Skinny Blenny issue

[mike89t]

Dang. Just lost my Midas blenny that I've had for over a year and a half. He ate like a champ for the first year and a half and was nice and fat. Then all of a sudden he started looking skinny and wasn't eating food like he used to. He just slowly wasted away over the last month. Last week was the last time that I saw him and he was pretty much skin and bones.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Dang. Just lost my Midas blenny that I've had for over a year and a half. He ate like a champ for the first year and a half and was nice and fat. Then all of a sudden he started looking skinny and wasn't eating food like he used to. He just slowly wasted away over the last month. Last week was the last time that I saw him and he was pretty much skin and bones.

Sorry to hear. Your fish’s case is a bit different than many I’ve heard, in that yours did well for so long. In many cases, they just start getting skinny from day one. I think there are multiple issues - some people underestimate how much and how often to feed these, but in other cases, there seems to be a parasite issue. And then of course, a number of these fish have no problem at all…yours is sort of different in that you were obviously feeding it properly, and an internal parasite should have shown up sooner….

Jay

 

[Neptune 555]

Great information... Is this siutaiton true with only Midas blenny or with starry blenny also?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Great information... Is this siutaiton true with only Midas blenny or with starry blenny also?

A few blennys-
Starry Lawnmower
midas

These are just some

 

[SnownSky]

After a couple months of seemingly good health, our canary blenny started acting strangely and (edited) was found in the filter sock this AM.

2x daily feeding; AM pellets, PM frozen. He wasn't the most enthusiastic eater but seemed okay until a week ago.

 

[sarinaruu]

Skinny blennies:

Midas blennies are much more difficult to maintain than their common presence in the pet trade would have you believe. They are very prone to starvation. It is unknown if this is due to not feeding them often enough, not feeding enough, feeding the wrong foods, or if internal parasites compete with the blenny for food energy. This species lacks a swim bladder, so they must expend quite a bit of energy just to maintain their location on the water column. This must be offset by a huge amount of calories. Aquarists often miss the fact that their Midas blennies are becoming gradually thinner – as the fish still feeds ravenously, and the progression of the problem is fairly slow. At some point, the fish begins to utilize their liver for food energy. Once this point is reached, the liver damage is irreversible and death is inevitable. A similar issue is also seen with algae blennies, Salarias fasciatus. In these cases, the problem is often tied in to the fish eating all available algae in an aquarium and subsequently starving.

A means to resolve this problem is unclear, since the actual cause is unknown. The best option may be to feed these fish to satiation four times per day, and offering less brine shrimp, and more high fat mysid shrimp. If the blenny takes food in but spits it back out, try dicing the food into smaller pieces. Clearing these fish of possible internal parasites is not an easy task. Praziquantel is often suggested as a cure, but in reality, this drug is only effective against monogeneans (external flukes) and cestodes (tapeworms). If internal parasites are indeed the issue, they may well not be of these two groups. Still, it may be a good idea to dose the tank with praziquantel at 2 mg/l twice, 10 days apart, just in case that will clear the issue. Medicated foods may also be of benefit, but only if properly dosed as mentioned elsewhere. Soaking the food in medication is a useless endeavor, as the medication dose is completely unknown, and then, the amount of medications that washes off the food makes the issue even worse. Medications must be bound into the food items and dosed at a proper level.

my midas blenny was eating mysis 3x a day, very enthusiastically. then after a week of having him died overnight. i looked at his stomach and it was caved in like that despite him eating so much.

 

[CRABDADDY]

I got this beautiful Midas blenny from my LFS after someone broke down their tank and surrendered him. So far he's fat and happy swimming with my dispar anthias. He seems to think he's one of them

Im hoping I don't run into this issue with him. I've had it happen to one of my lawnmower blennies in the past. Had them for a year or so and then they randomly stop eating and wither away.

I do recall getting one lawnmower blenny that I could never really get to eat anything. Eventually I did get him eating, but I don't think he lasted longer than 6 months.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I got this beautiful Midas blenny from my LFS after someone broke down their tank and surrendered him. So far he's fat and happy swimming with my dispar anthias. He seems to think he's one of them

Im hoping I don't run into this issue with him. I've had it happen to one of my lawnmower blennies in the past. Had them for a year or so and then they randomly stop eating and wither away.

