Starry Blenny experiences!!!

[Avengerx77]

Ok, sorry I have to put another "how is this fish" thread, but I need to up my fish count and have somewhat limited options around here. Any experiences with this fish you can share? I had a Lawnmower fish in my initial stocking list, but what the heck, this one looks a bit nicer. However some questions:
- My tank is 2 months old, will he be ok if he is eating pellets and frozen food and top of this I can add Nori? A a bit concern that my rocks still don't have too much algae to graze.
- What about compatibility? I do have a small royal gramma, but not sure if they will fight on a 60gal tank. I have read so far that he mostly fights with gobies and the blennys, but just want to make sure.
-Anything else to consider?

 

[Spare time]

I feed my starry blenny flakes and pellets. Mine eats everything. I have never seen it eat from a rock. They should be fine with a royal gramma. The only one I have ever had fight something was with my hand. It would stalk my hand, moving from hiding spot to hiding spot till it got close enough and then BAM.

 

[The JLP Experience]

Ok, sorry I have to put another "how is this fish" thread, but I need to up my fish count and have somewhat limited options around here. Any experiences with this fish you can share? I had a Lawnmower fish in my initial stocking list, but what the heck, this one looks a bit nicer. However some questions:
- My tank is 2 months old, will he be ok if he is eating pellets and frozen food and top of this I can add Nori? A a bit concern that my rocks still don't have too much algae to graze.
- What about compatibility? I do have a small royal gramma, but not sure if they will fight on a 60gal tank. I have read so far that he mostly fights with gobies and the blennys, but just want to make sure.
-Anything else to consider?

1. My starry and tomini tang cleared out algae within a few days. They do great w pellets on autofeeder, LRS herbivore frenzy, and nori.
2. When I introduced my flame angel the starry gave him a hard time anytime he came into the rock work. This settled down after a couple days and now the starry doesn’t bother him at all. But he is pretty protective of his castle. Based on other people’s experiences on the forum I’ve accepted that I shouldn’t try to place a mandarin goby or watchman goby given my tank size (reefer 250). I’m ok w that
3. He is a riot. A really weird dude who helps keep things clear of algae.

 

[homer1475]

Starry blenny...oh my!

One of the few fish that will always have a home in my tank. Eats like a lawnmower, but much better looking IMO, and has great personality to boot. When they are super happy, they can turn almost stark white, and can turn their "eye brows" stark white. For this reason my wife has dubbed them the "old men", as she says they look like old men when they do this.

All of mine have been pretty docile over years. Only thing I have ever seen is some chasing when other fish get near it's "home", but other then that they are a pretty docile fish. They will eat anything you put in the tank.

 

[blaxsun]

I had two starry blennies - they both crawled into the rock work and disappeared. I also had three lawnmower blennies that I was unable to keep successfully for more than 3-6 months, either.

This isn't to say they aren't neat fish. The lawnmowers especially have awesome personality (I've heard starries can be a**holes, but I haven't seen that). It's entirely possible I just didn't have the right combination of algae in my tank to properly accommodate them - but in talking to other reefers my experience with them isn't apparently isolated (all indicate they can be hard to keep in captivity).

I have a midas blenny which is way more colorful, hilarious to watch and eats everything (he's grown from about 2" to 4" in the past 6 months).

 

[Avengerx77]

I had two starry blennies - they both crawled into the rock work and disappeared. I also had three lawnmower blennies that I was unable to keep successfully for more than 3-6 months, either.

This isn't to say they aren't neat fish. The lawnmowers especially have awesome personality (I've heard starries can be a**holes, but I haven't seen that). It's entirely possible I just didn't have the right combination of algae in my tank to properly accommodate them - but in talking to other reefers my experience with them isn't apparently isolated (all indicate they can be hard to keep in captivity).

I have a midas blenny which is way more colorful, hilarious to watch and eats everything (he's grown from about 2" to 4" in the past 6 months).

Oh yes, I would prefer to add a Midas blenny if given the choice. Unfortunately I have not seen any LFS selling it and has been this way for the last couple of months from what I can tell. I am actually still weigihng if I should take my chances and hold for it to see if it becomes available at some point.

 

[nereefpat]

If you find one eating prepared foods at the store, then it will be fine in your newish tank. If you don't see it eat, then I wouldn't risk it. These and lawnmowers don't always immediately eat prepared foods. I have a lawnmower that didn't eat anything in QT and didn't eat prepared foods for 6 months. Now it does, and doesn't eat much algae.

Fine with royal gramma.

Other thing to consider: infamous carpet surfers.

