Midas Blenny owners...Please help

[dgonci]

So I had my LFS guy order a midas blenny for me. He wad a couple sent to him labeled as midas blennies. He does not have alot of experience with them and openly admits it. So the one I got has a yellow tail but he rest of his body is dask, almost black, with streaks of blue near the face. Now I know that they can change colors based on mood and stress. I do not have a piture right now, mabe I can get one tmorrow, but he is in the rocks alot. Is this normal midas blenny coloration? After doing some reasearch on the net he almost looks like a Black combtooth blenny, they have a variant that has a yellow tail.
Any help or insght would be great.

 

[al mc]

I have had one for about a year. I have never seen him have any other color than a copper/gold color over his entire body.

 

[harlikwin]

If he nibbles on LPS or clams (if you have them he probably will) it's a dead giveaway that he's not a midas, but I'm willing to guess not on coloration and appearance alone. If there were another fish to have the midas mistaken for (depending on where the midas was collected from) it would be the canary fang blenny, but even that is fairly recognizable IMO.

 

[stanlalee]

my midas looked completely yellow but when stressed he would lighten up and get some pink tones. they do vary a little in color from specimen to specimen. As far as being in the liverock, it is classic midas behavior to find a hole in the liverock with just his head sticking out and quickly darting back in the hole if stressed/unfamiliar with the surroundings. If comfortable they stay out in the water column. they dont pick at the liverock for food at all like a herbivore blenny would. they are also strickly carnivore which is not that common amonst blennies. besides the yellow canary blenny I dont see it being confused with many others.

 

[spiderwoman]

I agree, there is no way to confuse him with any other blenny unless it's another yellow one. Midas blenny has strickingly blue eyes, Canary doesn't have that.

 

[spiderwoman]

Here is what my Midas looks like

 

[oceanlover]

SpiderWoman has a beautiful golden-colored Midas Blenny!

Those dark golds are usually from Africa and can be a bit harder to find. There are other paler Midas Blennies too that appear pale with just a touch of the golden color and the blue is more prominent.
There are two things I look for in a Midas Blenny. They should have nice blue eyes. Personality wise, they like to swim around in the mid and upper level aquarium water (not sit on the sand), they are curious and unfearful, and they make a cave home for themselves where they back in to it tail first and head out.
The Midas Blennies, either color, are fascinating fish and everyone seems to adore them. When I have my house packed with teenagers (a common occurence) they ignore the tang, the manadarin, and all my beautiful corals. They always watch the midas blenny more than any other fish (the clowns are second most popular but don't even get 50% of the attention the Midas gets).
One strong word of caution, these fish jump. I lost my first blenny after three months when he jumped out of the aquarium. I looked for him for a month, even pulling up rocks to look for body remains, to no avail. Then I eventually found him mummified behind the aquarium (against a wall).

 

[spiderwoman]

That's good to know about the jumping. There are only 2 places right now where she can jump and both are overflows. The canopy coveres all other exists. It's time to put a net on top of the flows.
Our tank is so deep that so far she has not ventured even all the way to the top. Her favorite area is just about under the half depth of the tank. She absolutely loves this one rock that has a cup shape to it. She even spends her nights in it or between the 2 shelf rocks below it.

 

[spiderwoman]

Originally Posted by OceanLover
http:///forum/post/2693980
SpiderWoman has a beautiful golden-colored Midas Blenny!

Those dark golds are usually from Africa and can be a bit harder to find. There are other paler Midas Blennies too that appear pale with just a touch of the golden color and the blue is more prominent.
Very true on the difficulty of acquiring this fish. I looked for it for a few months, bought it from 3 different online stores and in each case I received a call or email stating that they were out of stock after all and no date on when they'd get them. None of my LFS's were able to get them either... their fish lists didn't have it.

 

[oceanlover]

Originally Posted by SpiderWoman
http:///forum/post/2693996
That's good to know about the jumping. There are only 2 places right now where she can jump and both are overflows. The canopy coveres all other exists. It's time to put a net on top of the flows.
Our tank is so deep that so far she has not ventured even all the way to the top. Her favorite area is just about under the half depth of the tank. She absolutely loves this one rock that has a cup shape to it. She even spends her nights in it or between the 2 shelf rocks below it.

Both of my Midas Blennys would come to the surface (my 90 gallon tank is about 36 inches deep) and stick their heads out of the water when I was there. If I was feeding they would come right to me.
After my first blenny killed itself, I didn't want to keep light out of my tank but I didn't want my second blenny to jump out of the water either. I took some laundry bag material, the kind with big beehive-like holes in it for delicate clothes, and cut it into a long strip of material. Then I added plastic rods to two sides to hold it in place. It is easy to go over the open part of the aquarium, easy to move for feeding, and easy to clean up (throw it in the wash!). No more mummfied Midas blennies for me!

 

[stanlalee]

here was mine hanging out with the lyretails just like they do in the ocean

I would love to have one now but after having one in a 6ft tank I would never put one in a 30g despite their size and most sources say its okay (55g would suffice). Just too active and a little cocky to be kept in closed quarters for me. Mine never attempted to jump but I heard they do.

 

[spiderwoman]

I was getting close to asking if anybody has them with Lyretail Anthias. I read about that the other day and am looking for a group of 3. The crack house that I frequent for corals is going to check his fish list on Monday. I believe they are only in the African fish list or do they come from anywhere else on the globe?

 

[dgonci]

Well after doing some research, it would appear I have a black combtooth blenny, with a yellow tail. I guess they are also sometimes referred to as a flametale blenny. He looks cool with the lines on his head. However today I walked by the tank andwatched him nip at a Duncan Coral, a small star fish I have and small digitata sps I am trying out. So he went back to the LFS