fang blennies (Meiacanthus)

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haydn

New member
I like groups of small fish, I like watching interactions (hopefully not aggressive!) and I am fortunate to have a large system, the main display is 2000ltrs, with a bottom area of 2Square metres and 200Kilo+ of LR. I am researching small fish that I can keep as small groups, when I stumbled on the fang blennies of the genus Meiacanthus. They seem to fit the bill perfectly, small, hardy, colourful, not shy and as a bonus many tank bred.

My questions- I haven't found any references to people keeping them together as groups, I have found suggestions that they form harems, but not that they change sex or have obvious sexual differences, so buying a group would seem to be a gamble. Has anyone had experience of group dynamics- will males fight or are they tolerant. Has anyone kept 3-5 different species together, are they interspecies tolerant.

Any information of this group would be helpful, invert friendly?, tank mates, etc.
 
I don't have personal experience, but I have noticed in my LFS that they have upwards to 10 of them in one tank and I see some aggression ongoing while I am in the store. Now this group is in a 40 gallon breeder, so big difference. IMO, if you have enough rockwork, you may be able to get away with doing 2-3 different fang blennies. I would not do the same species of fang blennies. Maybe like a Smith's blenny, Harptail blenny, Midas/Canary, something like that.
 
scooter31707 said:
I don't have personal experience, but I have noticed in my LFS that they have upwards to 10 of them in one tank and I see some aggression ongoing while I am in the store. Now this group is in a 40 gallon breeder, so big difference. IMO, if you have enough rockwork, you may be able to get away with doing 2-3 different fang blennies. I would not do the same species of fang blennies. Maybe like a Smith's blenny, Harptail blenny, Midas/Canary, something like that.
Click to expand...

Forgive me but that rather defeats the point- I want a group (4-6) of the same species so I can get interaction within the species. I would also like 3-4 groups of different species- that will give me 16-24 individual fish enough to make an impact in the tank (I think it about 500US gallons), 2-3 fish would just disappear into the background.
 
Oh, maybe I misunderstood the question, but I don't know about that many. Maybe the experts will chime in. Like I stated earlier, I have seen them go at each other in the LFS, but that's a 40 gallon breeder.
 
What you want is one male and several females. The issue is that blennies do not change sex, so you can't just get a group of juveniles and let them figure it out on their own. Sexing them is also not the easiest thing to do, but it can be done (by examining their genitals, ideally under a microscope).
Another option would be to pick the most aggressive/dominant one and some of the more passive ones that the dominant doesn't attacked out of a larger group at a store.
If you are really lucky you may find it group that gets along well. The worst in that case could be that they are all females.

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Males are often reported to be larger and can look really emaciated during breeding season. I have also read that males may squabble normally but it is breeding season where the aggression is really shown.
 
ThRoewer said:
What you want is one male and several females. The issue is that blennies do not change sex, so you can't just get a group of juveniles and let them figure it out on their own. Sexing them is also not the easiest thing to do, but it can be done (by examining their genitals, ideally under a microscope).
Another option would be to pick the most aggressive/dominant one and some of the more passive ones that the dominant doesn't attacked out of a larger group at a store.
If you are really lucky you may find it group that gets along well. The worst in that case could be that they are all females.
Click to expand...

And hence my dilemma- I don't know about shops in the US but in the UK you may, if you are lucky, see 1 or 2 fish of the same species in a shop, they will not be in the same tank. If I decide to attempt to keep a group of 4-5 I am going to have to order them, I cannot ask the shop manager/owner to get me 10 then pick the 5 I want and leave the rest for him to sell on. Not only does s/he have to do it once they will have to do it for each species I order. clearly that is not acceptable for the shop.

By posting it on here I was hoping someone had experimented with groups of these fish or as the US has a more well developed captive breeding 'industry' than the UK and I was hoping maybe someone who worked in the industry may see this and answered.
 
