Help! My Lawn Mower Blennie is sick

[LeslieS]

I am so worried. My first fish is sick. Just last Saturday his little belly was round and pouchy and now it is really hollow. It looks like pictures of a severly malnuorished fish. In the picture, you can even see that his skin looks loose.

The bryopsis is gone from my tank, but there is still plenty of micro algae which he seems to be eating. Jerry added a sheet of nori just in case. Jack (the LMB) checked it out and slept on it, but didn't eat any. He does seem to be eating things in the water column which he never did before.

Also, there seems to be a cloudy spot near his tail which I thought he also had when I first got him 1 month ago. After he had been in the tank for a day or so, it went away. His markings do change when he is stressed.

What else could make him look/be hungry?

 

[ezee]

Leslie,

LB's need a lot of continual natural algal growth to munch on all day. Many of them actually do starve in otherwise healthy tanks because of the lack of natural algal foods.

You might want to "borrow" some algae ridden liverock. Some other ideas would be tossing in some macro algae from a sump. How much prepared food is he eating? How large is your tank?

E

 

[LeslieS]

My tank is 120, 2 months old, all parameters at 0
The tank was fed for the first time yesterday, but he was not interested
I had bubble caulerpa in the main tank until yesterday

I will see if anyone has a hair algae problem and wants to sell a rock

 

[jhale]

you can try some spirilina flakes, that and the nori should keep him fat.

it's just getting him to eat it now might be a problem.

he is looking much too skinny skinny for a LMB
I hope he starts eating the flake food soon.

 

[Quang]

FWIW, Leslie, my guy is an omnivore and likes to eat pellets. Try getting some Formula One and Formula Two pellets (Petco in 14th st. Union Square has them) and feed it to him. Try getting the small or medium sized pellets. You'll need these food anyway if you plan on getting other fish.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

My tank is 120, 2 months old, all parameters at 0
The tank was fed for the first time yesterday, but he was not interested
I had bubble caulerpa in the main tank until yesterday

I will see if anyone has a hair algae problem and wants to sell a rock

There should have been a lot of natural food with 120G! That's odd he does not have enought to eat.

I do keep all kind of rocks at different conditions. I check if can trade you one per requirement. I have one kind that has very thick stalky hair aglae that feel like a brush-I guess your blenny would not happen to eat those, right. I don't want to tade you the fury ones unless you have a seperate tank for it. It may become too hard to manage once you got them in te main tank.

 

[LeslieS]

Frozen Emerald food - NO
Spirulina Flakes - NO
Formula One - NO
did not get formula 2 yet

He does nip at the rocks. Here are pictures of my algae just to make sure it is algae, and I am not crazy.

Wingo, can you PM me your location and phone number? If he does not start eating soon, I will quarantine him with some hair algae and will need to trade for a rock.

 

[Quang]

Leslie I'm all out of ideas.
Ask the seller what he/she fed the fish.
Good luck.

btw...you have some really colorful rocks.

 

[LeslieS]

He didn't like the bubble caulerpa, so I just ordered 3 different macro algaes:

Lettuce
Toad Stool
and Shaving Brush

Hopefully they arrive soon and he likes them. I cannot believe how bad he looks after just one week.

Also, overfeeding leads to nitrates which leads to algae right? so overfeeding it is for a while. I moved 10 of my snails to the sump as well, but with the macro algae already in the sump, there is really no other algae for them to eat so I don't dare move more.

He is still active, so even though he looks bad, I hope he recovers.

 

[reefman]

i seriously doubt there isnt any aglea to eat for jack. he may not be eating cause he's not feeling well. if all ur water para is good n sg is correct, give jack some time, they usually very tough n can bare thru it.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Leslie go to the store and buy some sinking algae wafers. place 1 or 2 in the tank and see if he eats. Nitrates can be fixed with a water change. Put some nori in the bottom of the tank under a rock too.

 

[LeslieS]

Chief,

The sinking algae wafers made him yawn, but he crabs ate them like cookies! The picked them up in their claws and stuffed their little faces. lol

He has nori in a clip in his favorite spot. He sleeps on the clip and ignores the nori. I will still put some under a rock. Maybe he will like that atmospere better.

I hope he finds something he likes soon.

 

[DevIouS]

He didn't like the bubble caulerpa, so I just ordered 3 different macro algaes:

Lettuce
Toad Stool
and Shaving Brush

Toad Stool algea?
Are you sure that is correct?

Also, overfeeding leads to nitrates which leads to algae right? so overfeeding it is for a while.

That doesn't sound right.

 

[tomzpc]

It seems to me that over half of lawn mower blennies that make it into our tanks starve to death within the first year, based on my own experiences and reading that of others. The one that I have now has taken to nori so I've had no problem keeping him plump but I tried two over the years before and neither of them made it. All that you can do is to keep trying different things and hope for the best. Good luck.

 

[nanoreefer22]

Leslie, hope the little guy can pull thru, but I'm wondering about what phil pointed out...I dont think nitrates lead to algae blooms and I doubt you want to put your tank thru the stress. Try to get him eating prepared foods and nori.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Leslie, we're pulling for you and him!

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

Those are algae in your pics looks like coraline algae in different colors. I don't think aglae blenny like those types. I seen most of the algae blenny like to eat the algae that looks softer and easier to scrap off the rock or glass.

Frozen Emerald food - NO
Spirulina Flakes - NO
Formula One - NO
did not get formula 2 yet

He does nip at the rocks. Here are pictures of my algae just to make sure it is algae, and I am not crazy.

Wingo, can you PM me your location and phone number? If he does not start eating soon, I will quarantine him with some hair algae and will need to trade for a rock.

 

[sporty]

Leslie,

I had the same thing happen to one a while back.It wasn't that he didn't have enough food it was something else.Check your water,especially nitrates-mine was high at that point in time.Do you have a uv sterilizer?I do know that I purchased him sick with out knowing.
I had a hard time with this because it was my wives' favorite ;and my little one and wife had named him gopher.

 

[House of Laughter]

Leslie,

Grumpy old men (AKA Blenny Jack) are famous for dying of starvation in captivity. Glad this one didn't come from HOF but am bummed to hear you're going through this - I hate it when they don't make it. :-(

They are also weird in thier activity - Krisen gave me his LMB when he broke down his 65g and believe it was eating frozen when he gave it to me (Krisen, correct me if I am wrong). Now, he does't go near the stuff, rather eats like a cow all day on my rock and has grown, colored up to a really kewl redish on the tail and seems very very happy.

About 8 months ago, I bought one from a LFS and it died in about 2 weeks. Sad to say, it is common for them to do so. Another thing that is out of your control is the prior handling - like one other respected reefer here suggested, you may want to got back to the source.

You're dedicated to helping him out and hope he pulls through for you. They really are one of the cooler fish on the reef (JMO).

Good luck and hope he turns around.

House

 

[PalmTree]

I'm rooting for Jack. I've had 2 so far. The first starved to death dispite the varity of food I threw in the tank. the second one got beat up by my Kole tang and went up and over into the overflow into my sump. Both times were real sad. I really hope your LMB pulls through. You're a good person for trying so hard.