aromano
New Member
I've always wanted to have a Scooter Blenny and a Striped Mandarin fish, but never had the courage to buy one and see it slowly starve to death. A friend of mine had a scooter blenny, but after he noticed the fish hadn't been eating for days and found out of its eating habits, he decided to return it to LFS.
Research and lots of reading always comes first and I hope it's a lesson learned before doing any impulsive purchases. We are dealing with animal lives here and it is our responsibly to make sure we have the appropriate setup before attempting to keep certain species.
He's had him for about three weeks now and I don't know for how long the fish hasn't eaten. I assumed it would probably die if it went back to the LFS, so I decided to attempt to keep the fish and try to save him.
The Scooter Blenny may be a difficult fish to keep due to its feeding habits. This little guy swims through the SB looking for food, but since he's a slow feeder he can't really compete with the other fish and would end up slowly starving to death.
I got him today and decided to place a small glass bottle w/ prepared meaty foods and vitamin-enriched brine shrimp on the SB to see what happens... For my surprise the curios blenny didn't hesitate to go inside the bottle and accepted the prepared foods. He didn't eat much, but gave hope once I saw him eating. Fish don't usually eat at all their first day in a new tank and since my tank is new and there isn't enough copepods to keep this guy going for long, I hope this method can help him have a better quality of life.
This is going to be a hand full, and I don't know if I did the right thing or not. :roll:
For many years I've been staring at the dragonets in the LFS and If it was my choice of purchase I would love to one day to have a Striped Mandarin fish. For now I will just ignore the fact that I have a fish that has a 99% chance of slowly starving to death and I'll keep you guys posted on how this guys doing in my attempt to save the scooter blenny.
P.S. By no means I am encouraging this method in attempting to keep this species and IMO this fish needs a tank at least 100 gallons or larger w/ lots of LR. Such tank needs to be established for at least one year and have a large number of copepods and amphipods everywhere. When these needs are met, Mandarins and Scooter Blennies can be easily kept healthy for years to come. However, most people are tempted to compromise these fish in community tanks and hence the reason for typically short captive life spans. They really are great fishes that can be easily kept when their specific needs are met.
Research and lots of reading always comes first and I hope it's a lesson learned before doing any impulsive purchases. We are dealing with animal lives here and it is our responsibly to make sure we have the appropriate setup before attempting to keep certain species.
He's had him for about three weeks now and I don't know for how long the fish hasn't eaten. I assumed it would probably die if it went back to the LFS, so I decided to attempt to keep the fish and try to save him.
The Scooter Blenny may be a difficult fish to keep due to its feeding habits. This little guy swims through the SB looking for food, but since he's a slow feeder he can't really compete with the other fish and would end up slowly starving to death.
I got him today and decided to place a small glass bottle w/ prepared meaty foods and vitamin-enriched brine shrimp on the SB to see what happens... For my surprise the curios blenny didn't hesitate to go inside the bottle and accepted the prepared foods. He didn't eat much, but gave hope once I saw him eating. Fish don't usually eat at all their first day in a new tank and since my tank is new and there isn't enough copepods to keep this guy going for long, I hope this method can help him have a better quality of life.
This is going to be a hand full, and I don't know if I did the right thing or not. :roll:
For many years I've been staring at the dragonets in the LFS and If it was my choice of purchase I would love to one day to have a Striped Mandarin fish. For now I will just ignore the fact that I have a fish that has a 99% chance of slowly starving to death and I'll keep you guys posted on how this guys doing in my attempt to save the scooter blenny.
P.S. By no means I am encouraging this method in attempting to keep this species and IMO this fish needs a tank at least 100 gallons or larger w/ lots of LR. Such tank needs to be established for at least one year and have a large number of copepods and amphipods everywhere. When these needs are met, Mandarins and Scooter Blennies can be easily kept healthy for years to come. However, most people are tempted to compromise these fish in community tanks and hence the reason for typically short captive life spans. They really are great fishes that can be easily kept when their specific needs are met.
