2 replies to this topic

[MattMudCrab]

In 2020 I collected one striped blenny, a naked goby, several skillet fish, many thin striped hermits, mud crabs and grass shrimp from a few places in the Virginia Chesapeake Bay Area. Over all the tank has done well. The grass shrimp lasted well over a year. The hermits were all collected in marsh periwinkle shells the size of a marble and now there are half of them left (8)in moon and large turbo snail shells. I assume the hermits eat each other during molting or murder them for their shells. Im guessing they are full grown. There is only one small mud crab left. The goby just died last week. There are two full grown skillet fish. I assume the others were eaten because they were all tiny black fry when collected. The blenny is a beautiful fish.

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[MattMudCrab]

I have also noticed that in the last few months the blennies eating habits have changed. Every night my wife feeds the hermit crabs shrimp pellets. The blenny would eagerly take several and then steal some out of the claws of the hermits. She loves brine shrimp and flake food. However she has not been eating anything other than grazing algae. Her stomach is huge. The last picture is when she was tearing off bites of algae from the glass behind that internal filter. It seems to be green film algae and very short green hair algae. I also have blue green Cyanobacteria i am starting to see and I think I might have seen her eat it. She does not appear to eat the bryopsis algae (the think purple carpet). All dreaded things in a reef tank but they look quite normal in my tank. Is it possible their diet becomes more herbivore as they mature? I mean she would literally eat 5-6 pellets after eating her full of frozen brine shrimp and/or flakes.

[Chasmodes]

Wow, that's interesting and weird behavior for Chasmodes.  I've been keeping them for several years ago and have never seen any of my blennies take a bite of any kind of algae.  Maybe it's possible that she's munching on pods or worms crawling through the algae.  They're not known to be herbivorous that I know of anyway.  But, maybe that's a good thing, and extra food source.  Also, as far as the belly size, that's pretty normal for an adult female.  They will carry eggs even without the presence of a male.  They get reabsorbed into their system if not laid, so nothing to worry about.  If it gets abnormally large, then perhaps there could be a problem.  But, normally, they can get pretty chunky.

 

I've seen the blennies are known to attack mud crabs when the crabs as small.  I've never seen them attack my hermits.  I've noticed that gobies live about 2-3 years, the blennies a bit longer.  Shrimp will last a year, as you've said.  And mud crabs also die off after about 3 years or so.  All crabs will attack each other.  Once loses a claw for any reason, the others gain an advantage.  Skilletfish will also live 2-3 years in my tank.  Most of these fish and critters have relatively short lifespans.  My guess is that it's because of the tough environment that they live in.  They have to grow fast and breed quickly, especially in the Chesapeake where salinity and other parameters can change drastically in a short time.

 

Great looking fish!