keeping a blenny

[rick12]

to keep a mandarin one requires pods in an established tank to survive, in most cases.
before i get a blenny, do blennies require a system with algae?? or will they eat pods and other foods to survive?
thanks

 

[btsd]

Blennies will eat meaty foods and algae. The kind of blenny your thinking of getting would help with more specific responses.

 

[rick12]

i have a 40g mixed reef with a 20g sump and 3gal fuge with cheato. the reef has mini carpets--couple of snails and no fish.
up and running for 6 months. all the coral and rocks came from my 2yr old 90g.
i guess i need to do my research on blennies. what would you recommend for a blenny?

 

[Johanv]

Midas Blenny, great color and personality

 

[SecretiveFish]

Starry Blenny. Ours has loads of personality, changes colors and patterns regularly...and bites me nearly every time I put my hand in the tank!

 

[peasofme]

midas and starry ime will both eat ocean nutrition prime reef flake. however it is beneficial for them to have micro algae as well. and it is also very cool to watch. note that many blennies may nip sps and clam mantles.

 

[Khemul]

The blenny family has quite a range of fish and requirements so you'd be better off narrowing down exactly what you want to figure out requirements.

But even the "algae-eating blennies" can often be trained onto other foods. Both my Lawnmower and Starry are pigs when it comes to food. Flakes, pellets, prawn, mussels...and they still pick algae off the glass after all of that. The Lawnmower took a while to figure out there was more to life then algae, but once he did he became quite the fat fish.

 

[peasofme]

lawnmowers are the hardest to keep ime

 

[small alien]

I've had two tailspots and both have eaten ONLY film algae, mostly off the glass.

 

[peasofme]

tailspots eat flake and tiny pellet for me

 

[Johanv]

One of my first fish was a lawnmower blenny, IMO/IME they are really that easy to take care of and have a great attitude, i kept both the midas and lawnmower with out promblem in a 62 gal reef

 

[xxtriggermanxx]

depends on what type of blenny you want. combtooth i would go with an ember blenny, if you want something that swims instead of sits you could try a fang tooth , here's mine

 

[btsd]

Midas blenny is large, colorful, and eat mainly meaty foods if you don't want to worry about providing it enough algae.