 

[Phlynamjax]

Mine was aggressive. Attacked any fish came by his rock. Also attacked my hand during water changes.

 

[Maritimer]

My starry is fine with me and most of my fish, but is a frequent target for Ctenochaetus (Kole and Indian Ocean Squaretail) tangs. The tangs seem to recognize the blenny as a competitor for algae.

My blenny also has a habit of eating (ingesting) sand - perhaps hoping to digest the algae growing on the grains. As he swims around, he's continually pooping a fine white snow of processed sand, which settles anywhere on the rock (or coral...).

~B.

 

[jgirardnrg]

Mine eats what everyone else does as well as picking off the sand, rocks and pumps when they're off. Probably the biggest personality in the tank.

 

[revenant]

Sorry for the necro but I just impulse bought a starry blenny because it looked so sad in the LFS sitting on the sand no rocks to perch on.. and I needed someone to tackle my new tank syndrome GHA craze...

So I added the starry blenny to my new 300G which only had 6 yellow tail damsels and a pair of clowns.. tons of rock and tons of GHA. The blenny went right in and hid a little .. the damsels shooshed it a tiny bit but before the lights went out they had given up on that and he was family. He's super cool, eats GHA, grazing rocks all day with my trurbo grazers and eating all the frozen food I put in with the damsels who couldn't care less about him now.. He's a nice dark color with an almost yellow or amber colored tail.. like the color diffuses to amber.. but he has white accents on his head.. He looks like father time with his little white beard lol!

 

[homer1475]

Sorry for the necro but I just impulse bought a starry blenny because it looked so sad in the LFS sitting on the sand no rocks to perch on.. and I needed someone to tackle my new tank syndrome GHA craze...

So I added the starry blenny to my new 300G which only had 6 yellow tail damsels and a pair of clowns.. tons of rock and tons of GHA. The blenny went right in and hid a little .. the damsels shooshed it a tiny bit but before the lights went out they had given up on that and he was family. He's super cool, eats GHA, grazing rocks all day with my trurbo grazers and eating all the frozen food I put in with the damsels who couldn't care less about him now.. He's a nice dark color with an almost yellow or amber colored tail.. like the color diffuses to amber.. but he has white accents on his head.. He looks like father time with his little white beard lol!

When they get happy, they will turn almost stark white. Now you know why my wife has dubbed them "the old man".

For the above that said his attacked his hand..... Mine nips mine fingers whenever I feed, makes me laugh, but you do realize their "teeth" are like cartilage, and I doubt they have the bite strength to break your skin?

 

[Biff0rz]

Mine has been chill in my tank - only eats of rocks/sandbed/back wall. Won't touch flakes, pellets, frozen. He's about 5" long. Doesn't mess with tank mates and they don't mess w him. He does spit substrate over my rocks and corals daily. He also just relaxes on the rocks everywhere.

 

[revenant]

When they get happy, they will turn almost stark white. Now you know why my wife has dubbed them "the old man".

For the above that said his attacked his hand..... Mine nips mine fingers whenever I feed, makes me laugh, but you do realize their "teeth" are like cartilage, and I doubt they have the bite strength to break your skin?

Mine comes right up to the top with most of the damsels when I have the feed cup hovering over the water. It eats like a pig. Scoops up any stray mysis or brine that floats by within 8" of it..


Still a very happy tank mate, doesn't bug or get bugged by anyone.. perches everywhere but has a couple spots it favors. I haven't carefully counted the anal fins yet to check it's gender.. only eats frozen foods and GHA which is 100% in check but starts to grow back in spots... my CuC did an amazong job within a week you would never know I had 2" long GHA all over my rocks lol.

 

[kylgrave9]

Fred is a model citizen other than occasionally biting a tang that desperately wants to be his friend and a tank favorite he’s always watching what’s going on outside the tank from a perch somewhere, will eat out of your hand and keeps things clean of algae also sleeps in a big toadstool which my girlfriend and daughter think is adorable , only annoying thing is getting sand all over the place I gotta blow the sand out of his toadstool every morning but a small price to pay to keep him, he also eats literally anything but prefers algae or nori

 

[revenant]

My starry dude was almost totally white today.. I just added this rock from my curing barrel and never seen this dude that white. Crazy. Crappy photo but I had to move fast.. such a great fish.. model citizen and eats GHA buds all day.

 

[revenant]

Had to share this photo.. my starry eyed blenny is the coolest dude … or dudette. Idk. But it swims around very light colored and loves to rest on these sunny D’s. It has a crazy appetite and eats off the rocks all day.. seems like a very happy fish.