Haydn, tmc can or at least a couple of years ago, stocked ora species. It's also very easy to get hold of sustainable aquatics fish and they do plenty of these http://sustainableaquatics.com/blennies/

Captive bred is the only way I would buy them. Wild specimens are terrible shippers from everything I have seen and my limited experience exporting a few. Those that do make it are hard to get feeding and can wither away. I think the reputation of their hardiness is because once acclimated and feeding they are pretty durable but if you are ordering a group of wilds through the shop you might need to overestimate how many you want in order to actually get a decent sized group.
 
Just a quick update on this. I contacted ORA and Sustainable Aquatics and asked some questions about fang blennies in groups. ORA were very helpful:D Sustainable less so:rolleye1:

TMC in the UK do import ORA stock and hopefully (fingers firmly crossed!) 5 of each, Smith's Blenny (Meiacanthus smithi), Striped Blenny (Meiacanthus grammistes), and this is where it gets complicated, either Forktail Blenny (Meiacanthus atrodorsalis) or Blackline Blenny (Meiacanthus nigrolineatus) (Such is the problem with Chinese whispers while using common names ) should be in my LFS this week. I would also like a group of Bundoon Blennys (Meiacanthus bundoon) but they are not available, hopefully they will turn up in the New Year.
 
An update on the Fang Blennies- They are brilliant They are active, not at all shy, if someone goes up to the tank the Smiths (Meiacanthus smithi), are as interested in them and come to the front. I don't know if that is because they are tank bred.

Both groups feed on brine and small krill, they 'look' at pellets and flake but they are not really interested. I think that's because there is a fair amount of macro life in the tank which they actively hunt, I think the Blacklines (Meiacanthus nigrolineatus) will eat flatworms.

There is a bit of chasing, but no fighting among the Smiths- I think I may have 2 males out of the five as they seem to be the main culprits. Their pectoral fins are white and very narrow (like F/W gouramis) they seem to flick these to signal to each other, as well as flaring their dorsals.

The Blacklines are much smaller and peacefully interact at the moment, as I said they seem to eat flatworms. The species ignore each other, I haven't seen any bullying of the small ones.

Overall for someone with a large tank a small group of these is a definite possibility, I feel they would not take crowding successfully. But with a small tank the addition of a couple (assuming a pair) would add interest.

Can't wait till my other two groups come- com'on TMC (UK importer) get your finger out
 
A couple of pictures

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Forgive the greenery the Tank is still maturing- it's going through the green stage at the moment.
 
suta4242 said:
So these guys hang around together, or does each individual have it's own little piece of turf in the tank?
Click to expand...

The Blacklines (Meiacanthus nigrolineatus) do hang around together but they are still small and I assume they do it for mutual protection like many juvenile fish.

Three of the Smiths, I think they are the females do sort of hang as a group (not shoal) but the two I think are males wander all over the tank usually on their own, sometime interacting with the 3 (females?) If the two (males?) come together they show to each other (raised dorsal fins, body held in an S shape and pectoral fins flicking) then one backs down and the other chases it for a foot or so. They then go back to exploring the rocks for critters.

Good grief I'm turning into a blenny geek:hmm6:
 
Really cool seeing all those fang blennies together! I love that subtle blue color the ones in your photos have.
 
My LFS got a call from their suppliers (TMC) saying they had some tank bred Kamohara blennies in. So I ordered 5.

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They went in with the others with no issues, the other fang blennies totally ignored them.

I also added 3 Canary blennies, wild stock, which was a mistake, they just do not get on! I'm glad my tank is large enough for them to each have a reasonable territory. Boy! they can be feisty if one strays into the others bit of the tank!!

It just shows the difference between tank bred and wild specimens, you guys in the US are so lucky to have these 'readily' available, they are still a rarity in the UK.

Anyone sending some TB Bundoon blennies over soon:lolspin:
 
Biota M. grammistes are currently available in the UK too if you're after another species for the collection!

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