lenismare Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 I just introduced a bicolor blenny to my ten gallon and am wondering what nutritious food I can get for him that he will have a strong chance of liking. He is active and ate some frozen brine last night after a couple of hours of acclimation to my tank, but he won't eat the formula two flakes I bought for him thinking this might give him the nutrition he needs). He takes the flake, then spits it back out, and keep repeating expecting to get one that seems right to him. he is pretty hungry and I know he needs something besides brine. The only seemingly definite thing that came up during my search was cyclopeeze.. Thanx for any advice. Link to comment
Nanobuds Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 in they wild they are mainly herbevors, so dry seaweed is good. you may see it grazing on algae at times. i heard meat isnt a healthy diet for them, but it will keep them alive. their diet should consist of mostly sea-weed or algae. they almost never eat flakes Link to comment
lenismare Posted May 13, 2009 Author Share Posted May 13, 2009 in they wild they are mainly herbevors, so dry seaweed is good. you may see it grazing on algae at times. i heard meat isnt a healthy diet for them, but it will keep them alive. their diet should consist of mostly sea-weed or algae. they almost never eat flakes So buy seaweed sheets? what brand names would you suggest? Link to comment
Nanobuds Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 i dont have any fish that need seaweed, but i just researched bi-color blennies a while ago and i dont have one sorry. i think rods-food makes herbivore sheets though... http://rodsfood.com/herbivore.html Link to comment
twister23 Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 My bi-color eats anything I put in the tank including spirulina flake. He is a pig. Link to comment
reeftankguy Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 +1 ^^^ What he said... Spirulina flakes is all mine will eat! Link to comment
subielover Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 Corals. Seriously, my bi-color loved to pick at corals. Before he started munching on duncans and the like, he ate algae off the rock and some mysis when I would feed my clown. Link to comment
masterbuilder Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 I know that most of the Ecsenius blenny's are listed as herbivores, but actually they are much more of an omnivore. They NEED some of everything to stay healthy. They are easy to keep alive for many years if you will just give them a varied diet With just a carnivore or herbivore diet....they will not live a healthy or long life Mark p.s. As you already said, feed everything except brine shrimp. Throw that stuff away....might as well give them french fries. Link to comment
plainrt Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 Mine eats anything.He is a big pig.I just hope he dont eat coral like many have said Link to comment
lenismare Posted May 14, 2009 Author Share Posted May 14, 2009 I know that most of the Ecsenius blenny's are listed as herbivores, but actually they are much more of an omnivore. They NEED some of everything to stay healthy. They are easy to keep alive for many years if you will just give them a varied diet With just a carnivore or herbivore diet....they will not live a healthy or long life Mark p.s. As you already said, feed everything except brine shrimp. Throw that stuff away....might as well give them french fries. What would you give the meat side of the diet? Mysis? Link to comment
lenismare Posted May 14, 2009 Author Share Posted May 14, 2009 I went back to a fish store, not too local, to get something else for him to eat.. They recommended Hikari Mega Marine Algae (frozen). He eats it, but I have to chop it into really small pieces. Otherwise he just mouths it and spits it out, and swims back to a hiding spot with his head out. He's still a little hesitant to swim freely, although he's getting better. He still doesn't eat it as well as I would expect him to because he seems pretty hungry. Link to comment
masterbuilder Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 These blennies have to have tiny pieces. They are not good at chewing like some other fish. My only blenny, that I have had for just over 2 years, loves New Life Spectrum small fish pellets, it makes up 60% of his diet. I think its the best staple food available, all my fish go wild for it. I feed it 3 days a week. The other food on the remaining 4 days. I feed once a day and make sure none or very little goes uneaten. Other food I feed: Formula 1 and 2 frozen, Cyclopeeze, Rods Food, New Life Spectrum flakes, ORA Pellets. The ORA pellets are too hard /big for the blenny, other fish like it. Link to comment
twister23 Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 Don't worry he will turn into a pig once he gets used to your tank. Link to comment
