Lawnmower blenny---your experience?

clarkiiboi

Active Member
I just got one a few weeks ago, but am wondering if it was a bad idea, cause today I bought a Sebae (cant get a clarkii, ie my name) and the blenny is being really bossy, even toward the sebae being in the anenome, literally chasing it out. This is the most I've seen of my blenny (cause of chasing the sebae). Other mates are a scooter blenny, arrow crab, orange (?) chromis. some snails and crabs. 75 gall. tank. The lawnmower is about 2" long and the sebae is really small, maybe an inch, but "told" the chromis to back off its anenome. It chased the chromis, but the blenny is "the tank master" at this point. ?????? Moved rocks around, and shut off lights, hoping all is well in the am.
Anyone have a bossy lawnmower? :confused:
 

grayne

Member
Thats kinda funny what Ryebread said about the lawnmower sitting on corals. My scooter blenny spends a lot of time sitting on top of a big red mushroom I have. Sometimes it is really funny when one of the clown fish is sleeping on the mushroom and the scooter will snuggle up right beside it and no one seems to care....crazy fish I tell you.
 

catera

Member
i miss my lawnmower blenny. :( he has a ton of personallity but is very passive in my tank. the only reason i got him was because of the hair algea. but he became my favorite skipping aslong the bottom and reaaranging underneath to build an awesome little cave. hes gone and io think its because of my yellow tang. anyone know if a tang gets along with blennys? i got a mandarin and lost him also. these are my first two losses and has only happened since ive had my tang. well any input?
 

sistrmary

Member
Mine it pretty big, around 4-4.5 inches and at first, it scared everything it swam by. It wasn't really being aggressive, it was just swimming. Their style of swimming makes such a commotion in the water and they're so fast that I think the other fish are just jumpy around them :D
Mine sits on my elephant ear mushroom with my citron clown goby. If the blenny is there first that is, if the citron is there when the LMB comes in for a landing, it swims away to either the pagoda, the colt or the hammer coral.
 

ladyhawk

New Member
I love my blenny. I too sits on my leather. He is not agressive and has made a world of difference in my tank, I was having a bit of an algae problem. He is a pleasure to watch as he is active and somewhat animated.
As for the Tang in the other post, I will never have another. Mine was extremely agressive and stressed my other fish and me when I watched my tank (which I do a lot). He too stressed since I did not have the proper environment for him and eventually died.
 

clarkiiboi

Active Member
Thanks all, everything seems fine now. Its been 2 days since adding the little one and its clamed down completely, I see no nipping. Now its like sistrMary mentioned, the commotion of the LMB quickness is the only thing, its quit comical. :p
Did it take a few weeks for everyones LMB to become more open to being out in the open? Seems today, I seen alot of him, and that was nice. :D
 

shadow678

Member
My lawnmower used to be the epitomy of bossy. lol I got it from an LFS one town over. While it was in their tanks, it had become hungry from the obvious lack of algae, so it began eating the slime coating from other fish. It had killed a blue hippo before I got it out of their tanks. It also didn't get along with my small blue hippo in my 90gal, so it had to be moved to my 100gal reef, where it is now doing fine and getting along with pretty much everyone.
 
S

sandy

Guest
Will the mix okay with scooter blennies? I've got two of them. oh and a sleeper goby.
 

clarkiiboi

Active Member
sandy I asked the LFS (I trust) 5 times, at least, if the lawnmower would get along with the scooter blenny and I got the go ahead. I have not seen any problems so far. They ignore each other. Cant tell ya on the goby though, have none and dont know much about them.
 
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sandy

Guest
Thanks! Anyone know if a sleeper goby would get along with a LMB?
I think I'm maxed on fish for now. Just checkin it out 'cause I got some green hair algae. I like it right now... but if it gets out of hand.
In a 50gal long w/ dsb and 100+lbs LR I have:
2 perc clowns, 2 scooter blennies, 1 sleeper goby (biggest fish)
1 royal gramma and 1 yellow-tail damsel.
3 pepperment shrimp, 2 cleaner shrimp, 1 queen conch, 2 fighting conch, 1 serpent star, 1 chocolate chip star, micro-hermits, various other hermits and snails. oh and a large feather duster worm.
I'd like to have a LMB, but not sure I want to add anymore fish. Not going with corals for a long time (need to build sump w/ good skimming and then add lighting... $$$) -- so I went with lots of rock (beautiful colors now) and more fish.
 

sistrmary

Member
I wouldn't mix the two again. I had a goldenheaded sleeper goby in my 100gal before I put my LMB in. The sleeper had been flourishing, it had taken to frozen food, tortured various areas of the sandbed for burrows and had grown about 3" in the time I'd had it in my tank. I had the lawnmower blenny in that tank for maybe a week and a half and the sleeper was dead. But perhaps I just have an evil LMB...actually, I know that I do. Rather than getting the algae off of the back glass, the little SOB picks up the hermit crabs and launches them 6" or so.
 
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sandy

Guest
My sleeper is at least 6" and chubby. He is by far the largest fish in my tank.
 
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