lawnmower blenny good at algae eating?

[Beemo]

does anyone have a lawnmower blenny? are they really good at keeping down hair algae?
i dont have alot just some tufts on the gravel and occasionally the glass, do they eat if off the glass too?
i had to remove my turbo snail because he was trampling the polyps and stressing them so now i need something to control algae

 

[hock51]

They are good grazers. They will eat hair algae and scrape your glass (leaving cool little lip prints) if you have some algae on your glass. They do get pretty big though, and will need something to eat after your tank is clean.

 

[Beemo]

anything about them being aggressive?
i have 2 baby clownfish 1" each and the store only has lawnmowers 3", would this be a problem?

 

[ColeBC]

They're great at cleaning the rocks etc but they tend to get mean and bite other fish. Mine even killed a goby.
What kind of fish do you have in your tank right now?
They also sometimes stop eating nuisance algae once they realize they can eat frozen foods and nori.

 

[ColeBC]

sorry...i was typing a reply and didn't see the 2nd posting

 

[ColeBC]

how big is your tank?

 

[Beemo]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6778846#post6778846 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ColeBC
They're great at cleaning the rocks etc but they tend to get mean and bite other fish. Mine even killed a goby.
What kind of fish do you have in your tank right now?
They also sometimes stop eating nuisance algae once they realize they can eat frozen foods and nori.

oh wow ok thnx for posting that lol
lawnmower is out of the question then
too bad i think they are so adorable
well im going to have another tank set up in the fall (55g)
what fish are recommended with the lawnmowers?

 

[ColeBC]

Some of the other blennies are nice too and don't get as big as lawnmowers.
But some are even more aggressive.

 

[Beemo]

any other fish that will eat algae but doesnt get big, like under 4" and peacefull?

 

[ColeBC]

I'd probably get rid off the algae with a different method. That way you can have other types of fish instead.
I had the biggest algae problem in the beginning and now I dont really have any left.

 

[Beemo]

well technically i dont have any lol
just a lil on the glass, but i like to be prepared

 

[ColeBC]

Get some cowries instead. Or banded trochus snails.
I find those ones really useful and busy. They move around really fast and eat algae and diatoms

 

[billyzbear]

I had a LM benny and he wasn't mean at all. It mite depend on fish mates. Mine was in with clowns, coral beauty, mandarin and anthias. I couldn't get mine to eat prepared foods, he ran out of algae and died.

 

[rooroo]

I had one. He got along well with the other fish, I had a maroon clown and a neon dottyback. The dottyback hated the LM blenny at first but gave up harrassing him after a few days. Mine also wouldn't eat prepared foods, and ran out of algae and died after about 3 months.

 

[lilleahseafreak]

bicolor blennys!
i love mine. i had a full grown one at 4 inches but when i moved my tank he got ich real bad and died, shortly after the hair algae in my tank exploded! i went out and got another bicolor blenny and within a week the algae was back down to just a few small clumps. both the old one and new one ate pellets readily and are constantly grazing on rocks, glass and even eating green algae off my red grape kelp. the only agression i see is when some one comes near the bicolors "condo" that being his barnacle cluster-which is another great thing about bicolors is they readily host in barnacles and do so with a passion, he even cleans sand out of his barnacles (pops out and spits mouthfulls of sand out) and when he is not grazing his little head can be seen poking out of his barnacles. as i said the only agression i see is when he chases other fish away from his condo.
i highly recommend them