Lawnmower

[Travis]

Thought I would share my favorite Reef Fish 8)

[steve1s]

Great pics Travis.

I love the lawnmower I have. Plenty of personality and very interesting markings. As it gets older it will develope alot more speckled area's near the posterior end. Gold, silver, blue and the overall color will "yellow up" a bit more.

I think this fish gets a bum rap in the LFS as being drap.

Cheers
Steve

[Travis]

I think this fish gets a bum rap in the LFS as being drap.

They do, they are not flashy colored and all of that. They are though a very fun fish. I like when he gets to close to the clown's xenias and the clown trys to push him away. A little bop to the nose and the clown leaves him alone... :mrgreen:

[john]

My lawnmower rules my reef not one fish eats before him.

[adam2373]

I have one in my 20 gallon reef, and if not for him, my tank would be over run by algae. Not to mention he has a great personality for a fish. :D

[dbulick]

My poor guy can't keep up with the algae in my 75. He is the only one trying, I can't keep any inverts with my trigger.

[Humu]

These guys are awesome. I got one for my tank two weeks ago and he started going to work on the algae the day after he was added - banging his head like a rockstar against the walls and liverock. Yesterday I noticed that he has added sifting the sand for algae to his repertoire. (That was totally unexpected, since I thought only gobies were sand sifters.)

[jonb]

I've had a lawnmower blennie for several months now, and he's never eaten well at all. I have a lifetime supply of green hair algae, and plenty of that green film algae on the glass.

I do also have lots of snails and a Kole Tang, but there seems to be plenty of algae to go around.

Any ideas why the blennie doesn't eat his share?

[Humu]

Do you have any other fish aside from the Kole Tang? I've heard that blennies can sometimes get intimidated with certain types of aggressive fish. Has your Tang (or any other fish) shown any aggressiveness towards your lawnmower?

Also, my lawnmower doesn't appear interested in green hair algae. He only seems to go after the shorter brown stuff, and only then if it doesn't get too "thick" or long. Your other algae eaters may be outcompeting for the preferred algae.

[jonb]

My total population is:

Hippo Tang
Kole Tang
Maroon Clown
Anthia
PJ Cardinal
Blue/Green Chromis (x2)
Royal Gramma
Neon goby
Lawnmower Blenny

Cleanup:
3 Peppermint Shrimp
50 Margarita snails
10 Bumblebee snails
30-50 Blue leg hermit crabs (lost count)

Nobody ever bothers the blenny. He eats just enough algae off the glass to stay alive, but he's terribly skinny. I think I got a dud.

[Travis]

Mine has never been a big algae eater. He pecks at the LR (never eats hair algae) and leaves "kiss marks" (as my daughter calls them) on the glass but he is always first in line at feeding time...

added: He is housed with a PT among others and is not intimidated at all. I'm sure if he was getting picked on then that would be a different story but he ignores the other fish like there not even there...lol. He also will eat right out of my hand!! 8)

[Humu]

Could be. With all things related to the aquarium, it's hit or miss. When I picked up mine, my LFS had a couple of tanks full of them (at least 50). So after observing for a good 30 minutes, I picked mine out because he wasn't skinny, wasn't scratching, seemed lively and most importantly, was the only one I saw that was actively trying to scrape algae off the aquarium glass, despite the fact that it was clean.

At least your lawnmower is eating enough to stay alive. That's half the battle! :D

[reeferdude]

I have never seen mine eat anything but algae. He nevers comes out during feeding time. He is always fat and seems happy so he must be getting full off something. I have noticed that my green hair algae has not grown any more but it has not shrunk any either.

[Travis]

It's always interesting to hear how the same species of fish will act completely different :D. Mine eats anything I put in the tank... flakes, morsels, frozen foods, etc...

If you hold some flakes with your fingers he will come and snatch it out of your fingers... if you put some morsels in the palm of your hand he will come and eat it right out of your hand :mrgreen: he's a fun fish and one of my longest lived so far.

[LOWZONE]

hi,
i just gopt an algae blenny (same??) and within an hour he was chomping on my rocks trying to get food. I have algae growing, yet he hasnt touched it in a week ive had him/her. He sometimes comes out during feeding and eats some flake, but sometimes spits it out 2 or 3 times , sometimes eating it sometimes not. hes not thin, yet not fat either. i guess its too soon to tell. He also chases my yellow tail damsel (just the one of my four). Well, i guess only time will tell. They are so comical, its great. their personality are so friendly too. Do you know if they eat macro or dried seaweed? my tang loves it, but the strips are gone by morning and dont know it if the blenny is eating it also.

[Travis]

They have a hard time eating macros and dried algae sheets because they don't really chew. Mine will eat the crumbs that the purple tang releases during feeding on dried algae but that's about it.

[mheiden]

I would love to get a blenny for my tank. I looked into getting a bicolor blenny, but my LFS guy said that it may pick at my clam. So, I stayed away from it. I have several corals including ricordia, kenya tree, and hammer, along with a clam, featherduster, starfish, percula clownfish, sand-sifting cucumber, coral banded, cleaner shrimp, several dwarf hermits. How would a blenny do in my tank. I was thinking either a lawnmower or a bicolor.

[LOWZONE]

HOLY COW!!- yeah COW is a good word for it. My new Algae Blennie is eating everything in sight, including pieces of shrimp ive been feeeding my new Royal Gramma. The Blenny even chases the yellow tail damsels i have. He doesnt put up with anything. He is eating flake, Spirulina disks,shrimp pieces and anything that might be growing on the rocks. Here i was worried i wouldnt have enough for him to eat in my tank. SHEEEESH was i wrong

[Humu]

Seriously. I'm actually kind of worried about mine. He has gotten so fat, it's ridiculous. His stomach has stretched to the point where his side fins reach out just a little (and i mean little) bit further than the sides of his stomach. When he tries to perch on rocks he kind of just rocks back and forth because his bottom fins don't extend long enough to brace himself. I don't know who should be more ashamed, my lawnmower or me because it must mean I have a considerable amount of algae in the tank for him to eat so much! :oops:

[LOWZONE]

mine is the same way. If your tank is big enough, maybe 2 are needed. I dont know if they are territorial or not, mine only chases the one yellow tail damsel, they chase each other, usually its the blenny kicking butt. Its really bad when the Blenny relieves himself and empties out- YUCK then hes back to chomping away. the funny part is i have one small area of hair algae (like 2" square) and he doesnt touch it, no other algae is around, just the white tuffs that grows on the rocks constantly hes loving.

[fujianboy]

My lawnmower blenny does the same.. chases one yellow tail damsel and not the other.. they seem to have beef with each other.. was able to experience a heated confrontation one day between the two.. neither one was backing off.. interesting to see the yellow tail provoke the,2-3 times larger than itself, lawnmower blenny.. in the end.. the lawnmower won and the yellow tail swam away. unfortunately, the blenny usually hides but i do see it grazing/eating algae off the glass and live rock. to answer your question, i supplement feeding with dried algae. my yellow tang, coral beauty and lawnmower blenny love it.

[brandon]

here is my little buddy