hi hilary here with waterlogged today we're going to talk about Blennies.
all right today we are going to talk about blennies.
now before i get into it i'm going to let you know that some of these blennies that
we're talking about today are actually considered fang blennies and obviously it's because they
have fangs and those fangs are actually venomous they use these as a method of self-defense
but i'm bringing it up because you should probably be safe when handling them they're
probably not intentionally going to bite you but they like i said use it as a self-defense
mechanism so use caution when handling them now if they are a fang blenny i'm gonna go
ahead and let you know but i will also be denoting it as i usually do so let's go ahead
and get started first off one of the more common species that i've seen in local fish
stores is the lawnmower blenny now these guys are pretty dull and drab and not the most
colorful fish that you're going to keep in your tank however they do pack quite the punch
when it comes to keeping your tank clean lawn mower blenny kind of is a good indicator by
their name that they're gonna clean up a lot of that algae sometimes you might actually
hear them be referred to as algae blennies as well another blenny similar to the lawnmower
blenny is the molly miller blenny now i've actually heard rumors i haven't seen this
myself that these guys will actually eat aptasia and cyanobacteria in addition to taking care
of some of that algae in your tank so that's something to keep in mind if you are looking
for a new blenny next up is significantly more colorful the canary blinny these guys
are absolutely beautiful yellow colors and they are actually one of the fang blinnies
now one thing that's cool about them is that they might actually reproduce in your tank
and you can actually buy them as a captive bred species the striped blinny now these
guys are another one of the fang blennies now they like to cruise around the rock rock
work and they will do a little bit of hunting while they're in your tank so make sure that
when you're putting them in there you got some well-established rockscape for them to
enjoy next we have the fork tail blenny this is another one of those fang blennies and
it's actually another one of the captive bred species that you can find now i like buying
captive bred fish for several reasons one they tend to be a little bit healthier overall
a lot of times because they are captive bred they're usually already eating when you get
them as opposed to some of the wild caught species that might not necessarily already
be eating so that takes some of the issues out for you when you get them into your home
tank but another reason i like captive bread is because it reduces the stress on wild populations
all right next up is going to be the red or the orange spot blenny these guys are a good
bit more colorful they're really really beautiful fish but they tend to be a little bit aggressive
so use caution when you're putting them in your tank next we have the smith blenny this
is another captive bred species of fang blenny they're pretty small and they'll actually
be really good if you've got a nano tank that you're looking for a blenny to put in this
blenny is the tail spot blinny it's probably one of my favorite ones out there i really
love them because a lot of times when you see them in tanks they're kind of like poking
their heads up out of rock work these guys like to hide in and around the work rock work
so make sure when you're putting them in a tank give them a lot of fun spaces to hide
our last blending today is the midas blending this is another one that is absolutely beautiful
in color and today these photos that i have are actually collected from a diver out in
the wild they were observing these my displays they weren't sure what it was um so this one
is actually one that's kind of displaying cording colors which is not necessarily something
that we see in our home aquariums but i think these photos give you a pretty good idea of
the variety of different colors that you might see out in the wild all right that's all of
the different species that we have to talk about today but let's go ahead and discuss
how big they're going to get and what tank size is that you need so most of these blendings
are going to stay fairly small they're not going to get anywhere over 5 inches so you
can probably keep them in a 30 gallon tank or larger they're going to do relatively well
the more space that you give them the more hiding places that you give them they're going
to thoroughly enjoy that all right let's go to the kitchen and discuss some of the nutritional
requirements that your blennies might need let's talk a little bit about diet and nutrition
for your bloodies now i'm curious before i get into this let me know if you've ever kept
a blinny before what its favorite food food was leave a comment down below now a minute
ago i mentioned that a lot of these blennies that you're going to keep in the tank are
