Lawnmower Blenny-hair algae question

[fambrough]

I put a small lawnmower blenny in my 37 cube to help with hair algae control. He may be just a tad over two inches, nose to tail. I have seen him take bites at the glass where there is some algae, but not at the patches of the longer hair algae. I thought he might "go to town" with all the food available to him. He seems to enjoy scraping on the coralline more than anything else.

Are there cases of lawnmower blennies not eating hair algae? Do I need to worry about supplemental feeding for him?

Thanks in advance!

 

[SaltyDr]

From what I understand, they prefer the newer (?more tender???) algae and will stay away from the really long stuff. I'd hand pull those out.

 

[SaltyDr]

Oh yeah, mine will sometimes come up and eat the nori on the clip. He is one fat fish.

 

[bwest]

I never specifically fed mine and he was always fat and happy. From my understanding, they like to eat more of the filamentous algae, like the thin layer that can develop on the glass. I never cleaned the back of my tank, so he always had plenty to eat.

 

[Gdevine]

I feed algae pellets and he goes crazy for Nori on my veggie clip...I mean it's party time

 

[InLimbo87]

I had a lawnmower blenny in my previous tank, and he would never eat anything except for the algae on the glass (not hair algae). I tried to get him to eat prepared foods, but never would and died after a couple of months.

 

[Gdevine]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11075808#post11075808 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by InLimbo87
I had a lawnmower blenny in my previous tank, and he would never eat anything except for the algae on the glass (not hair algae). I tried to get him to eat prepared foods, but never would and died after a couple of months.

That's really a bummer! They are such great fish and so beneficial to the tank. Why not give it another shot but this time make sure it will eat Nori or algae pellets in the store before purchase.

My LMB is a pig and has the beer belly to show for it

 

[vickreyreef]

my lawnmower blenny is not eating any of the HA and I rarely see him eat the glass algae either. I have been trying to catch him to find him a new home so he doesn't die. I have plenty of algae for him to choose from but he isn't interested. Is the Nori the same stuff they sell in the supermarket? Do you have to have a clip or can ou just put it in the tank?

 

[yellowwatchmen]

They sell it at LFS. It is what tangs or angels will eat. And yes they sell little clips for them.

 

[ccorpse27]

My lawn mower wont eat anything either. I feed algae discs and nori plus mysis and cyclopeeze but he doesn't go for any of it. He does like cleaning off the glass but i doubt it's enough.

 

[salty3]

Mine wont touch algae anymore, he only eats the mysis I feed to the clowns and thats it.LOL Took him about two weeks in my tank then just started stealing formm the clowns.

 

[Aadler]

my cleaner shrimp fights with my lawnmower for algae waffers, I hear its really funny, ive been away from my tanks for over two weeks now i put the shrimp in two days before i left. They are great fish, just everyone that comes over thinks he is ugly! but they have so much personality I cant fathom why anyone wouldnt love them :c).

Sorry to hear he wont eat the hair algae, but make sure you find something he eats, took ours a long time to start eating the algae waffers. He had a near-death experience and is pretty shy now, but he seams to be coming along.

 

[Flems]

My LMB wont eat anything I put in the tank for him either, although he does have quite the gut from grazing and keeping my tank clean.

Only once have I seen him slim, otherwise it appears his guts always full! Anyone else had any luck getting them on store bought food?

 

[cwbhawk]

For the first few months I had my LMB he refused to eat anything I gave him. He would only peck at the rocks and glass and graze on algae. But one evening he decided to try a peice of flake food (i don't know if it was on purpose or by accident) but since then he's eaten anything and everything I give him.

 

[Tokyo]

I had a lawnmower blenny in my previous tank, and he would never eat anything except for the algae on the glass (not hair algae). I tried to get him to eat prepared foods, but never would and died after a couple of months.

Exactly the same thing happen to me.

 

[d0ughb0y]

my lawnmover blenny eats all kinds of algae including hair algae. he cleaned up my tank very well when I had an algae outbreak. he does not (or I have not seem him) eat any prepared food, including algae wafer and nori. I've had him for a year now. between him and the diamond goby, I don't think I need any other clean up crew. two of the best and most useful fish I ever got.

 

[Ericdrbn]

I've had mine about a week. It is eating algae off the glass and the short hair algae. A nice surprise though is that he bites the long stuff and then spits it out. Even though he doesn't eat it, he's helping remove it from the rocks for the filter to get.

 

[reeftanknewbie]

Mine seems to eat the short HA and flake food on occasion when he gets to it.

 

[kaimarkhirst]

dont mean to sound insensetive but did you actually check to see what types of algae he does eat? Or did the lfs just say "he eats algae."

The reason i ask is that lawnmower blennies are difficult to look after as they classed as a grazing fish, and therefore need a native supply of foods aswell as the feeding time supply.

They only graze on filamentous algae and very short brown algae in average amounts. They also munch brine, mysis and krill when available and weaned onto them.

The facts are that they are mainly wild collected and classed as difficult to keep, need a mature aquarium of at least 6 months or so, so purchasing one with the view to getting rid of large hair algae which, can choke a blenny..

If theres a growth of hair algae, then your tank is either not mature, phosphates are high or something else is wrong. If this blenny is not feeding on the algae, then get him on other foods and get him feeding, then either let the aquarium mature and the algae die off and be replaced with mature filamentous algae, or take him back to the lfs and get something a little easier to keep..

Kai

 

[cirionrc]

You can also just use you magnet algae scraper and leave the nori under the magnet sticking out since they love the magnet. Lots of algae.