Lawnmower Blenny

[Grandczar]

hmmmm... Petco?
This could be the problem!
Just a guess...

 

[T4Stock]

I would try a different source. My Mower is like a tank... no disease, hearty.... chalk this one up to an unusual occurance?

 

[Newreefkeeper]

Hi all,

I bought a lawnmower blenny from a lfs on Sunday afternoon and it died this evening.

I put it in the 20G quarantine tank, where there were already two scooter blennies. The other two blennies were bought a week earlier from Petco, and are still alive and well.

Anyone has any suggestion why the lawnmower blenney could not even survive for more than a day?

When it first got in the tank, it hid in the corner. This morning, it was on the live rock full of algae, and I thought it started eating. This evening, I found it laying on its side and breathed with difficulty. Not too much later, it was totally dead.

It did not show any sign of being attacked, or disease (e.g. white spots). I did follow the normal acclimating steps, the same way I put the other two blennies a week ago.

I am wondering if I should go back to the lfs to complain, or this is just the nature of this hobby.

Any comments are welcome. Thanks!

 

[tanzy]

Any ammonia or nitrite?

 

[phishy4]

I lost a diamond goby like this. He died 10 hours after I got him. He was fat and huge. Everything in my tank was doing fine. Maybe just some fish just stress out to much from moving and they go quick.

 

[Toadally1]

They are for the most part very tough. We are moving and I had to tear my tank down for the move. The blenny was mia and I thought it had died. I was finishing the tank up and pouring some water out of the rubbermaid tubs out in the driveway when I saw something move. There he was! So I scouped him up in my hand and placed him in the tank. That was four days ago and he's doing fine. I would say they are pretty tough fish.

 

[Newreefkeeper]

Thanks for the responses.

To clarify a few points:
1. The dead blenny came from another local LFS, not Petco. The two from Petco are still alive, more than one week already.

2. Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate are all zero in the quarantine tank.

Any more ideas for the death of the lawnmower blenny?

 

[davelin315]

What store did you buy it from? I can only guess that it was not a healthy fish to begin with or he got overly stressed in the bag. They are very resilient, and I don't think he got picked on, since they usually do the picking. You don't have more than one, do you? Blennies will fight each other to the death for the most part (I don't count the scooters).

 

[Newreefkeeper]

Dave, I noticed that you live in Chicago area also. I don't want to mention the LFS name, but it does have a very professional look, and it sells SPS frags too. I don't want a single incident to ruin the LFS name.

The lawnmower blenny died in my 20G quarantine tank after the first day. There were two scooter blennies in the 20G when the lawnmower was put in, but they were all much smaller in size than the lawnmower. These scooters are still alive in the 20G as of now.

The LFS was only 30 minutes away from my home. I think that the stress in the bag should be minimal.

I was told that I should acclimate the fish for more than 75 minutes. I did the acclimation for only about 30 minutes, but I did the same for all the other 8 fish I bought before. Maybe I was lucky until now.

I guess I will use more time for acclimation next time, hopefully this will not happen again.

Thanks!

 

[danmhippo]

You acclimate them for 30min? Was he in the bag, sealed, the whole time?

 

[danmhippo]

I used to have a lawnmower with a redlip blenny and a scooter blenny. (yeah, I was ignorant back then). The LM is the smallest of all and the last one in the same tank, still he is the king of the blennies, and the other 2 can only hide in the rocks and behind the protein skimmer.......it was a VERY long time ago where the skimmers were still used in the tank.

I just think you got a bad fish.

 

[kaotica]

i lost a new Coral Beauty Angel last night the same way... just too much stress and the fish was hurting very bad, it was really sad to watch panting upside down in a corner of the tank, so i pulled it out and put it in the freezer. RIP.

 

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't blame the LFS here, personally I have noticed the mortality rate of Salarias fasciatus to rise. Usually if they make it the first few weeks they are in it for the long haul, however I have had quite a few succumb in hours to days upon arrival.

We drip acclimate and quarentine all new arrivals and it seems that some are being damaged or stressed at the distributor level or during shipping.

 

[Rick O]

Hi Newreefkeeper,

Sorry to hear about your loss. Lawnmower blennies are the most interesting fish to watch IMO.

I would suggest that you get a water sample from the LFS and test their PH and salinity. Compare this with yours. I would try to match the parameters in your Q tank with the LFS's.

Rick

 

[Anonymous]

Like I have stated in my previous posts aboutt he LM, they are very resilient. I think you just got a bad fish. My LM I got as a hitchhiker on a piece of LR. Bought the LR at a LFS and drove ten minutes home out of water and then plopped the rock into the tank and he came swimming out. No water for ten minutes and no tank acclimation. 6 months later he is still doing well. So after all that I would say that he is a pretty tough fish.

 

[Carpentersreef]

I agree with Rick O. You have to ask yourself (well, I do, anyways), that if you DIDN'T buy that blennie, would he still be alive in the fishstore? Or was it a coincidence and he was in the process of dying? I would get the water quality params from the LFS and try to figure out where things went wrong. It would drive me crazy, personally, because I would not want it to happen to another new arrival.
What about temp during transport? Any chance for major fluctuations? I use a food cooler to pick up new arrivals.
I hope whatever it was, you figure it out.

Good luck,
Mitch

 

[Rick O]

I just bought a pair of clownfish from the LFS today. I checked the water and the S.G. was 1.014 (I keep mine at 1.024). PH was a little over 8.0 (hard to tell for sure with a Salifert test kit). I'm now in the process of an acclimation the will take several hours.

Rick