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I just added a lawn mower blennie to my 90 gallon to consume some of the algie. I was told this fish is quite harmless. it is not very big. I noticed him either attacking the seahorses or picking at their sides for a few seconds. Is he cleaning them or hurting them. If this was a bad move on my part, any suggestions on capturing him in a reef tank filled with rocks and corals. help please
Hi ageber,
The only blennies recommended for seahorse systems are the non algae eating blennies like the Midas Blenny.
Lawnmower Blennies are not cleaners like cleaner shrimp are cleaners. They are known to be territorial. He neeeds to be moved whether he is cleaning them and removing algae or intentionally picking at them. The act of cleaning them alone could hurt them if not very gentle and it is most certainly stressful for them to be picked at. Stress can definitely lead to disease.
As for removing him you have a task at hand. I have ripped apart many a tank to catch fish I was told were appropriate that actually were not. If he has a rock he likes to hide in you could try removing that if it is close to the top of your rockscape then you lucked out. There are fish traps out there but I have never used one and have no idea if they work. I was never wiling to leave the offending fish long enough to try and find one of the traps. If I could not catch the fish after a few attempts then I went straight to tearing the tank down. I looked at it as an opportunity to re do my aquascape like I would re decorate one of the rooms in my house.
Unfortunately some LFS are notorious for giving mis information. In the future check here with us first.
Wish I had better news for you.
HTH,
Leslie
Lawnmowers are funny little creatures and one of my favorites. They each seem to have very different personalities. Your guy is more than likely picking at them. Seahorses do have algae growth on them and lawnmowers eat algae, but from my personal experience not off the horses. These massive weedeaters are very curious, friendly, mischeivious, and some even say aggressive. I think mischevious is the proper explanation. Have you noticed any torn/frayed fins, or bites on the horses? Watch carefully and see if he setttles down once he finds no challenge in his game of chase, likely your seahorses are not amused by his antics, and he soon will be looking for other ways to confuse you. Removal isn’t easy, but a trap would work well. Mine would take food from my hands ( and they do eat meat) dont be surprised when he starts darting in and out of horses at feeding time to snitch his own mysis. You may not have to worry about it, if the fish is new, I have found that most lawnmowers dont do well in captivity.
Good Luck and watch him closely.He might just be establishing territory and he may chill out. It’s possible….
I don’t have a lawnmower blenny but I have a horned blenny in my seahorse tank and he picked on one of my horses ONCE. He never bothered them again. We call him the "pig" because he’ll jump in the middle of the feeding station (a shell attached to a coral skeleton) and make the mysis fly around. The horses don’t mind him a bit, and seem to like how he makes their dinner wiggle…. lol. He lost one of his horns, though, lounging in the food dish, one of the horses must have snicked it right off accidentally while eating. It’s growing back, though. I have a midas blenny in another tank and she is very territorial, so I don’t know that they would do well with seahorse, but it will depend on each fish and how aggresive they get. Your tank is big enough that your blenny may decide on a spot that’s his and stop picking on the seahorses. But if I observed any more aggressiveness I would sure want to get him out. You might have to get a friend to help catch him, each of you with a net.Good luck!
thanks so much for the help. I literally took out all the corals and all the rock and finally captured him. I moved him to a 24 gal tank i have. He was attacking another seahorse so i chose to move him. The tank is primarily a seahorse tank but we needed some small fish for cleaning up such as a sand sifter goby and was told this one would be harmless to the seahorses.
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