I do recall getting one lawnmower blenny that I could never really get to eat anything. Eventually I did get him eating, but I don't think he lasted longer than 6 months.

That one looks REALLY good!

Jay

 

[CRABDADDY]

That one looks REALLY good!

Jay

I wish I could take credit for him looking so good! He was QTed by my LFS before I got him, so I'm hoping there's no parasites, ect. I'll do my best to keep him healthy. I feed a 50/50 mix of salmon and spirulina mysis. Twice a day, along with some TDO pellets. He also occasionally snacks on nori. I'll probably ramp up the feeding to three times daily in a few months when the tank is a little more established.

 

[Razorbacks]

I stumbled on this thread as I'm thinking about buying a midas blenny tomorrow but I'm now concerned to do so.

@Jay Hemdal do you feel this fish should be avoided in general until the issue is better understood or are you just advising to QT properly and feed a little more frequently than most fish? Would you recommend an alteration for QT specific to this fish? I already follow your standard QT protocol. In your experience is the fish's survival rate generally poor like say a diamond goby or do you just see starvation more commonly than in other species?

I've read that midas are commonly found with anthias in the wild and that's another fish which is pretty active and needs frequent feedings. Add in no swim bladder and the fact that this blenny has a different diet than some other blennies and it starts to make sense why under feeding could be common. This would also be exacerbated in new fish due to the stress and reduced feeding associated with wild collection and transit I suppose.

 

[Blopple]

I'll chime in here. I'm quite inexperienced and not entirely happy with the way I handled these situations, but wanted to share all the same. I have had 3 blennies over about 13 months. 2 midas blennies (different locales?) and 1 tailspot blenny. I'll include pictures that I feel like best demonstrate each of the three at their worst points.

The first midas blenny ate like a champion and was a wonderful fish. Fed a mix of flake/pellet/frozen mysis/spirulina brine. Slowly noticed him flashing on the rocks and getting bloated. Then he would go back to normal, then flashing and bloaty again. I eventually found him dead one day with a noticeably distended abdomen. The bloating was always lumpy like bowel gas pattern on an x-ray. This is not the worst the bloating ever was, but it's significant and the lighting helps with the anatomy I think.


Decided to try again with another midas blenny. Decided that it was a dietary problem that did him in. Read about living with anthias and decided to start feeding calanus to this one. Unfortunately this new blenny was incredibly aggressive and was evicted from the tank. Over 2-3 months I never experienced bloating, weight loss, or feeding issues with this fish.


This could of course just be a difference of healthy fish vs fish with parasites, but I do feel like increasing diet variety is a good change in general.

The tailspot blenny went through a copper quarantine, but no formalin/prazi/metro/general cure. This fish seems to me to best fit the issue described. It always ate ravenously, but become deathly thin over time and starved to death. In hindsight I wish I had euthanized this fish. I do not know if this was parasites or diet. I also believe it could be related to some kind of trauma, mass, or deformity as the fish always had a noticeable curvature proximal to the caudal fin.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I stumbled on this thread as I'm thinking about buying a midas blenny tomorrow but I'm now concerned to do so.

@Jay Hemdal do you feel this fish should be avoided in general until the issue is better understood or are you just advising to QT properly and feed a little more frequently than most fish? Would you recommend an alteration for QT specific to this fish? I already follow your standard QT protocol. In your experience is the fish's survival rate generally poor like say a diamond goby or do you just see starvation more commonly than in other species?

I've read that midas are commonly found with anthias in the wild and that's another fish which is pretty active and needs frequent feedings. Add in no swim bladder and the fact that this blenny has a different diet than some other blennies and it starts to make sense why under feeding could be common. This would also be exacerbated in new fish due to the stress and reduced feeding associated with wild collection and transit I suppose.

It really seems hit or miss with this species, but the underlying factor is their high caloric needs, and a current tendency for people to underfeed their tanks to limit nutrient loading. There could also be an internal parasitic issue, but many internal worms issues can be overcome by feeding the fish more.

I would feed these 4x or more a day, high protein, high fat foods. The skinny algae blennies is another issue, I think that happens when the blennies consume all of the suitable algae in a given tank and then starve to death. There may also be a "malabsorption" issue, where these blennies eat well, but the food is not suitable for proper digestion....