Lawnmower Blenny help!!

[yanni]

Hey all!

I recently bought a lawnmower blenny for my nano (20g) tank, to curb some early algae growth. The tank is a month old now, started fully with live rock, and it’s other inhabitants include two clowns, one banded shrimp, and a few snails. All water parameters are stable and in line.

The blenny has been exhibiting weird behaviour, unsure if it’s normal for them. I’ve had him for 3 days now and he refuses to eat, but I catch him chewing on sand or pecking the rocks/glass occasionally. He’s super shy during the day, but at night time, gets the “zoomies,” where he just swims constantly like he’s taken an energy drink. It doesn’t appear anything is chasing him, the clownfish are asleep together, the shrimp hanging in his cave, and he’s going berserk.

He went so crazy last night he jumped through a tiny gap in the netting, landed on me and woke me up, then landed in the floor, where I scooped him back into the tank???

many insight or help on what to do please

 

[Cthulukelele]

Hey all!

I recently bought a lawnmower blenny for my nano (20g) tank, to curb some early algae growth. The tank is a month old now, started fully with live rock, and it’s other inhabitants include two clowns, one banded shrimp, and a few snails. All water parameters are stable and in line.

The blenny has been exhibiting weird behaviour, unsure if it’s normal for them. I’ve had him for 3 days now and he refuses to eat, but I catch him chewing on sand or pecking the rocks/glass occasionally. He’s super shy during the day, but at night time, gets the “zoomies,” where he just swims constantly like he’s taken an energy drink. It doesn’t appear anything is chasing him, the clownfish are asleep together, the shrimp hanging in his cave, and he’s going berserk.

He went so crazy last night he jumped through a tiny gap in the netting, landed on me and woke me up, then landed in the floor, where I scooped him back into the tank???

many insight or help on what to do please

Sounds stressed. They often take awhile to eat prepared foods and will graze algae all day which is the pecking behavior you're describing. They're regularly listed as easy fish, but to get the calm and truly thriving for a full lifespan requires a lot of algae, a little luck getting them eating, and time

 

[yanni]

Sounds stressed. They often take awhile to eat prepared foods and will graze algae all day which is the pecking behavior you're describing. They're regularly listed as easy fish, but to get the calm and truly thriving for a full lifespan requires a lot of algae, a little luck getting them eating, and time

I wonder what’s stressing him out so much then. Is there anything I can do to make him feel better? I’ve offered nori, spectrum pellets, everything he’s eaten at the shop I bought him when he was eating. I just want to make sure the poor thing is happy and get him nice and fat like my clowns

 

[Cthulukelele]

Food will help with their stress. At pretty much all times they should have a round full belly. There are different prepared foods you can try. The best imo to get them eating would be easy masstick stuck to a rock or a piece of nori stuck to a rock from there they may eventually recognize that you're feeding the tank and take frozen food. Some great frozen foods for lawnmower blennies include emerald entree, omega formula 2, lrs herbivore blend, rods herbivore blend

Some lawnmower blennies never recognize food in the water column. The ones that do though will eventually eat pretty much anything, but it's still important to make sure the food it's eating contains enough algae to satisfy its nutritional requirements to make sure it lives a healthy long life

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hey all!

I recently bought a lawnmower blenny for my nano (20g) tank, to curb some early algae growth. The tank is a month old now, started fully with live rock, and it’s other inhabitants include two clowns, one banded shrimp, and a few snails. All water parameters are stable and in line.

The blenny has been exhibiting weird behaviour, unsure if it’s normal for them. I’ve had him for 3 days now and he refuses to eat, but I catch him chewing on sand or pecking the rocks/glass occasionally. He’s super shy during the day, but at night time, gets the “zoomies,” where he just swims constantly like he’s taken an energy drink. It doesn’t appear anything is chasing him, the clownfish are asleep together, the shrimp hanging in his cave, and he’s going berserk.

He went so crazy last night he jumped through a tiny gap in the netting, landed on me and woke me up, then landed in the floor, where I scooped him back into the tank???

many insight or help on what to do please

You sort of answered your own question. Its a misconception that lawnmower blennies are algae eaters.
Problem is Improper diet. The trickiest part about keeping a blenny is making sure it gets enough to eat. You can tell this visually by looking at the abdomen, which should be a golf ball shape. A blenny with a pinched belly isn’t finding enough food.
Although a blenny needs algae to survive, its a misconception is that it can survive on algae alone. Since blennies frequent shallow water, they find their home in coral reefs. They circle areas of coral branches and sponge scraping their way along the bottom. Their feeding habit as you saw is to pound and gnaw the coral, and ingest detritus, or waste material from the coral. This includes coral skeleton, sand, gravel, and fish eggs and tiny crustaceans.
Since a blenny in the wild does not eat only algae, their captive diet must be supplemented. If a blenny is not getting enough calcium carbonate in its diet, it will rapidly deteriorate. Offer an occasional helping of algae-based wafers or pellets.

 

[Cthulukelele]

How long have you had the little fella?

 

[yanni]

Food will help with their stress. At pretty much all times they should have a round full belly. There are different prepared foods you can try. The best imo to get them eating would be easy masstick stuck to a rock or a piece of nori stuck to a rock from there they may eventually recognize that you're feeding the tank and take frozen food. Some great frozen foods for lawnmower blennies include emerald entree, omega formula 2, lrs herbivore blend, rods herbivore blend

Some lawnmower blennies never recognize food in the water column. The ones that do though will eventually eat pretty much anything, but it's still important to make sure the food it's eating contains enough algae to satisfy its nutritional requirements to make sure it lives a healthy long life

I’ll try some different food options, hence why I went with the nori for algae requirements. I’ll see what other frozen foods my LFSs offer, and can get some for him. I’ll use the clip to attach it near his favourite cave, see if that helps

How long have you had the little fella?

had him for 3 days now

 

[Idech]

If you can catch him, you could put him in a breeder box inside your tank with a place to hide and feed him multiple times a day with a pipette, close to his face, almost in its mouth. After a while he might start eating.

