Algae Blenny Eating Feather Duster

[pweissma]

Algae blennys have a reputation for nipping at clams so I had thought myself lucky that mine never nipped at my maxima clam despite often sitting less than an inch away. The algae blenny used to be a finicky eater but will now eat just about any prepared food.

Recently I got a feather duster and made a naive post asking how to get it to dig itself into the sand. I was corrected and told to stick the feather duster into a crevice in the rocks. The feather duster was in the tank for a month but about a week after putting the feather duster in a rock crevice the algae blenny started nipping at the stalk. First I thought it was eating algae on the stalk but now I'm not too sure and think it's eating the stalk itself although I don't yet see any damage.

Is this a serious threat to the feather duster so I should move it out asap? Can I wait a bit to see what happens. I don't think the feather duster is firmly attached yet so moving it probably wouldn't be a big deal.

Thanks

 

[Jzhou]

I would examine it some more. If it doesn't look like it is doing any damage to the stalk itself it should be ok. My tangs and algae blenny peck at the algae that is growing on my feather dusters all the time and its been ok since I got them in October.

 

[pweissma]

Thanks. I see white flecks fall off the stalk when the blenny nips at it but I'm hoping that it's going after algae as you say. I really want to be able to keep it in my Solana.