Lawnmower blennys

[a_pmech84]

My wife and I are considering getting a lawnmower blenny for our 55 gal reef tank. The only hesitation I have is the sand we picked. We wanted black sand for a better color contrast for the corals we like. This is not fine sand it’s more of the consistency of the rock people put in freshwater tanks. My question is the blenny being a sand filterer will it do fine with what I have or are we better off not doing the blenny?

[WV Reefer]

7 minutes ago, a_pmech84 said:

My wife and I are considering getting a lawnmower blenny for our 55 gal reef tank. The only hesitation I have is the sand we picked. We wanted black sand for a better color contrast for the corals we like. This is not fine sand it’s more of the consistency of the rock people put in freshwater tanks. My question is the blenny being a sand filterer will it do fine with what I have or are we better off not doing the blenny?

The Lawnmower Blenny is not a sand sifter. They eat algae off of surfaces.  

[Ladytank]

Lawn mower bennies eat algea, and nori. They are not sand sifters. They are herbivores.

[Clown79]

Lawnmowers don't sift sand. They will take it into their mouth and eat algae off it but then they spit it out.

 

They are grazers, they like to skip rocks and pick all day at rock, glass, and substrate.

 

My starry blenny would spit sand all over the my tank.

[a_pmech84]

Ok thanks for the info. Sounds like we should be good to go.

[Clown79]

I loved my starry blenny(its a lawnmower)

 

Blenny fish are so cool.

 

If you don't have a lot of algae, supplement with nori strips and there are these grazing pellets that you can add.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

8 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

I loved my starry blenny(its a lawnmower)

 

Blenny fish are so cool.

 

If you don't have a lot of algae, supplement with nori strips and there are these grazing pellets that you can add.

Are they jumpers as well?

[Clown79]

Mine never jumped, he was pretty chilled out.

 

My bicolor jumped but I find fish in tanks alone a lot more skittish then those kept with others. 

 

That's been my experience with fish kept alone.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

6 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

Mine never jumped, he was pretty chilled out.

 

My bicolor jumped but I find fish in tanks alone a lot more skittish then those kept with others. 

 

That's been my experience with fish kept alone.

Thanks Clown 

[Clown79]

5 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

Thanks Clown 

You're welcome.

 

The starry was awesome, he just needs lots of green food.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

I'm thinking of trying my hand at another blenny. My tailspot disappeared and I think maybe a rock flower ate him cause he vanished. I have plenty of things for the blenny to eat lol. 

[Clown79]

45 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

I'm thinking of trying my hand at another blenny. My tailspot disappeared and I think maybe a rock flower ate him cause he vanished. I have plenty of things for the blenny to eat lol. 

That was my issue with the starry. I don't have a lot of algae, what I had, he ate including my dragons breath. Lol. 

 

He was very skinny. I tried giving him more food but it wasn't enough because he passed away.

 

I have a midas blenny in qt now. Love them and they predominantly eat meat😊

[Oldsalt01]

They feed primarily on algae, yes, but, they are actually omnivores and will eat fish food too. The one i had was a total pig, even out-eating my Ocellaris!. They are quite the character and will perch on rock, watching you watch them. They can be quite territorial though, so any other type of Blenny (or any fish of a similar body type) can and probably will be bullied (mine beat up on my firefish to the point I had to take the poor thing back to the LFS), although a 55 will probably give them enough room to set up their own territories. All that aside, I've had all sorts of Blenny's in my various tanks, and they have never failed to amuse. Go for it!

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

18 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

That was my issue with the starry. I don't have a lot of algae, what I had, he ate including my dragons breath. Lol. 

 

He was very skinny. I tried giving him more food but it wasn't enough because he passed away.

 

I have a midas blenny in qt now. Love them and they predominantly eat meat😊

Oh no 😞 My tailspot was awesome. Used to hang out with my clown and when he disappeared I was bummed. I try to keep my fish count to a min and I just have one clown in my tank. It would be nice to have one other fish but I don't have a top on my tank right now so it's kinda hard to pull the trigger on something for fears it will jump. I have an egg crate top that i can put back on but I don't like it lol.

[Clown79]

17 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

Oh no 😞 My tailspot was awesome. Used to hang out with my clown and when he disappeared I was bummed. I try to keep my fish count to a min and I just have one clown in my tank. It would be nice to have one other fish but I don't have a top on my tank right now so it's kinda hard to pull the trigger on something for fears it will jump. I have an egg crate top that i can put back on but I don't like it lol.

It's not nice when a fish disappears, you never know what the reason for the disappearance happened.

 

They are such fun fish.

 

I hate the eggcrate too. I had fish jump through it too.

 

Have you thought of diy mesh lid? Really easy to make

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

6 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

It's not nice when a fish disappears, you never know what the reason for the disappearance happened.