providing a service to your aquarium in that they are cleaning a lot of the algae and some
of the unwanted pesky algae out of your tank and that is great but you as an aquarius need
to be mindful that especially if you've got a very efficient cleanup crew and they take
care of all that algae really quickly that you are supplementing that with something
else in their diet so just kind of keep a watchful eye as the algae grows in your tank
and how fast they take care of it to know how much you're going to need to supplement
that now all of the bloodies on this list today are both omnivores and herbivores so
i've got a mix of foods for them but it's primarily going to be heavy on the vegetable
side of things today i'm gonna go ahead and break things down into the dry and flake foods
the diy and gel foods the frozen foods and some specialty foods so let's go ahead and
get started with the dry foods in some of these videos i like to talk about flakes but
if you pay attention to where they're hanging out at in your tank you're going to notice
that they're going to be on the bottom and maybe in the middle of the water column while
they might go up to the surface that's not primarily where they're hanging out which
is why i'm going to tell you to maybe steer clear of flake foods not that they're bad
but pellets are probably a little bit more where you need to be so look for a pellet
that has maybe a little bit more moisture content that will fall through the water column
down to the bottom or we'll hang out in the water column first up is going to be the cobalt
aquatics marine pellet so this one's good it's got a nice small size which is something
you want to be watchful of make sure that you get a pellet that's about half the size
of your fish's mouth that way they don't have any issues eating it these guys are good it's
got a mix of those greens and the meats that the blennies will need these next two are
both new life spectrum products if you've seen these videos before you know that i'm
a big fan of their foods first off is the algae max now this one is great i've already
mentioned that these blendings eat a lot of vegetables and this one has about nine different
types of seaweeds and algae's in there so it's going to be a great option for your blennies
another one is the new life spectrum probiotics as an overall pellet food this is probably
one of my favorites and again it's got those meats but it's also got some of those vegetables
not quite as much as the algae max but they're definitely in there and one good thing about
these products is that they come in a variety of different sizes so you can get exactly
what you need for the fish in your tank now this next one is the pe mysis pellets now
i've mentioned this in the past videos you're not going to want to feed this every single
day but it's a great treat for your fish and this guy comes in both the pellet form and
the frozen so you can get that in the big sheet pack which i'll show you in a second
or in some of the blister packs this next one is a new food this is the nios algae food
um the reason i'm mentioning is because these guys are herbivores they eat lots of algae
and veggies so this is a good one for you to go ahead and give a try all right let's
move on to our diy and gel foods now if this seems a little bit foreign to you i'm gonna
go ahead and put a link up in the video and below in the description but i've actually
made a video on how to make some of these gel and the diy foods so go ahead and check
that out if you're curious now the first one is going to be the dr tim's beneficial fish
food i like this one and all of the gel and dough mixes because you can add any medications
that you might need in there and it's really easy this one's a natural fish food so it's
going to have a lot of those naturally occurring nutrients that your fish will need next up
is another new life spectrum product this is the algae max gel so it's the same thing
as those pellets i mentioned a minute ago the only difference is it comes in a powder
you're able to blend it up and you can put it on the rock work and somewhere in the tank
it will simulate the natural feeding behaviors of those blinnies as they're scraping the
food off the rocks all right let's go ahead and move on to frozen food so first off is
going to be the pe mysis i mentioned that a second ago this is one of the big sheet
packs that you can use also it comes in the blister packs as well again that's something
you're going to want to stick to maybe once or twice a week for a snack next is going
to be the san francisco bay brand the reef multi-pack now this one has the marine cuisine
and the coral cuisine in there both of those are going to have a good variety of not only
brine shrimp that these blennies need and love but also some of those vegetables as
well and this is as all blister packs are wonderful because you only have to break out
a small little mount it's already pre-portioned so this is a good option especially if you've
got some reef tanks.
