Scooter blenny/ Dragonet

bobo

What are your opinions on these fish?

reading around i have read they are easier to keep then Mandarins since they can easily be trained to eat frozen foods. My friend has one in his 10g tank and he has it eating frozen food. At one point i was amazed however when he attacked an astrea snail. Do they eat the fleshy bit of snails too?

bettababy

For starters, a mandarin is a type of dragonette. The scooter blenny is a type of dragonette, not a true blenny. As far as them eating snails, typically they don't. However, if crowded, water quality is poor, or other issues are happening in the tank, they can eat just about anything they can catch and fit into their mouths. The scooter blenny has a very small mouth, so it would be quite difficult to eat a snail, but it may have been attempting to pic some food source off of the snail shell.
Mandarins are something only for a large (minimum of 75 gallons) and well established tank (set up for at least 1 - 2 yrs) to allow for a natural food supply.
If you tell us your situation we can then help you to determine if a scooter blenny is something appropriate for your system.

bobo

my friend has a 55 gallon reef tank and has had his scooter since last saturday. He caught it in the sea and it has gorgeous colouring

it eats EVERYTHING. and apparently its favourite food are the astrea snails. If you just hold a piece of the actual snail infront of the fish, he will swim directly to your hand and eat from it. Its incredible. He also has it eating mysis shrimp and you can usually see it pecking off the rocks, although it usually just follows him around the tank.

bettababy

Is it possible to post a picture of it? It is very possible that your friend's fish is not the same as the common scooter blenny offered in pet stores. It is also possible that your friend's fish is a true blenny, and based on your description, I wouldn't be surprised... some of the blennys can be quite aggressive to certain "food sources".

One other note... not a good idea to take fish from the ocean and put them in a home tank unless you know for sure what it is and what it needs. Wild fish often carry disease and many also have specialized diets that can be very hard or impossible to replicate in a captive situation. The other reason for not catching wild fish and adding them to a tank is because of collection laws. Most places you can catch these animals requires a permit to take them, and if you get caught without one, the fines can be very high and some places even demand jail time.
Might want to tell your friend to be very careful in the future. Once I can see a pic of the fish I can better help you to determine its needs.

bobo

i`ll get a picture sent over tomorrrow. IN cyprus we have very few laws regarding taking fish from the sea, except froma certain area known as the akrotiri fish reserve. Otherwise you`re free to do as you please. I also doubted that it was a scooter blenny but after looking at pics continuously thats what i decided it was, but i am no expert. I`ll try get the pic up asap.