Cleaner Shrimp : Strange Behaviour

[Captainhemo]

Well I picked up a Lawn Mower blenny this past weekend and after what appeared to be a bit of a rough start, he seeems to have settled in quite nicely now. He is still very shy but I was able to sit in front of the tank today with him directly in front of me for about 10 -15 minutes He definatley lilkes to perch himself up on the high rocks and stare. Every so often he'd try to scrape off some algae the quickly return to staring at me, prety funny
I think he will be a very good addition to my reef ... thanks fo the suggestion !!

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

You're welcome. They are very cute in their own way, aren't they. Big eyelashes & little speckles of colour. Offer it a variety of foods like frzn brine, mysis & blood worms & it'll happily supplement its diet of your nuisance algae.

[Captainhemo]

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

You're welcome. They are very cute in their own way, aren't they. Big eyelashes & little speckles of colour. Offer it a variety of foods like frzn brine, mysis & blood worms & it'll happily supplement its diet of your nuisance algae.

Hehe, I kinda figured he was soooo ugly that he was cute !! Definately a different looking fish but yeah, I'd agree he is "cute" in his own way.
I'm glad you mentioned the food , I hadn't realized he would eat any meaty foods, I though he would only eat " greens" . I'll have to foffer him some mysis Ihave here and see how he likes it
He seems to have really settled in now. He seems to stay busy picking away at the rocks I've even seen him cleaning away bits of algae from a few of the hermits shells, he's gonna be a great addition !!

[Richer]

Lawnmowers are herbivores and should be feed veggies. I used to rubberband pieces of nori onto a piece of rock for my LB. Initially it didn't know it was food, but after putting a couple drops of garlic on the nori piece, my LB went right after it.

-Rich

[Captainhemo]

So, should I be putting nori inthe tank or should there be enough algae for him. I was kinda under the impression that he'd just live off whatever algae grew in the tank
Also , to anyone who is using the liquidlife bio-plankton, I have just switched over to it from DT's. I have read a couple of posts on this product and it is recomened to use 1 pump / 30 gal water in a tank.that is over 4 months mature Is this every 2-3 day ? Once a week ? Everything i read neglects to state this. I know when I was using DT's , I would do 2 tsps every 2 or 3 days as idirected. Just not sreu how often to feed with this new stuff

[Richer]

How often you feed your LB depends on your tank size, and what sort of algae cleanup crew you have. LBs are like cows, and are constantly eating micro algae, so I'd say if your micro algae growth isn't noticable, I'd put in a small sheet once every few days. Many people have lost LBs because their LBs didn't get enough nutrition from the tank and slowly starved to death.

-Rich

[Captainhemo]

Anyone got any suggestions on brand / type of algae to buy ? I see some stuff called seaweed selects, is this what I want ? It comes in brown, green or red ? Any preferance of one over the others ? Or is there something available that has a blend of all three ?

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

You can go to any store that sells Oriental foods and buy Nori sheets (Sushi "paper") that are pure seaweed & UNSEASONED. Mine will eat Nori but it has become more omnivorous & likes mysis/brine shrimp/blood worms as well. In the wild LMB may be purely vegetarian but the ones that adapt to eating other foods seem to thrive better in home aquariums with limited live algae to constantly graze on.

Good luck with yours.

Anthony

[Captainhemo]

Ok, thanks. I just wanted to make sure that the Sushi shells were oky, I though maybe there was a certain type of algae used in the specific "nori" made for feeding fish if there is such a thing.
I do feed my " tank" mysis shrimp a couuple of times / week. The hermits and especially the cleaner/peppermint shrimps just go crazy over it so I'm sure the LB will have lots of opportunity to grab his fair share of that. I'll also start to keep a bit of "nori" available to him on a smal piece of pipe or something
Thanks again for th info

[Captainhemo]

So how do keep the seaweed sheets from just breaking up and floating all over the tank ? I wrapped one around a piece of PVC pipe and hung it in one end of the tank. Seconds after putting it in, the cleaner shrip decided he better pck away at it. Within a couple of minutes, I've got pieces frolating all over the tank, its gonna make a huge mess .
What do all of you do to avoid this ? Do use a whole sheet at once or just a small piece wrapped some pipe ?
The rate at which this is breaking up, I've gotta take it out or there will be nothing but pieces f seaweed floating everwhere

Any suggestions ? Thnx