 

They are such fun fish.

 

I hate the eggcrate too. I had fish jump through it too.

 

Have you thought of diy mesh lid? Really easy to make

I have actually but I would have to get creative lol. I have my auto top off plus the prime mount and filter. Lots of gaps. I may revisit the mesh top one day.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

9 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

It's not nice when a fish disappears, you never know what the reason for the disappearance happened.

 

They are such fun fish.

 

I hate the eggcrate too. I had fish jump through it too.

 

Have you thought of diy mesh lid? Really easy to make

I can't wait to set my 75 up lol. I'm getting a sump for that damn thing so I can hide everything so I can put a top on

[StinkyBunny]

On 10/11/2018 at 10:32 PM, a_pmech84 said:

My wife and I are considering getting a lawnmower blenny for our 55 gal reef tank. The only hesitation I have is the sand we picked. We wanted black sand for a better color contrast for the corals we like. This is not fine sand it’s more of the consistency of the rock people put in freshwater tanks. My question is the blenny being a sand filterer will it do fine with what I have or are we better off not doing the blenny?

They are omnivores that eat a lot more algae than they do animal proteins. I usually rubberband a piece of Nori to a clam shell for Lawnboy to eat 3x a week.

On 10/12/2018 at 2:18 PM, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

Are they jumpers as well?

Yes, they're like Mexican Jumping Beans.

 

To those that have lost Tailspot blennies:

 

They are alive with parasites in my observations. If you get one, treat it with Praziquantel while it's in quarantine. I have 2 that I've had for 2 years and they were treated. M had one that did OK for about a year and the damage mounted until it killed him.

 

As for the Lawnmower blennies, the best ones come from Fiji. When I order from Fiji, I usually get a dozen because his are top notch quality. When purchasing them, ask where they come from and pay the few dollars more for one from Fiji, it's worth it. With Indo and Filipino fish there's always the risk that they were caught with cyanide.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

4 minutes ago, StinkyBunny said:

They are omnivores that eat a lot more algae than they do animal proteins. I usually rubberband a piece of Nori to a clam shell for Lawnboy to eat 3x a week.

Yes, they're like Mexican Jumping Beans.

 

To those that have lost Tailspot blennies:

 

They are alive with parasites in my observations. If you get one, treat it with Praziquantel while it's in quarantine. I have 2 that I've had for 2 years and they were treated. M had one that did OK for about a year and the damage mounted until it killed him.

 

As for the Lawnmower blennies, the best ones come from Fiji. When I order from Fiji, I usually get a dozen because his are top notch quality. When purchasing them, ask where they come from and pay the few dollars more for one from Fiji, it's worth it. With Indo and Filipino fish there's always the risk that they were caught with cyanide.

Thanks for that info. All info I wasn't aware of 🙂 Corals seem so much easier lol

[StinkyBunny]

1 minute ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

Thanks for that info. All info I wasn't aware of 🙂 Corals seem so much easier lol

They're great fish if you clean them out. They feed off the bottom of the ocean so they're gonna pick up cooties, that's the way it is.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

4 minutes ago, StinkyBunny said:

They're great fish if you clean them out. They feed off the bottom of the ocean so they're gonna pick up cooties, that's the way it is.

Lol well I have been contemplating picking up a blenny again. Guess I'll have to set up a qt. They don't get sick once they are cleaned out do they?

[StinkyBunny]

1 minute ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

Lol well I have been contemplating picking up a blenny again. Guess I'll have to set up a qt. They don't get sick once they are cleaned out do they?

Once they're clean, they're bulletproof. We've had Lawnboy for over 5 years, he came in the first Fiji shipment and M captured him, lol. I'd be filthy with money if she didn't keep the profits. 😄

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

5 minutes ago, StinkyBunny said:

Once they're clean, they're bulletproof. We've had Lawnboy for over 5 years, he came in the first Fiji shipment and M captured him, lol. I'd be filthy with money if she didn't keep the profits. 😄

Well it's one nice benefit of getting all those shipments. Though I do see the down side cause yeah I'd probably have to keep way to much merchandise

[StinkyBunny]

45 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

Well it's one nice benefit of getting all those shipments. Though I do see the down side cause yeah I'd probably have to keep way to much merchandise

No, it's the reason I have 9 tanks at home and 4 at the shop for my stuff, lol.

[BlennyBoi]

On 10/13/2018 at 4:44 AM, Clown79 said:

Mine never jumped, he was pretty chilled out.

 

My bicolor jumped but I find fish in tanks alone a lot more skittish then those kept with others. 

 

That's been my experience with fish kept alone.

my bicolour jumped 10 minutes after it went in the tank. then as soon as we got him back in he jumped into the overflow. 1 hour later we got him out. seems to have learned a lesson, cos hes never jumped since