Starry Blenny behavior

[Areseebee]

I have a Starry Blenny that I've had for roughly 3 months. He's always been a pretty weird fish. He's never eaten anything prepared but forages and pecks a lot. Maybe a month ago he started sleeping up on the overflow grating, He also likes to sleep in the space behind the powerheads (alternating jebao pumps). I've always had pretty mild concern about this. However over the last week or so I've seen him "flash" a few times (I think), where he'll cruise around for a bit, settle on the sand and then curl up wards fast. I've really never noticed anything on him although it's a bit challenging because of his patterns and how dynamic they can be. Maybe another piece of information is that the cleaner shrimp often has a lot of interest in him, then again he's pretty much the only fish the shrimp can catch.

 

[Humblefish]

Sounds like he may have ich or flukes. Was he QT'd?

 

[Areseebee]

Not properly, no. He lasted about 2 weeks in QT but he freaked me out when he wouldn't eat in QT (this is probably the exact opposite of the thing you should do in that case). He pecked the glass for like 24 hours straight after putting him in the DT and I felt good about it at the time!

 

[Humblefish]

I think all you can really do right now is sit back and wait to see if further symptoms manifest.

 

[Humblefish]

Or do you think you could catch him to give him a FW dip? To check for flukes?

 

[Areseebee]

I think I definitely could FW dip him, when he sleeps near the overflow he's pretty oblivious. I can give it a try. The good news is that I'm ultra sensitive in watching the other 6 fish in the tank and I've never seen any of them with anything white spot-ish and they have no simptoms like this. It's just something he kind of has always done so I convinced myself it was ok... but now the flashing has pushed me towards "might be worse than I feared".

 

[Humblefish]

Flukes will look like this if present in the FW dip:

 

[Areseebee]

Figured I would update this, it's been a while. I thought the fish was going to be a goner, he just would not eat and he was very thin. During one feeding I saw him twitch just a bit as a piece of food floated by his face. So the next feeding I just bombed the tank with food so it looked like a snow globe. He grabbed one and the a little more and now he is the greediest fish in my tank. He swim up to the glass Everytime he sees me. He's fat and happy at this point. He's still weird, sleeps behind the power heads etc, but I think he's healthy. Let and importantly I feel like if I decide he needs medication I can soak food to deliver it.

 

[FlyingOctopi]

My Starry Blenny is acting exactly how you explain. He hangs out on the powerheads and is now sleeping in the bottom corner of the tank. He's been eating fine for the last 4 months and is still eating. Just started hanging out on the corner though.

 

[AstroMelly]

Old thread I know but our starry blenny does the same. She likes to sit stuck to the weir overflow. Seems she enjoys being suspended there - who wouldn’t? It’s the equivalent of a fish hammock I suppose! The first time I saw her doing it I reached in a poked her off as I was worried she could not release herself. She went straight back there and is perfectly capable of releasing herself. She likes peeling her front half away so she can get a good look round the tank! Funniest fish we have so far and really a joy to watch. Her name is Astrid. She also sometimes sits/sleeps atop the return pipe or the Flipper magnet cleaner or our magnetic feeding ring!

Our blenny also flashes on the sand bed. That’s how I found this thread. I’m not too concerned yet but I will keep a close eye on her for the next few weeks. I’ve also seen her mouthing her tail but her tail is immaculate. I can see clearly when the light is behind her. I’m pretty sure this is just playful behaviour like cats or dogs play with their bodies occasionally but I will keep a close eye.

Incidentally it’s easy to sex them from the anal fin - no 3 extensions = female, 3 extensions = male.

 

[blaxsun]

Blennies are a never-ending source of entertainment...