Blenny Food

APC · 07-12-2005, 09:40 AM

Hi All,

I have a lawn mower blenny in my tank to help keep algae in check. Right now he has plenty of algae(left over from the cycling process) to keep him fat and happy - but with 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates, the algae he has eaten is not (hopefully it will stay this way) coming back very quickly.

Do you all provide supplemental feedings for your blennies and snails? If so, what do you feed them and how often?

Thanks

APC · 07-15-2005, 07:33 AM

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thanks

Birdlady · 07-15-2005, 08:22 AM

I don't think there are many systems that don't have ANY algae or food for snails...the blenny will probably eat fish food....I don't really know.

I feed my chevron tang dried seaweed on a clip, vegetable based flake, formula one and two, mysis shrimp and squid...How's that for a vegetarian!

Believe it or not, frozen cyclopeeze is his favorite!

amcarrig · 07-15-2005, 08:32 AM

I never had a lawnmower that ate anything but algae and they eventually starved to death because they had to compete for that algae with tangs. If you find that your blenny is not eating prepared food and/or is starting to look skinny, try feeding it some dried seaweed.

APC · 07-15-2005, 08:39 AM

okay thanks for the advice. I may try the seaweed. The blenny will be the only fish in the tank with the exception of two clowns. I am hoping he will therefore not have too much competition for food. He does a great job of picking at the rock, so I think he is doing alright. If he starts looking skinny, I may try the seaweed.

Birdlady · 07-15-2005, 09:23 AM

I would not wait for him to get skinny, try and get him to take other foods prior to that! Skinny can sometimes be irreversible...

I feed my tang every day, but he still grazes the rocks and sand all day long!

APC · 07-15-2005, 09:50 AM

Yeah, I am going to get the little bugger some seaweed when I go to the LFS tomorrow. I do want to get him used to eating now, before it becomes a critical situation.

Jglo5 · 04-09-2007, 09:05 PM

Our lawn mower blenny had been eating well, we thought. Grazing through the tank daily. In the last day or 2 he went missing, and we found that he had jumped or fallen into the section where the water is filtered. We rescued him, but he now is skinny and sort of pale and is not grazing. Will he get over this trauma and start grazing again, or do we need to tempt him with seaweed as mentioned below? Thanks.

RAVEN · 04-10-2007, 02:45 PM

Most lawnmower blennies will eat anything. I fed mine Formula 2 frozen and Formula 2 flake food as well as pellets. It also ate mysis shrimp and just about anything I threw in the tank. They need to eat more than once a day to stay healthy. Just make sure you feed it a variety of algae containing foods and it will do Ok!