Red Scooter Blennie starving...help!

[mmfrock]

HI everyone,

I have a red scooter blennie and i know he is starving. He's barely hanging on but b/c i have finally realized this ( i think early enough) i might be able to save him. I was able to scoop him out of the tank today bc/ he is so slow and weak and i fed him in a bucket. He got about 4 good hearty pieces of brine shrimp. I plan to feed him like this for awhile to bring him back up to health.

I know its not what i am feeding him, he eats the frozen food, however the other fish are eating all the food before it ever gets to the blennie and hes such a slow eater anyways he hasnt been getting food in the main tank for awhile now.

Any advice on how to nurse him back to health and how to keep him sustained in my tank? Everything ive read said ample LR which i have plenty and i only have two other fish. I don't really get how to sustain dragonets/blennies ive killed a mandarin before the same way and now i at least figured it out before my blennie died.

Advise please.

 

[wontonflip]

Maybe you can put food in a container, weigh it down with a rock. The key is trying to get him to trust the box.

I made a box for my lawnmower blenny who was bullied to the point where he wouldn't come out to eat. Only HE could enter the box (and any small fish). He's rather bold, though, and he no problems hopping in the box on day 1 to eat. You might just have to leave it as an open container, and eventually add a cover with a hole large enough for just him.

Or you can make sure ALL flow is off in the tank, feed the upper swimmers, then squirt some food in front of him on the sandbed.


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfdlcP15rVY&feature=player_embedded[/ame]

 

[Cheeser]

u should definitely set up a hospital tank for him or put him in your fuge. if hes stressed he could get ich and spread it around...
or maybe put your other fish in the fuge for a while and maybe theyll settle down a bit...
also garlic might help his appetite...
or try to make sure the other 2 get there fill and then put some food lower in the tank for him.

 

[wontonflip]

if hes stressed he could get ich and spread it around....

Actually, if he breaks out with ich, it means he already has it, and so does the rest of the tank. Unless you QT all the fish, you will most certainly have ich, unless you are lucky and only got fish from places that treat all their fish for ich. But yes, if the tank has ich, and he gets stressed, he wil break out with the spots.

 

[little_fish]

+1 Wonton

Also scooter blennies are actually dragonettes, just like mandarines, and have the same food requirements.

And I would get more food in him, he needs way more than 4 pieces of brine. Also brine has very little nutrition in it anyways so you should try and get him to eat either blood worms, chopped mysid, or sushi roe for some real nutrition.