Scooter Blenny

[usmcmarc]

Now I'm bummed!!!...

When I mentioned to LFS guy that I wanted to get a scooter blenny or two, he said "no way". That even one would die of starvation in my tank. Said it was too small. 29gal BioCube, do you guys concur?

I really wanted at least one of those.

 

[Fluff]

That is pretty much accurate. Unless you can get one that will willingly take frozen food. Unfortunately the scooter blenny is has the same feeding requirements of a mandarin dragonet and a 29g tank isn't big enough to hold enough liverock to sustain one.

 

[usmcmarc]

Oh well. So much for that idea. I just don't get how LFS keeps them alive! In a 10x8x8 inch box with a bunch of hermit crabs. Fed by the community water system?

 

[Fluff]

My LFS keeps them in tanks with lots of liverock rubble or in thier coral tanks. With the large systems, the food is always replenishing itself. And in some of cases, they probably don't last that long.

 

[usmcmarc]

I found this on a website...If I added these every, I have no idea, often. Would I be able to keep a scooter blenny?

http://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_1...ategory=4&category_search=63&root_parent_id=4

 

[kay-bee19]

Those might work if you have a refugium or possibly a sump (a location where a portion of the 'pod population in protected from predation), and probably only after the main tank has a substantial quantity of them.

When I first set up my 65gal tank, I acquired my sand and live rock from a hobbyist who was about to move. My tank was literally crawling with pods (much more than 200 of them).

My first marine fish was a scooter blenny (got bad info from the LFS that they were "really easy to take care of", and didn't properly research what I was getting). In a couple of weeks my pod population was practically wiped out by the scooter blenny perpetually searching for tiny critters to eat.

Luckily my scooter would eat frozen mysis shrimp (however it was getting outcompeted by the other fish during feeding time). I eventually set up a separate tank where it could eat without competition (it gorges itself on selcon-soaked mysis shrimp, selcon-fed live brine shrimp, and bloodworms).

I've since reconstituted my pod population in the main tank but am keeping the scooter in its own tank for the time being. I've had it for a year now and it's doing fine, though if I had to do it again I probably would not have gotten it.

 

[usmcmarc]

Yeah..I'm not gonna get it. Too much that can go wrong, and will prob wind up being too expensive. I'll get a couple extra crabs..maybe a purple lobster, they are "supposed" to be reef and fish safe.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

If you're planning on soft corals, you might hold off a bit on adding more crabs until you feel you need them. While I don't think crabs are as evil as many do, they aren't the most careful critters around coral. I'm pretty sure I lost a bubble coral and fungia coral due to crab-caused injuries. I think they're an important part of your cleanup crew, but I'd start slow. While I don't have any experience with lobsters, and I can't imagine they're any more careful than the crabs, and seem to be a bit fiestier. I'd think it wouldn't be too happy in a 29g, but that's just an uneducated opinion!

 

[usmcmarc]

This is what I have so far...

BioCube 29
Reef Crystals and RO/DI water.
Sapphire Aquatics Protein Skimmer
Pacific Micro Heater/Chiller
SEIO 620gph pump (For Flow)

Current Inhabitants:
(1) Gold Stripe Maroon Clown
(1) Firefish Goby
(5) Turbo Snails, (1) Stomatella varia, (5) Nassarius, (2) tiny-turbos, (1) tiny Cerith
(1) Scarlet Red Hermit Crab, ( 8 ) Blue Legged Hermit Crab
(1) Hawaian Feather Duster
various critters from live rock (peanut & bristle worms, numerous tiny dusters, reef clams)

Planning on adding the following:

1 small flame angel
2 fighting conch (Like 1/2" in size)
1 Orange Linckia Star (aprox 3")
1 or 2 Fire/Blood Shrimp


That will be it for livestock. And 6-8 months down the road I will start with a few corals, and (1) anenome *for my clown, if he feels like hosting it*