What does a Sailfin Blenny eat?

[Kinetic]

OK, more details: Got a tiny 3/4" Golden Sailfin Blenny from Diver's Den last week. He's in my QT, in fact he was so small I put him in a breeder box in the QT. I'm currently doing Prazipro on him and two other fish in my QT. No signs of any illness, he just perches and sometimes swims around against the walls of the breeder box. I tried feeding pellets, but I'm guessing this guy is more of a grazer. There's no algae in my QT tank.

I'm on day 3, and he hasn't eaten any pellets, and there's nothing to graze on.

I just bought nori and algae wafers, and put those in the breeder box with him. So far, no interest. Even if I had rock with algae, not sure if he'd graze right now.

Should I try feeding something else? Do they care about garlic?

I'm also just leaning towards putting him in the display tank. I would normally QT this guy for 2 weeks with two doses of prazipro, and feeding with metroplex, but I'm worried he's just going to starve. He's also not showing any signs of illness, other than ignoring algae wafer/nori. Probably stressed out.

I'm not too worried about ich right now. I didn't QT my snails etc., so chances are I'd need to fallow my tank out at some point in the future anyway (I'll probably upgrade my tank at some point, which would be a good time to go fallow).

 

[Tom39]

I realize that this is an older thread and the fish is out of quarantine by now but thought I would provide a response anyway. Is the QT in an area that is highly visible and well lit? If so, try and cover 3 of the 4 sides and turn off the lights to provide the fish with more of a feeling of protection.
IME it may just be stress caused by the lack of places to hide and feel safe. I am quarantining a lawnmower blenny now and have found that providing a bit of seclusion helps with its appetite. Another thing I found that helped was that I also use gray sch 80 pvc fitting for hiding places instead of the white sch 40. It seems to like the darker color of the pvc to hide in more so than the white.
Hope it helps,
Tom

 

[Kinetic]

I realize that this is an older thread and the fish is out of quarantine by now but thought I would provide a response anyway. Is the QT in an area that is highly visible and well lit? If so, try and cover 3 of the 4 sides and turn off the lights to provide the fish with more of a feeling of protection.
IME it may just be stress caused by the lack of places to hide and feel safe. I am quarantining a lawnmower blenny now and have found that providing a bit of seclusion helps with its appetite. Another thing I found that helped was that I also use gray sch 80 pvc fitting for hiding places instead of the white sch 40. It seems to like the darker color of the pvc to hide in more so than the white.
Hope it helps,
Tom

Thanks Tom!

I've seen removed him from QT and put him in an isolation box inside the DT. I'm not sure what he eats, I just see him sit in a crevice on a small rock rubble I've put in the box with him. He almost never moves.

I've seen him chomp a few times on an Hikari Algae wafer. He hides under nori pieces, but I haven't seen him eat that. He ignores all pellets (though maybe even the small sized ones are too small).

Somehow he's still alive, so he must be eating something. There's a bit of algae in the box now too, so maybe he's going for that.

I'll keep an eye on him in the isolation box.

Why still in isolation? Well, I think I'll lose him in the tank, and I have a Geometric Pygmy Hawkfish that I think can eat him. This little sailfin blenny is only 3/4". I mistakenly thought he was 1 3/4" on LiveAquaria, but I had imagined the extra 1". Oops. He's tiny.

 

[scooter31707]

Mines eat Nori, pellets, flakes, and frozen. They are herbivore make sure they get enough in their diet if there is not enough algae in your tank.