question about a scooter blenny

[pisaryan3108]

Hello fellow fish nuts ok I just got a scooter blenny actually my girlfriends sister bought it for me anyways i've read that there hard to care for due to their eating habits does anyone here have any experience with them and if so what do I gotta do with this little guy

 

[daugherty]

they are good fish they are more in the family fo the dragonets. they eat pods. thats why they can be hard to keep alive. if you have a lot of pods in the tank it will do just fine

 

[marcah]

hopefully he is eating frozen foods.
If not they are a hard fish to keep, You will have to keep replenishing your pod supply in the tank to support it or try to train it to eat frozen...

 

[pisaryan3108]

Mine won't eat the food I tried giving him so i'm going to my lfs to get pods to put in my sump and my main tank

 

[daugherty]

you prob got more pods in the tank than you think you have in there. just watch the fish he will go around pecking at the rocks in search of food i have never had any trouble with scooter blennys.

 

[pisaryan3108]

Well my tanks only a month old and he's really skinny and I just wanna make sure he's got whatever he needs! I got him as a gift but he is my fav already their really cool and interesting fish to watch

 

[Bifferwine]

Since your tank is so young, I would take him back to the store. I don't think he would survive very long in your tank.

 

[daugherty]

i agree with biff

 

[Samhain]

+ 2 to Biffers. Dragonettes are best left to mature tanks and experienced reefers, especially if they aren't eating frozen. Get him out, take him back, and wait for your tank to mature a good bit before trying another one. Otherwise he's just going to starve to death. As a side note, has your tank fully cycled yet? I know some tanks can cycle in 2-3 weeks, and others take 8+ weeks to settle down. If your tank hasn't fully cycled, there shouldn't be any fish in there anyway.

 

[pisaryan3108]

Well testing shows that it's cycled and plus yesterday I bought a big bottle of live pods and put half in my tank and the other half in my sump. And when I dropped the pods in I think that little guy ate just about every one of the pods so I think he'll be ok

 

[wontonflip]

little guy ate just about every one of the pods so I think he'll be ok

You'll find that he will deplete the pod population quickly. You'll have to keep on buying more pods. Try feeding him some fish roe. Turn off all the flow, plop some near him and try to make it move w/ intermittent flow; maybe he'll think it's moving on its own and eat it.

 

[little_fish]

And when I dropped the pods in I think that little guy ate just about every one of the pods so I think he'll be ok

This isnt a good thing, it means he ate up all the food available to him. What is he going to eat tomorrow if he ate that many pods today?

 

[Bifferwine]

Having to buy and supply pods to your tank is unsustainable. They need to feed constantly. You can't provide that with bottled pods.

 

[ZyberGoby]

Scooters are constant eaters they eat (a pod) about every 3 seconds thats about 1200 pods an hour. Its always best to find out if the scooter is frozen broken. Mine went through about 96% of my pods in about 3 weeks. and I had billions of pods in my tank. To where when my lights kicked on my glass was damn near whited out by them.

Now there just small patches here and there. So yeah try to brake him/her with some frozen cyclops. Dust over the scooter at feeding time with a turkey baster full of cyclops and hope for the best. they younger they are the more likely you will have success at braking the habit. Well to an extent that is.... Because they will always have the hunger for live foods. Mine luckily will eat frozen cyclops after I dust my corals with it.

Good luck with your Scooter there great little fish friend.

 

[pisaryan3108]

Ok well I started raising brine shrimp in another little tank and the blenny loves em and he's looking better also I think he'll do ok i'll keep a close eye on him though!

 

[Samhain]

By all means, you can try to keep your scooter supplied with live food, but I think you are going to find that it's going to be really difficult to continue to do over time. If you really want to keep this fish long-term, make an effort to get him eating frozen foods. Otherwise I truly think that despite your best efforts, your little friend will end up starving to death.

 

[pisaryan3108]

What ya think frozen mysis?

 

[little_fish]

frozen mysid would be a great choice, and other food they really like is sushi roe which you can get at Asian supermarkets

 

[pisaryan3108]

K and should feed him directly with like a baster or just drop it in the tank?

 

[little_fish]

you will need to use a turkey baster to shoot the food towards him, but its a tricky balance to not scare then when you are doing that