Get him fat and then release him and hopefully he’ll know what food is and eat.

 

[yanni]

If you can catch him, you could put him in a breeder box inside your tank with a place to hide and feed him multiple times a day with a pipette, close to his face, almost in its mouth. After a while he might start eating.

Get him fat and then release him and hopefully he’ll know what food is and eat.

I’ll give that a shot, catching him will be a pain since my rock is all branching, and he loves his cave. But probably my best bet

 

[Cthulukelele]

I’ll give that a shot, catching him will be a pain since my rock is all branching, and he loves his cave. But probably my best bet

I am not a huge fan of this plan after 3 days. Likely the only food it is getting right now is cleaning your tank plus this is a ton more stress

 

[yanni]

I am not a huge fan of this plan after 3 days. Likely the only food it is getting right now is cleaning your tank plus this is a ton more stress

It does seem wildly impractical in second thought, I don’t have the room to safely do it. I might keep trying nori/pellets over the next few days, and get a herbivorous mix for him to try. He is eating, just not food I offer. His belly isn’t pinched yet, not exactly a golf ball, but still slightly rounded. How does that sound? I’ve only kept clowns so far, and I thought I did my research, but he was eating so well at the shop, so didn’t expect this to pose a problem

 

[Idech]

It does seem wildly impractical in second thought, I don’t have the room to safely do it. I might keep trying nori/pellets over the next few days, and get a herbivorous mix for him to try. He is eating, just not food I offer. His belly isn’t pinched yet, not exactly a golf ball, but still slightly rounded. How does that sound? I’ve only kept clowns so far, and I thought I did my research, but he was eating so well at the shop, so didn’t expect this to pose a problem

Are you giving him the exact same food the store was ? If not I would go get some.

 

[ReefSkippy]

It does seem wildly impractical in second thought, I don’t have the room to safely do it. I might keep trying nori/pellets over the next few days, and get a herbivorous mix for him to try. He is eating, just not food I offer. His belly isn’t pinched yet, not exactly a golf ball, but still slightly rounded. How does that sound? I’ve only kept clowns so far, and I thought I did my research, but he was eating so well at the shop, so didn’t expect this to pose a problem

I think sometimes they need time to settle in so I agree on not doing anything drastic. I have a lawnmower blenny that was a little shy to begin with, but now feeds at the top of the top of the tank with everyone else, eats everything and anything, and has grown to a nice size. I usually feed a mix of a balanced marine flake food and alternate between half a cube of frozen brine shrimp and copepods. Most seem to find the frozen feed irresistible so maybe give that a go. And the beauty of the frozen is that it will distribute across the tank so he'll be able to forage around and find it if he's a bit shy.

 

[yanni]

Are you giving him the exact same food the store was ? If not I would go get some.

Yup exact same foods, exact same. Nothing yet, still not much interest. My clowns and shrimp love the nori, blenny just ignoring it

 

[yanni]

Yup exact same foods, exact same. Nothing yet, still not much interest. My clowns and shrimp love the nori, blenny just ignoring it

Although, he is watching the nori flow, he eyes it off and comes closer, but stops within an inch of it

 

[vetteguy53081]

I mentioned what it eats and an acclimation box takes away the rock/calcium source it requires and unless it is plump - it is slowly starving. Not a good time to experiment with changes.
Can you furnish a pic of the fish under white lighting ?

 

[yanni]

I think sometimes they need time to settle in so I agree on not doing anything drastic. I have a lawnmower blenny that was a little shy to begin with, but now feeds at the top of the top of the tank with everyone else, eats everything and anything, and has grown to a nice size. I usually feed a mix of a balanced marine flake food and alternate between half a cube of frozen brine shrimp and copepods. Most seem to find the frozen feed irresistible so maybe give that a go. And the beauty of the frozen is that it will distribute across the tank so he'll be able to forage around and find it if he's a bit shy.

Maybe it’s just time then, will give him a little while, and see how he goes, then hopefully he starts to eat. If he ignores the food I’m giving him, I’ll try grab some frozen and give that a shot. I’m sure the clowns will eat it if he doesn’t

 

[yanni]

I mentioned what it eats and an acclimation box takes away the rock/calcium source it requires and unless it is plump - it is slowly starving. Not a good time to experiment with changes.
Can you furnish a pic of the fish under white lighting ?

I’m unfortunately at work, and my white lights don’t work, only running blues at the moment until I can get ahold of a new AI prime. I might be able to take one with the lights off and phone flash tho

 

[ReefSkippy]

Maybe it’s just time then, will give him a little while, and see how he goes, then hopefully he starts to eat. If he ignores the food I’m giving him, I’ll try grab some frozen and give that a shot. I’m sure the clowns will eat it if he doesn’t

Yeah, everything in my tank loves the 'pods, including corals, so it won't go to waste.

 

[yanni]

Yeah, everything in my tank loves the 'pods, including corals, so it won't go to waste.

Yeah exactly. Might even dose some pod cultures, see if that can stimulate a feeding response from the blenny or something