[awjn]

Does a lawnmower blenny need hair algae to graze on or does it eat pellets and flake food as well? I have hair algae growing in my tank, and just wanted to know if i can keep the blenny if he eats up all the hair algae.

[72fishboy]

i've heard that once the algae is gone that the blenny basically starves to death. i had one for a long time but die mysteriously w/ algae still on the rocks??

[patrick1234]

it is really hard to keep them after they run outa food i had one that i fed wafer algae pelits to and he lived for about 1year and 3 months
down side i had to do water changes all the time

[BlueCornerPalau]

I believe they only eat algae they can scrape off wit thier teeth till they get older.
I read adults (5 inch?) can be offered seaweed. Nori, green algae, etc some meaty foods?
I havent been able to get mine to eat Julian Sprung seaweed yet. but he seems to scrape everything he needs of the rock, glass, sand.
Some people keep a "culture" of fresh hair algae to offer ie keep 2-3 small live rocks rotate em into show tank from sump or QT tank. Like feeding Tangs I think.
I'm still reading and learning about them too.
But mine has never eaten anything I throe in there, mysis, flake, pellet, algae wafer, seaweed..
So if you find something yours will eat let me know LOL

[plecosword]

this bleny sounds like a bad idea on a small tank sice larger tanks can have more algea than small tanks.

[Waterlogged]

Mine eats frozen food.

[plecosword]

hhmm, how about their temperament? do they bully fish around? i have heard of them killing fish. And i know it says their peaceful.
does anyone have the black sailfin?

[Mattfish]

I just got one and the lfs suggested Formula Two food from Ocean Nutrition. It's gelatinized algae and "other stuff" which gives them something to eat besides the algae on the rock.

Our guy's only been in there for 3 2 days so I can't help on whther this works or not. But I suspect in our size tank, now that we have the lights back on there, we'll generate enough algae soon that he'll have plenty to munch on...

[BlueCornerPalau]

Formula two sounds good did you get the flake or pelletS??? I'll try some.
So far all mine eats is what he scrapes up. Seems to make the puple coraline algae look great after he trims it too?
He never seems to bother any of his tankmates. Cleaner shrimp even comes up to him and cleans him sometimes and he just sits there.

[Mattfish]

I got the frozen pellets. They're kind of a pain in that the gelatin holds several together so they don't pop out easily. And I'm not even sure the blenny gets to eat it since several of the other fish seem to get there first. On the other hand, he still looks healthy.

I still need to figure out if adding algae-type food is a bad thing for the nitrate ba;ance. We've added a lot of fish back in suddenly so our water is out of balance right now, and we're watching it closely to make sure it comes back to where it should quickly.

[dinor2]

I have tried a few different types of food all mentioned above and mine won't eat those either. He is only about four inches or so long so it may be that he is still pretty young; he won't even sift the sand for algae yet, just scrapes it off things.

I read also that you don't want to have too much of a clean up crew, a consistant amount of algae is actually good, provided it isn't running over your tank and corals! So I am not worried that mine is getting enough to eat, he's always eating and seems healthy.

As far as other fish, he's my lone fish, for now! But I'm going to be adding another tank mate or two on Saturday so I'll post again after I see how he gets along with them. (It'll be a couple weeks of course since they'll be in the QT first!).

Dana

[david6789]

Will they eat Diatom? Its a type of algae no?

[Mattfish]

Mine uses his teeth to go scratching along also, like Dana's and is about the same size or smaller. Could be enough. Mine seems to be eating OK, and also seems to like being petted by my wife..... strange fish.....

[Ganrin]

Ive never seen my lawnmower eat what I feed, but after feeding time he usually looks like hes swallowed a marble so I assume hes eating something in addition to his grazing.
Lawnmowers can be territorial vs other blennies especially, and other hole dwellers in general. Mine seems timid and gets run back into his hideouts by my blue tang if hes out front too long. The tang doesnt actually nip or spike him, it just comes up about an inch away from him and shakes at him, and he will move to the backside of the rockwork.