Feeding lawnmower blenny?

[Carissa]

I have a lawnmower blenny who has done a terrific job of cleaning up all my algae. However now I'm afraid he might starve as the algae has been very well taken care of. Is there anything I can feed him? Should I just keep feeding the tank (no other fish in there) to create nutrients to grow more algae?

[leebca]

You have sort of fallen into a trap. Someone recommended a fish to handle a problem, now the problem is under control and the fish will starve to death. It is the basic reason I don't ever recommend to use marine fishes to solve system or display tank problems.

The fish should have been taught how to eat prepared foods during its quarantine. It's one of the important reasons to quarantine wild-caught fishes.

At this point in time, the best way to save this fish would be to move it into a quarantine tank and train it to eat prepared foods high in spirulina, marine algae, and even nori.

[Carissa]

Perhaps it does know how to eat prepared foods. I just haven't tried anything yet. I can still see algae on the back wall of my tank if I look at the right angle, and he seems to be picking stuff off of it, so maybe he is still being fed enough. How do you go about training a fish to eat and what should I try to feed it?

[leebca]

http://www.reefland.com/forum/marine-fish-care-health-disease-treatment/21406-food-presentation.html#post153526
Mandarin Diner by Marc Levenson - Reefkeeping.com
Melevsreef.com - Melev's Mandarin Diner

The above provide ideas on getting fish (especially fishes like Mandarins which are incorrectly labeled as only able to eat pods) to eat prepared food.

Unless the fish was eating prepared foods in the wild or from where you acquired it, I don't think it knows how. What you may mean is that some are able to catch on sooner than others.

One of the most challenging part of keeping such fish is getting the food specifically to them and not allowing other fish or invertebrates to get the food or take their food.

[Carissa]

Well that shouldn't be a problem since he's in the tank by himself (other than the snails). He is still snacking on algae, but I'll see what else I can get for him. What do you think of broccoli? I've read a few sites that say that that's the only non-ocean sourced food that is actually healthy.

[leebca]

Broccoli is about the only land food that is worthwhile to marine fishes. It just isn't a permanent diet.

Only the broccoli flowers are to be used (those green pellets). They should be blanched first, then frozen, then thawed prior to feeding. You can keep a bit of them frozen after blanching for up to a month in the freezer, if well sealed.

Look at the online sponsors to Reefland and your LFS for frozen herbivore fish foods. Read the ingredients. You want to find something very high in spirulina and macro marine algae content.

[Seige]

you can buy algae waffers to supplement the algae available in the tank. It may or may not eat it. I wouldn't do that long term though. It needs to be returned to the fish store or you need to identify better foods for it as Lee advised.

[bschuerman]

Pick up some algae sheets for the blenny and also maybe some formula 1 frozen food. Might also soak the food in vitamin C, Garlic and amino acids to encourage feeding.

[Carissa]

Well the algae is back and I can see his bite marks in it on the glass. So maybe he's doing ok as far as getting enough food. He's definitely healthy looking and active, in fact he's more colorful now then when I first got him. When I get a chance I will get some algae sheets for him though, just in case the algae decides to go back into hiding again.

[Carissa]

He's getting skinnier, I can tell now. I need to do something. I checked at the pet store today, they only have frozen meaty foods, nothing for herbivores. So I got these pellets to try, the first two ingredients are whole kelp, then spirulina, so I figured they might be good. I just don't know how to get him to eat them. If I just dump them into the tank, they sink and eventually the snails eat them, he hasn't shown any interest in doing anything other than algae grazing. I already tried lodging an algae wafer on the rock away from the snails, and I don't think he's shown any interest in it yet (24 hours later). So now what I did was I took a piece of nylon and put a bunch of those kelp pellets in it and tied it up really tight, and lodged it up by my overflow box where I notice him grazing for algae sometimes. Maybe he'll learn to take pieces from that, and at least it should last a few days up there to give him a chance to find it and try it out. Any other suggestions?

[Seige]

I saw this earlier. Might give you some ideas you haven't tried yet.

