Sad Scooter Blenny

[Tina]

I have a 54 gallon reef tank set up since last August.

Have had a Scooter Blenny for about 3 months and this past week he started going downhill. My Blue Tang came down with ich and I quaratined it. Am feeding the fish in the main tank garlic. All fish are fine.

The Scooter has become very inactive, doesn't climb on the live rock, hangs around on the sand and is REALLY skinny.

I don't feed the Scooter copepods/isopods [sp]. Who/what/where do I find them? I live in a fairly remote area where the closest BIG city is a 2.5 hour flight away so things have to be trucked or flown in. Do these creatures come in frozen/flake form? right now our temps are near -40, so fresh wouldn't survive the trip.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Leslie]

Hi, Tina. When I started out about a year ago (I'm still very new to this), I bought a Scooter Blenny and he was charming. Loved him. He began to decline and when I realized what was happening, it was too late. I tried feeding live brine with a tube. In my very beginner opinion, we shouldn't try the really difficult feeders until we know what we're doing and have the proper setup (in the case of dragonets, a huge, very mature tank, neither of which I have). But sometimes I learn the hard way. I noticed the decline of mine when he became less active. Then, almost overnight, he got skinny, and then even more so, even with specific live brine feedings. I took him to the reef store (great people) which probably stressed him out beyond recovery, but figured he stood a better chance in their established tank than my food deprived tank. He didn't make it. Since I have no plans for the huge system, I won't get another, nor will I get a Mandarin. In my small tank (29 gal.) it's a death sentence. Good luck. If anyone knows how to obtain 'pods', please let us new guys know. It would be wonderful!

 

[Leslie]

PS - Be careful if you siphon live brine into a tube to deposit near your blenny, but then, they really don't taste that bad!

 

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the board Tina!

I live in a pretty small town too and my Local Fish Store isn't worth much in the information department. While i still consider myself a newbie in this hobby, i've picked up alot of useful information just by checking out the posts found here.

About your question, copepods and isopods can't be bought in flake or frozen form like everyday fish food. What happens is that they either hitchhike in on Live Rock or you can order a starter kit from Indo-Pacific Sea Farms (IPSF) and they'll eventually reproduce into sizeable enough population to sustain one of these difficult feeders. Provided your tank is big enough and that's another subject of debate.

Our resident scooter expert IMO is HARRISON. He's got his scooters eating frozen foods and this may be the best immediate route to try with yours.

Some may say to take him back to your LFS. I'd disagree since they didn't warn you that these fish were difficult to keep in the first place. In My Opinion, they'll probably just end up selling it to someone else who may not even care enough to educate their self.

Good luck and I hope it works out,
again, Welcome Aboard!
po

 

[Tina]

Thanks for your replies.

I guess I was over-eager when I got the Scooter. My LFS didn't tell me he was a difficult fish nor that they don't do well in aquariums. Otherwise, my LFS has been really wonderful.

I feel pretty irresponsible now, I usually read as much info as I can before I buy. I'm sure my LFS will put him in one of their tanks, I'm just waiting for a call from them. Important thing for me is that the little guy survives.

One of those unfortunate learning experiences.

Tina

 

[GMH320]

Tina,
I have had great success feeding my scooter any type of fresh fish, such as tilapia or even clams. Cut it up into very thin slivers and target feed with a feeding stick. It helps if you wiggle it in front of him so that he thinks that it is alive. BTW, you can freeze the fish or clams and shave off slivers as you need it, makes it a little easier to cut. Good luck.
Greg

 

[Anonymous]

nice tip Greg!
thanks

 

[dmentnich]

Hi Tina,

I cannot offer you advice on how to get it feeding right away, but for the long term to provide pods for it you may want to look at setting up pod piles in the aquarium. Pod piles are pretty much piles of rubble where they can reproduce in safety and when they wander out they will provide food for the bleany. It will take awhile for the population of pods to increase to the point where they would be considered a food source so if you can keep it going for a month or two and set up the piles you should have a self-sustaining source of food for the little guy.

The link to a good article on pod piles is HERE

I hope that helps- and good luck,

-Danny

 

[fishfarmer]

Try frozen brine or frozen mysis shrimp target fed in front of him.