scooter blennies

[kpatrick]

Anyone have anything good or bad to say about scooter blennies???

IF you look at my post "need something yellow" you will see my tank setup. Is it safe to add to my setup or not?? are they hardy?? any better suggestions for something to move around on the rocks or bottom of the tank that wont hurt my other fish and inverts???


thanks

[Kit Walker]

If you want both a bit of yellow and a bottom dweller I'd go for a Gold Headed sleeper (Yellow headed sleeper). They have an appearance of a blenny/goby with a white body and yellow head. They constantly sift the substrate and keep it nice and clean. Keep in mind you will need to buy one large enough not fit in your lions mouth. I had a zebra lion that never bothered my sleeper, but a non-dwarf lion can swallow a sleeper!

[votek]

I had a scooter blennie in my 20gL. My friend had one in his 90g Reef. Both starved to death.

The problem is they are carnivorus and are very picky eaters. Mostly Copepods and other small vulnerable prey.

I hear live brine might work, but I didnt get around to tring it in time. They usualy aren't too expensive though...so if you fail with one its not a uge loss.

[OrionGirl]

Scooters are much like mandarin gobies--they need little to no competition for copos, and they need to be grazing all day long. I've had mixed results--bought 2 for different tanks at the same time, and one would take prepared foods, the other would not. The one in the reef, that would take prepared foods, is doing okay. We recently moved him to the invert tank, which has no other fish in it, and he's tummy has fattened up considerably. I wouldn't purchase another one, just because it's hard to gaurantee a constant supply of food in a community tank.

[kpatrick]

well my tank has been established for almost 3 years now so there should be plenty of copods however i tried a manderin a couple months back and he lasted 2 days and then died. i was upset because they are very neat looking creatures. I would try a lemon head however I have crushed coral in the bottom of my tank and not the sand so they wouldnt be able to sift it.

[OrionGirl]

If you can find one that has a fat tummy, and you see it take prepared foods, you should be okay, but no gaurantee. Our reef has what seems like tons of copos, but he was still skinny in that tank. I suspect that either they only like a specific type of copo, or have a very short intestine (meaning they can't stuff themselves and live off that reserve for a while, like a trigger can) and must eat all day long to thrive.

[Kit Walker]

Hey kpatrick,
I have crushed coral and my sleeper has no problems sifting it. I have actually seen large sleepers at pet shops sifting quite coarse limestone gravel.

[kpatrick]

Hey Kit,
I didnt know they could sift crushed coral or anything else that large. I dont know much about the sleepers except for the info I got out of my fish book that ranks them a 2 out of 5 when it comes to being hardy. Do you know what there enemies are or what the sleepers might attack in the tank? i tried a lawn mower blenny to help with the algea, and he lasted a couple weeks then found him dead. So i havent had much luck with lawn mower blennies, manderin gobies, so kinda worried about trying sleepers although they are cool looking fish and I would love to have one or two but I hate to see them die. any thoughts??

[Kit Walker]

I find the sleepers to be quite hardy, given that it is not s newly set up tank. They will usually nibble at anything floating past inclduing brine shrimp, bloodworm, flakes and even small pellets. They really do keep white substrates exceptionally clean. They are fine with fish that don't prey on goby-like fish. however they will compete with mandarin fish, because they like to consume the copepods that the mandarins eat.