A couple noob questions: Scooter Blenny & Cleaner shrimp

[PrisonCityReef]

Picked these guys up a couple weeks ago in GB.

Seem healthy, active, etc. The cleaner shrimp tends to steal food from anywhere. Including corals. Little bugger. I was hoping he would do more scavenging / cleaning, but he just swims up and annoys my clown during feeding time. Once he snags a pellet he wanders off to eat though, so not a big deal. I see him cleaning other things too.

My concern is with the Blenny. I never see the guy eat. I tried sinking wafers on a recommendation. It landed near him and he never glanced at it twice. (The the stupid cleaner shrimp came and had a snack.)

He seems like he is hungry around feeding time, but he has ignored flake, pellet, brine shrimp, rods food, and wafers. Most advice I've received is to try random things as they are all a bit different. Doesn't seem like he is starving though, so maybe he eats enough of the rods food?

What are you folks feeding with success? I don't want to overfeed while trying out foods to interest the little guy. Not that my clown fish lets much of anything go to waste.

 

[Jhildebrand]

The biggest annoyance with cleaner shrimp is their klepto tendancies with food. As you've already discovered, if they get a piece first, they will take it someplace safe and the rest of your fish and corals may eat in relative peace.

Scooter blennies are dragonets and require the same care as mandarins. They survive solely on pods and need a mature tank with lots of live rock and little to no competition for their food source. A large, mature refugium is key to keeping their food supply high in tanks with little rock or other fish such as wrasses that also eat pods. When I say pods, think tiny copepods, not the big shrimp-like amphipods you see scurrying around.

It's rare that one will ever accept prepared foods of any kind, and even if they do, their life expectancy is still rather short. The biggest hurdle to success with these fishes is getting a healthy specimen to start. Look closely at the belly of the fish. More often then not, they are knocking on death's door when purchased. These things are often starved throughout the chain of custody and in pretty rough shape by the time we see them in the store.

I have two mandarins. One is in my 260g display and he eats constantly - every peck is a downed pod. I purchased a target mandarin from the last reefs2go order and was disappointed that it arrived with one foot in the grave. It was basically just a head with a little skeleton behind it. It was so far starved the muscle tissue was atrophied. Just a little bag of bones. I put him in my 150 gal refugium. It's been two months and he's packed on weight since, being able to eat as much as he wants. I will transfer to my upstairs cube soon. If I would have put him in the display when I first received him, I'm positive he would have died there. They have to work for their dinner.

Good luck with everything and keep us posted.

 

[PrisonCityReef]

Scooter blennies are dragonets and require the same care as mandarins. They survive solely on pods and need a mature tank with lots of live rock and little to no competition for their food source.

Well, even after being cautioned multiple times, it seems that I have taken the LFS advice without doing my own homework. I asked the guy at Reef's Aquatic about diet (and mentioned that I have the biocube, not a huge system) and he said that sinking wafers would work well. I was under the impression that he was dedicated to proper advice rather than pushing merchandise.

I haven't noticed him getting any skinnier since I picked him up 3 weeks ago though. I'll take another good look at him again tonight. Otherwise it looks like I may need to find a new home for him soon. The wife will not be pleased!

 

[Bri Guy]

Ya, i gave up on both, cleaner type shrimp for you can't keep LPS and them together w/o some stealing goin on

and dragonets, ive tried to keep a couple different types with no success.

still listening to the LFS's..... newbie...... lol

 

[PrisonCityReef]

I freely admit my noob-ness. Even after 3 years+ hanging out with you crazies I'm still learning as I go.

 

[Jhildebrand]

Yeah, that blows. It can take a long time to starve them to death too, so I'm sure that some LFS employees might actually believe they're okay in the average nano. They are actually a fairly hardy and disease resistant fish if you can feed them.These guys are also famous for *appearing* to eat prepared food only to spit it out. Here's some great info on them:

Callionymids

What condition is he in? How's the belly look now?

 

[Thunderstruck34]

i've never seen a dragonet with ich and/or ever heard of one getting it either so thats a plus for them. but yeah they're survival rate is not the best in captivity. Try frozen mysis or brine shrimp, use a turkey baster and spot feed em and remember to turn off your powerheads while feeding. hopefully that'll help...or you can always buy live copepods because that is just so much fun.

 

[nkelr]

watch the top of that tank. ive had both cleaners and scooters jump out on me before. every now and then i see the cleaner take some food from my bubble, but nothing major to where my bubble is deprived. the cleaner also likes the seaweed my tang eats too. my sailfin is a pig though and only lets the shrimp get the leftovers. those shrimp are sneaky little buggers they run up when no one is looking, steal the food and run away. they are awsome to have if you have large tangs. my sailfin and my cleaner are best friends and hes always hangin around the shrimp. might be why he gets away with eating the seaweed.

 

[Jhildebrand]

LOL, they really P.O. any LPS too, digging into the coral's inards to get at food. It's frustrating trying to guard your corals from the shrimp. Feeding them first and separately is a great way to keep your sanity.

 

[jlinzmaier]

LOL, they really P.O. any LPS too, digging into the coral's inards to get at food. It's frustrating trying to guard your corals from the shrimp. Feeding them first and separately is a great way to keep your sanity.

+1. I entirely agree. It's a rediculously funny scenario when your wife asks you to do something (away from the tank) and your only logical reply is "Sorry honey, still fighting off the shrimp so the corals get their food". LOL!!

Jeremy

 

[PrisonCityReef]

lol. That is great. He walked on my shroom the other day to snag some food from it, so I've been keeping a closer eye on him. I usually toss him a medium sized pellet and those take him a good while to get through. Gives me time to get food into the corals.

 

[jlinzmaier]

I wish I could just feed the shrimp first then feed the corals. The shrimp caught onto that little plan. Now they'll take what I give them, stash it, then come back to pluck out whatever they can get from the corals.

Jeremy