lawn mower blenny
- Thread starter acecool
- Start date
They primarily eat film algae from rock and glass surfaces. They are omnivores though and they will pick off the occasional pod that wanders by or happens to be hiding in the algae they chomp. No serious predation however.
When I was acclimating mine to food supplements I noticed it would pick pods off the glass when the actinics came on and the pods came out. That gave me the idea to try frozen mysis and that's the first frozen food it ever accepted. Now it eats all kinds of flake but it still prefers frozen mysis to anything else I feed. I've never seen them take mini-stars. Very cool fish with great personality IMO.
When I was acclimating mine to food supplements I noticed it would pick pods off the glass when the actinics came on and the pods came out. That gave me the idea to try frozen mysis and that's the first frozen food it ever accepted. Now it eats all kinds of flake but it still prefers frozen mysis to anything else I feed. I've never seen them take mini-stars. Very cool fish with great personality IMO.
Any fish that has a chance to catch a pod will go for it. Natural food supply to many fish. Like others said, they don't spend the day looking for them like a mandarin would.
Mine just sat on rock all day waiting for food to fall from the sky. Had no interest in algae either.
Mine just sat on rock all day waiting for food to fall from the sky. Had no interest in algae either.
FWIW, i took mine out a week after introducing it, a hellion he was.
he perched on a plating monti.i have, beat the tar out of it. i too never saw him eat algae but he would nip at corals occasionally. he was constantly knocking things over and being a real pain so i returned him.
LFS said it was not typical behavior but i won't try that again, for a while anyway.
he perched on a plating monti.i have, beat the tar out of it. i too never saw him eat algae but he would nip at corals occasionally. he was constantly knocking things over and being a real pain so i returned him.
LFS said it was not typical behavior but i won't try that again, for a while anyway.
We need to make somthing clear about this species of fish so you won't be disappointed with your purchase. First, they do perch on things. So if you're the kind of reefer who doesn't attach the corals firmly then things are going to get knocked over.
Second, I hear people say they never saw them eat algae and I never understand what they mean. I've never seen one in my life that didn't eat algae. I think people are thinking that they eat hair algae, and some people claim that they do but I've never seen it, when in fact they eat the algae film on rocks and glass. Heck, they leave little lip marks all over the glass. So they do eat algae but it isn't necessarily the algae you bought them to eat.
Also, once you get them to eat prepared foods they definitely reduce their natural grazing accordingly, as has been noted by a previous poster. Some people have had trouble getting their lm blennie to ever switch to prepared food at all. But in a 180g you should have enough film algae for it no matter what.
Second, I hear people say they never saw them eat algae and I never understand what they mean. I've never seen one in my life that didn't eat algae. I think people are thinking that they eat hair algae, and some people claim that they do but I've never seen it, when in fact they eat the algae film on rocks and glass. Heck, they leave little lip marks all over the glass. So they do eat algae but it isn't necessarily the algae you bought them to eat.
Also, once you get them to eat prepared foods they definitely reduce their natural grazing accordingly, as has been noted by a previous poster. Some people have had trouble getting their lm blennie to ever switch to prepared food at all. But in a 180g you should have enough film algae for it no matter what.
I just got another algae blenny for my 120 gallon tank, the other lives in a 45 gallon... Both are excellent fish. Completely non-agressive, non-invasive, and they're algae eating machines. Well, they were... until they discovered flake food.
One of mine is probably the fattest fish to ever exist. But he doesn't nip at corals, knock anything over, etc... The only thing he can be guilty of is sitting on some star polyps, which seem to have gotten used to him.
One of mine is probably the fattest fish to ever exist. But he doesn't nip at corals, knock anything over, etc... The only thing he can be guilty of is sitting on some star polyps, which seem to have gotten used to him.
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