Help, algae blenny dropping weight fast

[pwlong]

Have you tried sushi nori or the Seaweed Selects. Maybe he still might eat this.

 

[slojmn1]

pwlong, I have ben trying nori this past few days. I am trying 3 varieties in hopes that one of them might catch his eye. It is hard with my tang eating most of it over time. I am attaching it to various rocks throughout the tank in hopes that the more natural placement of it will help. My tang is trained to eat from a homemade clip but tracks down all the nori in the tank over time and gets to it. Though the blenny has plenty of oppurtunities. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[DKKA]

You might try taking a small piece of rock out of the tank and working some veggie pellets (I've used HBH enterprise's "Large Graze for herbivores) into the pores of the rock.
The pellets I used would get smeared into the rock and the blenny could eat them off the rock. I've had some success with this, the only problem was my clown would usually beat him to the punch.
Dan

 

[Bobzarry]

have you tried Gracilaria parvispora? IPSF sells it under the name tang heaven. Another idea is to research his place of origin, and see what grows there naturaly.

Bob

 

[scubadiver11]

He might have internal parasites in his intestines, which would explain his not eating and wasting away. Maybe you should try dosing your tank with a medicine for this, such as Metrozol.

 

[1Fish2Fish]

It may be a disease or parasite - I just saw my bi-color blenny die of ‘starvation’. I’d had him a year and he always ate well - I have no idea what happened. But I’ve seen it before in my freshwater fish, too. It’s like one day, out of the blue, they look really anorexic. They might eat a little, but they just get worse and die after 4 or 5 days. Does anyone know what this could be?

I hope that’s not the case with your blenny, but if so, don’t blame yourself.

 

[JeremyR]

Algae blennies are micro-algae eaters by nature.. diatoms, glass algae, etc. While some will eat seaweed selects or "tang heaven" type stuff, many will not, and most never eat prepared food at all, although some will. It could be an internal disorder as mentioned, or it could be drug catch as this is common with this type of fish. The majority of indo algae blennies are doomed before you even get them. Having your LFS feed one isn't a good indicator.. what you should do is watch it at the store.. if it's picking all over the glass and decorations, you have a better chance of getting it to live off the micro algae in your aquarium. If it's just sitting there doing nothing at the LFS, don't buy it.

 

[slojmn1]

Jeremy, This guy was definately just sitting in a tank, not picking at all, at the lfs full of live rock but not much in the way of algae. They seem to move fish pretty fast. Maybe this guy was doomed to begin with. I'll keep trying though.

 

[slojmn1]

I bought a 4" algae blenny from my lfs about 3 weeks ago, fat and healthy, to help with major algae in my tank. Well the little bugger is dropping weight fast and appears to not like the various algae in my tank. I cannot get him to take any prepared foods either. The lfs said he was eating for them, but did not eat when they fed him. They felt he had already eaten that day and I, like a fool, went ahead and purchased him. I figured with the 6 different varieties of algae in my tank something would appeal to him. He appeared to be eating off the rocks, glass, and sides frequently the first week. Since then he has really tailed off so I have been offering him a variety of algae and meaty foods to no avail. I am so bummed about this as I know that algae blenies will waste away if their food source is not available. I just can't believe with all the various choices he can't find anything that works for him. I feel now that he is so skinny he is refusing to eat at all and will perish soon. Any ideas or am I just screwed? I hate to see this happen as I am so very conscientious about my purchases. This time I really blew it and feel this little guy is paying the price.

 

[wasabi]

i have a lawnmower { algea blenny}. he didnt eat anything his first two months but algea. i kept putting flake in for him and he started out eating flake. he now competes with my clarki clown for any food that is given, including fresh fish.

 

[Jazzcat]

I've had much better success with my bicolor blenny than the lawnmower. Don't know why. The lawnmower initially ate well, but then appeared to have consumed all the algae he preferred, and stopped eating. I couldn't get him to eat anything else, and he perished.

The bicolor began eating every kind of nuisance algae like a champ from the first day! He's been going strong ever since. This guy eats *everything*! And he is much more attractive than the lawnmower.

 

[shr00m]

is there algae in the tank?