tank is 1.5 months old and it’s the first fish in there. I wasn’t concerned about the algae since I was told that he eats frozen brine shrimp and it’s a good pair when I get clowns later this week. Not much algae.

Late reply, but like the others said, a new blenny is shy and needs to get used to the tank.
I would only add a blenny when I start seeing algae growth on my glass, rocks and sand. Blennies can always feed off of algae if there is plenty in the tank. When I first added my blenny, he would hide in small crevisis and eat when I'm not visible to him. My blenny also enjoyed eating mysis shrimp. They are great algae cleaners for your tank!