lawnmower blenny feeding question

[manissen10]

Hey, so two days ago I bought a lawnmower blenny. I have a 55g tank that has been running for about 7 months now and has plenty of coraline on the glass and rocks. My question is, how do I get him to eat algae sheets or anything else? or will he pretty much just eat what he wants. Thanks
matt

 

[Allmost]

do you have algae in your tank ? he will eat that, and any other film formed ont he glass.

if your running a VERY low nutrition system and no algae .... you can stick sheets of nori in between Live rock, and let him chump on that .... he will get it out of the rock though ...

 

[manissen10]

yes I have algae, but nothing like hair algae or anything that is a problem. I just want to make sure I'm supplying him with enough food. I've heard some people say they will eat flake food. is this true?

 

[troffe]

I would´nt waste flake food on the fisk,Don´t think he woul´d get hold of it before others take it. I feed my bleeny Julian Sprung´s sea veggie.
Micke from sweden.

 

[Allmost]

yes I have algae, but nothing like hair algae or anything that is a problem. I just want to make sure I'm supplying him with enough food. I've heard some people say they will eat flake food. is this true?

algae is the best food you can provide for him, which you have naturally growing in your tank.

even the film on front glass is good food for the blenny, I wouldnt worry about poluting your tank.

 

[ZoaLover]

The lawnmower blenny is the hard fish to be trained eating feeding food. He may end up starving and die if you don't have much algae in your tank. Training him to eat feeding food is not easy because he rarely responds to the food. The best way is to but nori on the rock to see if he likes it or not (hit and miss). Some have a very good response to the feeding flake food, but after they eat flake food, they significantly reduce their lawnmower job.

Good luck

 

[xxtriggermanxx]

here's a picture of my 5" LMB I got it about two years ago.. this fish eats flake food , frozen, and keeps my glass full of lip prints.. I see you having no issues with this fish.

 

[dkanka]

My lmb started out only eating algae, but quickly took to eating pellets and frozen after seeing the other fish doing the same thing. He still does a good job at cleaning the tank though. My case could be different from the norm, but that's my experience.

I also have a golden headed sleeper goby that eats frozen food along with sand sifting for food. They are supposed to starve without enough food to eat in the sand, but I might have gotten lucky with him too.

 

[Gangous]

Will they eat hair alage

 

[Peter T]

Will they eat hair alage

I have not seen my lawnmower blenny touch hair algae in my tank. He mostly concentrates on film algae growing on the sides of the tank and "begs" for food when he sees me watching the tank.

I've noticed, however, that hair algae does not take hold of the rocks he does graze on compared to the rocks he does not.

 

[d0ughb0y]

There are more algae that you can possibly see in your tank. So just leave the fish alone. Actually you do not want the fish to eat any prepared food, because once it starts eating prepared food, then it will slow down, if not completely stop eating algae.

 

[kingfisher62]

There are more algae that you can possibly see in your tank. So just leave the fish alone. Actually you do not want the fish to eat any prepared food, because once it starts eating prepared food, then it will slow down, if not completely stop eating algae.

Agreed, I had one for a few years. He would pretty much eat anything. In fact , I think he died an early death because it seemed to enjoy only meaty foods after a while , such as mysis shrimp and flake food. I dont think the flake food had enough veggies.

 

[jyxie]

there are more algae that you can possibly see in your tank. So just leave the fish alone. Actually you do not want the fish to eat any prepared food, because once it starts eating prepared food, then it will slow down, if not completely stop eating algae.

+1

 

[niter]

+1 On the let things be. Our starry blenny--granted we did know starry's are not as algae voracious as lawnmowers but I was up for a change--eats prepared food as well as what he takes off the rocks. Our lawnmower did NOT eat added food and he was an algae eating machine where ever he could find it...glass and rocks alike.

 

[kingfisher62]

Just found an old pic of my algae blennie from when I had my first FO tank and I thought I would share.

 

[Sapooloo]

i had the same concerns when i got my lmb. but like others he just learned from watching the other fish and now takes pretty much every prepared food i drop in there.

he didnt touch the algea sheets at first, but once he realized it was food he tears them apart.

 

[convict3]

i had one almost starve and as a last ditch effort i added some floating ciclid food and he couldnt eat it fast enough. he lived for about 1.5 years.

 

[convict3]

also if u have a small rock your can rubber band the nori sheet to it.

 

[convict3]

at that time i also had a sand sifting goby. and the lmb would get about 1 inch above the goby abd poop. almost every day.

 

[john miller]

What would you feed if you plan on QT'ing the fish?
Kind of defeats the idea of having an algae eating fish if you have to train it on prepared while QT'ing, or am I missing something?