Lawnmower Blenny Diet? - Reef Sanctuary

[Seige]

It's a long shot but you could try lifting the rock you have. There may be algae on the bottom edges or on the glass behind it (if it's against glass) that he couldn't get at.

The only other thing I can think of is moving all your snails out of his tank so he doesn't have competition for algae. You can feed the snails the pellets you bought to buy you some time until you figure out your next step...

[Carissa]

Thanks for that link. I haven't been feeding the tank much at all, so I think I'm going to start feeding some of those kelp pellets every day, this should at least keep the snails busy and maybe in the process, contribute some N and P to the water to get some other algae growing. And maybe the blenny will decide to start trying them out. With the low bioload it's running at undetectable levels on both N and P, so algae isn't plentiful. I'm also going to try to lower my light strip to provide more light intensity, maybe this will increase the algae growth too along with the snail feeding. I don't want to compromise water quality, but the fact is that the bioload is very light right now anyway so no harm done in feeding the tank daily at this point.

Yay! He's trying to eat the pellets I have tied up in there. I hope he can get enough out to fatten him up.

[Seige]

Excellent. Now that he's tried some and decided he likes them maybe he'll chase them down when you drop them in.

For future reference you might want to try growing foods. Could be worth it especially for you since it'll lower your costs. You can try this stuff... (click link)
Welcome to Reef Crew - A Bionomic Solutions Company

[leebca]

The constant feeding of pellets will shorten the lifespan of the fish. Read the ingredients. Fish don't digest wheat nor wheat products. You need to follow the recommendations given here:
Feeding Marine Fish and Fish Nutrition

Getting the fish to start eating is important and the rule is, "Feed anything to start a fish to eating." But don't let it get in the rut of eating the wrong foods.

[Carissa]

I'm about to place an order on JL Aquatics. They sell various prepared frozen foods and algae sheets. Would there be something good prepared or frozen that I could try? They have green, red, and brown algae sheets; and for frozen foods they have just regular Formula One and Two foods among other things. I can't find anything frozen that seems to be strictly herbivorous, it's mostly meaty frozen foods. Any suggestions on brands or types of food that may be good for him? Also what about an overall diet for my clownfish? Would the frozen preparations be better than the flake that I already have? It's going to be far cheaper for me to stock up now on this order, besides the fact that I can't get most of this stuff here anyway. They have Hikari, Ocean Nutrition, and SanFransisco Bay frozen foods there.

Edit: looks like the frozen foods are out. It's going to cost me $160 shipping....

[leebca]

Sorry to hear about the cost of shipping. Frozen foods are the next best thing to live foods. Do use the algae sheets. Use different colors.

Maybe someday when you visit a metropolitan area you can find frozen foods you can pack into a cooler and drive home with.

[Seige]

It's going to cost me $160 shipping....

Is big Al's any cheaper since they are a lot closer?

#1 Big Al's Aquarium Supplies: Fish Tanks, Stands, Decorations, Filters, Lighting

I had to type "saltwater" in the search box to get the right foods listed otherwise it was mostly Koi products.

If it's not on the online site maybe you can get it shipped from the Montreal location.

Big Al's Montreal
2315G Trans Canadienne
Point Claire, Quebec
H9R 5X5
(514) 428-0099

[Carissa]

That is Big Al's. The cost is high because they have to overnight it.

I might be able to get frozen food in at my lfs, but what would I ask for? Frozen what?

[Seige]

oh thought you mentioned ordering from JL's. They can't 2 day ship it? Most things should last 48 hours...

First off, see what the LFS has available. It'll depend on the size of your fish and they should be able to tell you. Fish over 3" may eat PEMysis shrimp. Smaller then that you'd probably want brine shrimp. Frozen sheet of whichever food should last a while since your only going to have a few fish. You don't need a huge amount. I drop in a piece about 1/2 the size of a dime once a day for all my fish and shrimp. Sometimes it comes seperated in cubes. That's good to. It's easy to cut or break off when frozen.

You can nuke it for 10 seconds or just toss it in frozen.