snake blenny (Xiphasia setifer)

[Master Shake]

so i work at a store and our supplier got a few of these at too good of a price to pass up, i was hesitant at first knowing they could be difficult being similar to garden eels but said wth go for it not wanting to kick myself for not getting it in the future. so i did my research and found little to no info on them other than they are rarely seen in the trade, are commonly mistaken for eels or snakes which the latter would be difficult since they are usually pretty deep fish. they apparently have fangs on their inner cheeks which i have yet to see so i was hesitant to put it in my reef with other fish,so i put him in the qt for now to see how he interacted with the current chromies and clown goby as its residents. he is pounding frozen like a champ which is hard to get, i have to say he is pretty friggin awesome

 

[TheSherm]

Lovin this! Keep posting on this as you acclimate him to the main tank

 

[Master Shake]

no prob that is the goal of this thread

 

[duromega]

pretty nice fish
saw one the other day on a documentary , fell in love right away

 

[fishman1069]

Awesome fish! What a cute little face lol Best of luck with him

 

[Zuska]

pretty fish i want one

 

[SIReefer]

Nice find - good luck with it.

 

[Master Shake]

almost a week with being with other fish and still pounding frozen, its almost like it doesnt acknowledge the other fish as even being there so as im concerned no problem so far.

 

[Master Shake]

i have a video on my phone but dont know how to post it if interested let me know how to post or pm with number so i can text

 

[duromega]

can you upload the vid to youtube?

 

[Master Shake]

but thats so much work lol #firstworldproblems

 

[Cu455]

Had one for a day maybe a little more. Woke up to this.

 

[Master Shake]

well i have a few updates on this, while eating like a pig he would get real nasty towards the other fish for about 5 minutes or so after feeding. he never caught them but would snap at them like he wanted to eat them which made me really skeptical about adding him to the main system. Was thinking of a few options: sell, donate or just make that tank just for him. well in the meantime of deciding nature had another idea for it. the wind on monday blew down a few power poles in my area knocking out power for about 13 hours, i had a generator up after about 4-5. i walked downstairs at about 330 am to switch everything back over to the house electric and found him on the floor , no idea how he got out since that tank was sealed tight but i guess he found a crack somewhere but i guess the fortunate thing is that is the only thing i lost during the blackout

 

[Master Shake]

and cu455 i dont think i would have put it with a shark

 

[Cu455]

Wasn't the sharks fault. My grouper inhaled as a reaction when I added it. I got the grouper to spit it out. But he was pretty messed up. The next morning I saw that with the shark. The shark just ate the eyes.

I learned my lesson and used a acclimation box for the second one. He is doing fine.

Normally I won't hijack your thread but I am assuming your updates are done with.

can you upload the vid to youtube?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=rI39ONG4lOw

 

[Awibrandy]

That's to bad John!

 

[Master Shake]

yea no prob, i dont think your hijacking the thread and for now im done until i get another if i ever do, this would be a place to post about them if anyone was ever interested in getting one or wanted to know more about it

 

[Sharkbait420]

Very cool and unique fish. Does it behave like an eel? How thick does it get?

 

[duromega]

sorry for your loss

 

[Master Shake]

gunna have to say it acted like a eel and a blenny at the same time, dont think it gets thick at all, the actual body portion of it was only about half an inch thick at max. when the fins were all the way open it practically tripled to quadrupled in size