Midas blenny aggression

[djryan2000]

I added a (fully grown) midas blenny to my tank last week. The current inhabitants are a yellow coris wrasse, dragonet, and a clownfish. The wrasse seemed to drop off the radar except for an hour or two for a few days and came out more yesterday and today. Yesterday the midas blenny would charge at the wrasse every time it swam in the water column and today it just leaves its perch spot and stares at the wrasse who immediately swims for cover.

My first thought was to put the blenny in a "time out box" for a few days to see if that curbs the aggression but am thinking it will be ineffective as the blenny is the newest fish and just immediately became a bully. Do I have any other options besides giving it back to my LFS?

 

[Idoc]

Acclimation box for a couple days possibly. Anytime a new fish is added, they will go through the pecking order again. My guess is that the aggression will stop in a few days. The other fish will accept its dominance and then they will swim together again.

If it is actually tearing into other fish and physically hurting them, then it may need to be removed. But if it's just chasing them away, if give it a few days or so.

My Midas Blenny is the boss of the tank, but his is dominance without attacking. It actually maintains the peace in the tank. Sins well with all others, but will face another fish down if he has too.

 

[djryan2000]

Acclimation box for a couple days possibly. Anytime a new fish is added, they will go through the pecking order again. My guess is that the aggression will stop in a few days. The other fish will accept its dominance and then they will swim together again.

If it is actually tearing into other fish and physically hurting them, then it may need to be removed. But if it's just chasing them away, if give it a few days or so.

My Midas Blenny is the boss of the tank, but his is dominance without attacking. It actually maintains the peace in the tank. Sins well with all others, but will face another fish down if he has too.

Thank you. Can I get away with adding more fish? I was planning on adding a long nose hawk and 2 others. If I add all 3 at once should I curb the aggression? For whatever reason I was under the impression midas blennies were passive fish.. despite the numerous forum posts about them being aggressive.

 

[Idoc]

Thank you. Can I get away with adding more fish? I was planning on adding a long nose hawk and 2 others. If I add all 3 at once should I curb the aggression? For whatever reason I was under the impression midas blennies were passive fish.. despite the numerous forum posts about them being aggressive.

Adding more fish depends on the size of the tank. Also, A new tank must build up nitrifying bacteria to handle a bigger bio-load so best to add fish slowly.

Best to add the most peaceful fish first, then the semi-aggressive last.

Also, if you plan on adding any shrimp lster, a hawkish will eat them.

 

[Tamberav]

I added a (fully grown) midas blenny to my tank last week. The current inhabitants are a yellow coris wrasse, dragonet, and a clownfish. The wrasse seemed to drop off the radar except for an hour or two for a few days and came out more yesterday and today. Yesterday the midas blenny would charge at the wrasse every time it swam in the water column and today it just leaves its perch spot and stares at the wrasse who immediately swims for cover.

My first thought was to put the blenny in a "time out box" for a few days to see if that curbs the aggression but am thinking it will be ineffective as the blenny is the newest fish and just immediately became a bully. Do I have any other options besides giving it back to my LFS?

I tried several midas blennies at different times and they were all jerks once settled in. None of them stopped being aggressive. One would even beat on the poor damsel.

 

[djryan2000]

Adding more fish depends on the size of the tank. Also, A new tank must build up nitrifying bacteria to handle a bigger bio-load so best to add fish slowly.

Best to add the most peaceful fish first, then the semi-aggressive last.

Also, if you plan on adding any shrimp lster, a hawkish will eat them.

I do not plan on adding more shrimp after the hawk. I had one that jumped out when I forgot to put the lid back on over the summer. While I do understand it is best to add fish slowly, my concern is over the aggression of the Midas blenny and am thinking If I add all 3 at once it will disperse its aggression. I am not concerned about the tank being unable to handle the sudden jump in bio load; worst case ill add some bottled bacteria with the fish. Thank you!

 

[djryan2000]

Acclimation box for a couple days possibly. Anytime a new fish is added, they will go through the pecking order again. My guess is that the aggression will stop in a few days. The other fish will accept its dominance and then they will swim together again.

If it is actually tearing into other fish and physically hurting them, then it may need to be removed. But if it's just chasing them away, if give it a few days or so.

My Midas Blenny is the boss of the tank, but his is dominance without attacking. It actually maintains the peace in the tank. Sins well with all others, but will face another fish down if he has too.

An update; you were correct, the aggression stopped.

 

[BobbyCline]

I have a Midas in my 80 gallon tank along with a Starry and bi color blenny. Also about 7 other similar sized fish. The Midas was the very first fish addition and shows no interest in any other fish in tank.

 

[Thetankdoctor]

All blenny's are jerks. Try the timeout box but be prepared for it to not work. Really they are jerks!

 

[djryan2000]

All blenny's are jerks. Try the timeout box but be prepared for it to not work. Really they are jerks!

Yup. I ended up giving him away to my LFS.

 

[Thetankdoctor]

Ya sorry about that...why are the cute little ones always the idiots? I would love a midas but I can't do it. I just can't....

 

[whitcory]

I have a midas and he sort of runs my tank. I have 7 other mild fish and he can be somewhat aggressive but nothing really bad. A few charges. He went at my Anthias Ignitis a bit but now that they are established there are no problems. He is beautiful to watch and quite a personality. I recommend but mine was the 1st one in the tank so maybe that is it.

 

[NoVa Reefer]

I added a pair of midas blennies to my 180 gallon last week. They don't seem to bother any of my other fish and even allow my tiny yellow coris wrasse to swim around with them all day. Although the larger blenny tends to charge the smaller blenny from time to time but have not seen him actually bite. Hopefully, they stay peaceful as I was not aware they could be aggressive.