SA- Striped Blennies

CeeGee

CeeGee

New member
I have a question for those of you who purchased striped blennies (also known as fang blennies) from Sustainable Aquatics last weekend.

Is yours eating? If so what are you feeding it?

Mine acts as if it has no idea what food is. The three clowns I bought are all eating and the single male has seems to have paired up nicely with the 10 year old female that I have. So everything is going alright except for this blenny.

I have got a bacteria bloom from adding 3 fish at once though. I am hoping it will calm down soon.

I emailed SA two days ago to find out what they feed them but have yet to hear back from them.
 
Blennies can be tricky. It comes down to getting them to eat. try flake, Cyclopeeze, some shrmp, various things to see what they will go for.
 
In my experience, certain fish just look at flakes kind of funny (even wonderful aquacultured species). What have you tried?

Also, if you don't have anything in the tank that would naturally compete with it for food, he might just not be very hungry after munching on whatever he can find in the tank (I had a six line that didn't eat for a few months after moving into a different tank... presumably because he was feasting on the pods that had grown in there as a result of nothing else eating them).
 
SA has their own food... Its available at their CR store... That being said, you might try some smaller pelleted food as it is similar to what they feed... Something comparable to Red Tiny Bits ...

I wouldn't worry about them not eating in the short run. I have a friend that picked up a pair and one would eat, while the other one didn't... Took a week or two to settle in and start eating...

Good luck... :D
 
I have tried flake, new life spectrum pellets, mysis shrimp and a whole variety of other frozen foods soaked in selcon. He just looks at it while the clownfish and royal gramma gobble it all up.

It took about 5 days for the clowns to start eating but now they are chowing down. Maybe this guy will turn around.

I just find it strange that SA hasn't returned my emails.
 
I remembered they also feed PE mysis... :)

I'm sure that having visited SA last week you are aware of how busy they are... They will likely respond in the next few days...
 
I have heard that PE Mysis is good stuff. None of my LFS stock it. I actually asked on friday if they had it and they said it was expensive and that was all that was said.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15024604#post15024604 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NeveSSL
Is PE Mysis a brand? What makes it better than just regular mysis shrimp?

Brandon
Click to expand...

Yes it is a brand. Not really sure what is different about it but from what I understand fish that won't touch anything else gobble it up.
 
Hey CeeGee, I'm surprised that your blenny isn't eating; they are generally the least-picky eaters. At SA we feed them a mix of dry pellets and frozen foods. We don't feed flake food at all, so they may not recognize that as food right-away, but they should accept frozen gel diets, brine and mysis shrimp, most pellets, and anything small enough for them to eat.

Coral Reef in Knoxville carries PE (Piscine Energetics) mysis shrimp. It's a favorite of SA's for fish health and is used by seahorse breeders and public aquariums for its size and nutritional profile. There's more info on the manufacturer's site here:
http://www.mysis.com/

As Brian says though, these blennies are omnivores, so it may be grazing or eating things in your tank and finding enough that way. Does it look thin? If it looks ok, then it might just be full already :)

I'm sorry not to have responded sooner; my sister graduated from high school this weekend, and it has kept us even busier than we usually are with family invasions, etc. As you all know, SA is a family business, so everyone is/was involved ;) We also had two people out the last two days of last week that normally would have helped with phones/e-mails. I hope that you can understand that when we are short-staffed, care of the animals must come first. We have also discontinued retail sales from SA (you may have noticed that fish are no-longer available on our website), mostly because we don't have the customer service infrastructure to match our fish production.

Having said that, feel-free to pm/e-mail/call me if you have fish questions, as it is generally faster that way (the main e-mail isn't checked by me, so fish questions have to be forwarded to me by someone else)...

I hope this helps!

Matt
 
No problem at all Matt. The fish is alive and seems to like picking at my candy cane coral :rolleyes:

He just looks at the food like he has no idea what in the world it is which is a bummer. ALL of the clowns are eating especially the Onyx Pair I purchased. They are gobbling up everything I throw in there no matter how often :)

In case you didn't read elsewhere the smaller SA Fancy clown I bought seems to have paired up nicely with my 10 year old female. He obviously digs the older ladies :)

I understand how busy you are and am not angry in any way. I was just surprised that you haven't answered as your place was first class as was the way I was treated while I was there.

Hopefully Mr. Blenny will eat soon.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15024604#post15024604 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NeveSSL
What makes it better than just regular mysis shrimp?
Click to expand...

First off, they are flash frozen to preserve their nutritional value... Their protein content is something ridiculous... If I remember correctly, its up somewhere near 70%... Its also high in Omega 3's... You don't have to soak it in any additives like Selcon... Its chock full of goodness... ;)
 
Yeah he looks okay. He just seems super skittish. I think Mitch up at Fishey Business in Bowling Green carries the PE Mysis. I May try to get up there and get some if he in fact has it. According to their website he is a dealer.
 
Hopped up to Bowling Green over the weekend and picked up some PE Mysis.

Guess what? You got that right; he won't touch it!

The good news is that I went back to my old assortment of cubes and lo and behold he ate tonight. He didn't gorge himself but he finally ate something. So I kept feeding and feeding while the the greedy gut SA Onyx clowns (I am loving them!) continued to eat and eat.

It has been nearly two and a half weeks without food. If nothing else the blenny is tough. I am keeping my fingers crossed that he will start eating regularly and leave my corals alone. He is such a pretty fish and swims all over the tank (much to the royal grammas dislike). I really enjoy him but I cringe every time he nips the corals.

Just thought I would update. I have never had a fish go so long without eating.
 
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