Lawnmower Benny looking sick

[souk]

My lawnmower benny is looking like he might be dying. There are no visible signs of disease that I can see. He is laying on his side and back and seems to be struggling to swim. Can anybody help me in diagnosing and helping. We recently checked the water conditions and they tested fine.

 

[snapcrackler]

Oh no!!!

Lawnmower Blennies are of the hardiest fish,

How about your temp and salinity...... and what does he have to eat?

They really need to have diatomaceous algae and stuff to eat IMO and can run a tank out of that pretty fast.

Sorry to hear aboutyour Blenny lets wait for some of the pros to find your post 8)

 

[clownin around]

Well I am not saying that there isnt a problem but, I just thought I would mention that Lawnmower blennies dont swim all that well they lack a swim bladder so they dont float like most fish. and mine rest on his side with his fin kinda propping him up. I thought there was something wrong with my blennie for days after I got him because of their strange swimming and resting behavior. Also he has always keep his mouth open more often then not. But he is the happiest healthiest blennie I can imagine!
Is he laying completely on his side?
How is his breathing?
How new to your tank is he and is this different behavior then he has been displaying?
What are your water paramiters?

 

[clownin around]

Oh and how are his eating habits?

 

[souk]

Unfortunetly he has just passed away. He seemed fine just yesterday and I noticed his odd behaviour tonight. I want to thank you all for your quick replies. We bought the tank used with everything included, it's been going for about 3 months now, so I'm pretty much a newbie learning along the way. From your posts all I can gather is that perhaps there was not enough algae, a lot of brown algae but no real green algae was growing. We had the water tested at Big Al's and they said the water levels were all good. I checked the temp, it's good and so is the salinity. All the other fish are fine and seeing no disease on them all I can assume is the food was the problem.

 

[snapcrackler]

Sorry to hear. My Blenny really likes brown algae tho.. something else may have happened.. maybe he was just very old.

May I ask what your salinity and temps are just out of curiosity....

 

[souk]

Yeah, I have no idea on how old he/she was. The temp is at 25C and the salinity is around 1.022, the blenny was my favourite fish too.

 

[snapcrackler]

Check out this excellent link by Reeflady. I was running at 80.5F and 1.024 and I am going to gradually go up to about 1.025 and 82.

http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/aqfm/1997/nov/features/1/default.asp