Ithaca, NY: Lawnmower Blenny needs a new home!

[MSeg]

Hello! I've got this adorable, happy little (big, I should say) lawnmower blenny that has taken a liking to knocking over every coral it can press itself up against. As I'm just getting frags and trying to figure out good placement for them, that's a bit of a problem. I'm terrified of shipping him (her?), as I've never shipped out a fish before, and I don't have a car in order to drive the fish to anyone. As anyone in Ithaca can attest to, our LFS is probably not a good place to send him if I want him to get good care. So if anyone has a good home for him to go to here in Ithaca, or a town over if willing to drive, and can come get him, that'd be wonderful! If not, I suppose I'll put up with flipping corals back over and look into a frag-rack solution he can't tamper with?

He currently gobbles up Omega One algae wafers or pellets, any algae going in the tank, and any other food I try to add to the tank. He'll swim up to the surface to take the clowns' NLS pellets, he just went a bit crazy for today's first-ever feeding of roe, and he'll happily steal food from the corals (mysis, BBS, krill, squid, you name it). As far as I can tell, he's a happy and healthy fish that survived the transition from my Nanocube to this Nuvo aquarium (sudden burst seam, everyone needed to live in a five-gallon for about a week while the new tank shipped).

And today I was lucky enough for him to come out to pose just before lights out! He usually hides when people approach the tank, unless there's food involved.

This should show you how fat he is:

I mean, how can you say no to this adorable little face?

Attacking algae:

 

[idisc]

How much are you asking for him...Im from auburn - but I wouldn't mind the drive for a decent price.

 

[MSeg]

No price, actually! I just wanted to make sure he'd be going into a nice, stable tank! Your tank's cycled and can handle the bioload, correct? With a bit of algae for him to munch on during the day? This little guy's definitely not light as far as bioload is concerned..

I'll probably hand over the pellets with him, too, as he's the only one who eats them. I do feed the wafers to my freshwater tank for the corydoras, though.

Anyway, I think I'll give this until Thursday or Friday or so, to see what his rehome options are, and set up something for this weekend or next weekend when I'll be home all day.

You can PM me the information about your aquarium, if you're interested! :thumbsup:

 

[Willistein]

I guess I would just get those frags glued down. I think this is happening in my tank too with my stary blenny.

 

[MSeg]

Is it? I'm not sure if I can glue the frags down just yet, since they're definitely not in their final spots (acclimating to light and flow) or I'm just experimenting with placement to see where they look/react best. I'm curious as to whether or not a small frag tree might be a viable option, but between knocking over corals and blatantly stealing their food regardless of just having been fed, he really is a menace. And he's probably too big for the tank by now (Nuvo 16).

 

[Willistein]

Didn't realize it was a small tank - he's probably outgrown it like you say.

 

[Cyclingwolfe]

Glue the frags to rubble then glue the rubble to the live rock. When you go to move the frag to a new place use a razor to remove rubble from live rock and clean up left over glue. This way u don't have stupid plugs in the tank and the frag is only glued one time. But can be moved I do this it keeps stuff from falling into a bad spot while Im trying to find optimal placement

 

[MSeg]

Yehp! I originally had him in a 24-gallon, probably closer to his appropriate size, but the downsizing happened thanks to the burst seam on the original tank. College kid, and all that.

 

[MSeg]

Glue the frags to rubble then glue the rubble to the live rock. When you go to move the frag to a new place use a razor to remove rubble from live rock and clean up left over glue. This way u don't have stupid plugs in the tank and the frag is only glued one time. But can be moved I do this it keeps stuff from falling into a bad spot while Im trying to find optimal placement

Hmmm. I may look into this. My rocks are mostly branches, though--I'd be hard pressed to find many places to insert the rubble.:hmm2:

 

[Lowefx]

Do you have clams? Does he nip at them?

 

[MSeg]

I do not have clams, no. I have a bunch of teeny hitchhiker bivalves, but nothing big enough to extend a mantle he can nip at.

 

[windyridge]

If you use the grey or red epoxy they sell at reef stores or online, you can just yank any frag affixed to a rock this way with a little pressure, so that's one option to place frags until you move them to their final spot.

 

[MSeg]

If you use the grey or red epoxy they sell at reef stores or online, you can just yank any frag affixed to a rock this way with a little pressure, so that's one option to place frags until you move them to their final spot.

Hmm. I've got green/white epoxy, does that behave the same way?



Thanks everyone! :wave: I'll keep all your advice in mind. I suppose his annoying the corals convinced me to stop keeping him in a tank that's too small for him.