lenismare Posted May 14, 2009 Author Share Posted May 14, 2009 These blennies have to have tiny pieces. They are not good at chewing like some other fish. My only blenny, that I have had for just over 2 years, loves New Life Spectrum small fish pellets, it makes up 60% of his diet. I think its the best staple food available, all my fish go wild for it. I feed it 3 days a week. The other food on the remaining 4 days. I feed once a day and make sure none or very little goes uneaten. Other food I feed: Formula 1 and 2 frozen, Cyclopeeze, Rods Food, New Life Spectrum flakes, ORA Pellets. The ORA pellets are too hard /big for the blenny, other fish like it. I almost bought new life spectrum pellets from the first LFS I went to, but he talked me into getting fromula 2 flakes. My blenny mouthed them and spit them out, maybe because the flakes were too big.. I would like to try the NLS pellets becasue i dont think he's going to get enough from the mega marine algae. Don't worry he will turn into a pig once he gets used to your tank. Thats waht I was thinking too.. I wanted to get him some good food soon because his stomcah looked a little sunken.. But he seems healthy other than that. He's getting more adventuresome now, and racing my false perc for a bite (usually to just spit it back out). i'm glad they get along because I've had the perc for about six years now.. Link to comment
avaneaton2000 Posted May 15, 2009 Share Posted May 15, 2009 Nori is good so they can pick all day, my bicolor will munch on my sps and lps if there isn't a constant supply of nori. cool personality but they need a larger tank to not devour your corals. Link to comment
Saiyan Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 My BCB only started eating flakes after a few weeks of watching the other fish go nuts everytime I fed them. Up till then he was munching on my constant bryopsis supply. He still spends all his time grazing the rocks and glass and is a big help in nuisance algae control. He does pick at the corals some but not too much. Just enough to make me worry about getting a clam. Anyway he now eats everything and is the first to start cleaning up after the corals have been fed. Link to comment
lenismare Posted May 18, 2009 Author Share Posted May 18, 2009 Thanks for all the input everyone.. My Blenny has started to eat New Life Spectrum pellets really well during the last couple of days, which is good because of the nutritional value... The main thing with him is that the food has to be really small, like Mastrbuilder mentioned.. I think the main reason mine wouldn't eat most of what i tried was because the pieces were too large for him to quickly swallow. As far as eating corals, I have just recently set my tank up, and I have only 1 small zoo frag, and he has picked at it when swimming by, like he does pretty constantly with any thing in front of him, like bits off the live rock. Another thing he does alot of is eat sand, which you can see through his belly because he will fill up with it and poop it out when he is swimming around.. Hopefully he kicks that habit now that he knows he's going to consistently eat NLS pellets.. Another thing that is interesting (and a little scary actually) is that whenever I approach the tank, he develops white tiger stripes all down his body and a couple on the sides of his face, which you can kind of see in the picture. I'm pretty sure it's because he stresses when i approach the tank, but he still does it now even though he has associated me with food.. I guess it's still a natural reaction.. Link to comment
Saiyan Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 I have found my BCB gets his stripes when he is feeling feisty. He seems to have more of an attitude when he gets them. He's always trying to bite me through the glass. Link to comment
lenismare Posted May 18, 2009 Author Share Posted May 18, 2009 I have found my BCB gets his stripes when he is feeling feisty. He seems to have more of an attitude when he gets them. He's always trying to bite me through the glass. Mine has started to do that also.... I read here on NR they have some pretty cool personalities, which is one of the reasons I got him, but didn't expect him to be so feisty. Link to comment
uwwmatt Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 My Blenny eats everything. I have successfully fed him cyclopese, mysis, algae wafers, dry pellet food, squid, table shrimp...everything Link to comment
Newguy2015 Posted June 11, 2015 Share Posted June 11, 2015 Hi everyone! I also just introduced a bicolor blenny to my new tank. He's my 2nd fish to a chocolate clown. I've had him for four days and he is finally coming out of his favorite holes to nibble at algae. How long is it before I start seeing the great personality we all seem to have read about? I try not at approach too much when he's out bc he'll dart into the closest hiding spot when I do. Normal behavior for being recently added to tank? I have a 90 gallon (36x24x24) w 30 gallon sump. About 60lb live rock. No corals just yet. Also....I haven't witnessed him actually eating yet (besides algae) although I've fed my clown mysis and nils pellets+garlic. Trust me I've stared for long periods of time. Another question (sorry, 1st saltwater tank).....when feeding do you guys turn off power heads and pump? I tried not doing and it scattered my pellets/shrimp and some sank behind my rocks unnoticed ( hopefully turban snails and crabs eat it). Thank you Link to comment
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