all right we have the brine shrimp brine shrimp is a great food for the blinnies it's really
small it's going to be perfect for their little tiny mouths and it's got a lot of nutrition
in there for them that they will appreciate our last frozen food might be a little bit
strange the pygmy angel formula now the reason i'm showing you this one is because if you
look at the ingredients brine shrimp that's the first ingredient on there then we have
dried kelp dry kelp powder and then they've got a bunch of different vegetables and meats
in here so even though it says pygmy angel on the front it will work great for your blennies
and it's another one of those that comes in a blister pack so consider this as an option
now your blinnies are going to be eating a lot of algae in the tank and if they are really
efficient they might eat through all of it which is why it's a good reason for you to
supplement with some nori so there's a bunch of different varieties that are out on the
market two little fishies has a bunch of different colored so you can have the red seaweed the
purple the green it's entirely your preference so consider getting some of those in addition
to maybe a nori clip or one of those feeder containers all right let's go ahead and talk
about some of the issues that your blinnies might encounter now unlike some of these other
fish videos that i've done the main things and the main problems that i see when it comes
to blinnies number one is jumping can't tell you how many times i've seen blenny's jump
they jump if they're spooked sometimes they just jump for fun so the remedy to that is
making sure that you have a nice secure fitting lid on the top of your tank you can either
purchase one of the kits marine depot has several different diy kits that you can design
to fit your specific tank you can buy the ones that come with your tank now something
else when it comes to securing openings is being mindful of your overflow can't tell
you how many times i've seen blinny's stuck in overflows they've either somehow gotten
through the weird teeth or jumped over the weird teeth so if your tank has a little bit
of a gap just be mindful of that know that if it's possible they may end up in your overflow
and they're a pain in the butt to catch so do yourself a favor and make sure you have
that screened off if you can right the next issue that i commonly see with blennies is
malnutrition now i mentioned it several times earlier that a lot of these guys are grazing
and feeding throughout the day now if they have competition from the cleanup crew if
you're clean if you've got a lot of crabs and snails and they're really efficient these
guys might not be getting enough food so one thing that you can do is you can install an
auto feeder on your tank this is probably one of the more simple ones that are out there
on the market it's really easy you can set it to feed several times throughout the day
that will ensure that your blennies are getting enough food that they need something else
you can consider doing is putting some copepods and you're seeding your tank with copepods
and putting one of those pod habitats that way they'll always be some live food in the
tank for them to chase after now recently i've been talking about preventative measures
so one of the preventative measures that you can do is adding vitamins to their food now
i talked a lot about different pellet foods that you can have today and if you've seen
some of the fish nutrition videos that i've made you'll know that you need to add some
vitamin c and some vitamins back into those pellet foods especially after they've been
open for a while because those vitamins actually do evaporate and vitamin c especially is really
important for your fish is immune health so consider vitamin c vitamin c by brightwell
aquatics this is a really great one that's one i use on a regular basis all right let's
go ahead and move on to enrichment so blooney's they're a funny curious bunch of fish a lot
of times you'll see them hiding in and around the rock work so providing a good rockscape
for them to play in for them to hunt in for them to clean algae in is one way that you
can enrich their lives now we've talked a lot about food when it comes to bloodies but
something else you can do is using things like these uh nori clips there's a huge variety
of them that are out on the market you can put some nori in there for them to eat and
snack on throughout the day you can switch it up with a bunch of different types of nori
adding variety and changing up the food is one easy method of enrichment that is available
out there the next thing that you can do is another one that has to do with food when
you feed this works really great with some of those frozen foods in the blister packs
you can put those foods in the tank feed them in front of say a powerhead or you return
and what that does is it kind of disperses the food throughout the water column and it
gives those blooneys something fun to chase after just like they would their food in the
wild the next thing you can do and i mentioned some of these gel and dough foods down in
the kitchen is you can put those along the rock work and that will simulate their natural
feeding behaviors out in the wild so that's something else fun that you can do to enrich
those their lives now i'm curious if you do anything to enrich your bloodies lives please
leave a comment below and let me know i'm always interested to learn new methods of
enrichment the last method of enrichment as always is tank mates so blennies tend to be
pretty good in community tanks they do very well in reef tanks now there are some species
that will get aggressive towards others so always make sure that you do your research
before you buy fish before you buy coral before you put anything in your tank that goes with
products as well if you are looking for some help check out marine depot's fish compatibility
chart it is a fantastic resource that is available to you for free all right folks thank you
so much for watching i hope you've enjoyed this let me know what your favorite fish is
below what video you would like to see see you next time you