My Happy - Healthy Trained Scooter Blenny (dragonet) Eating Pellets

Here he is again all excited that there is food in the tank for him! He quickly finds the formula 1 pellets and gobbles them up. He's a bit of a messy eater but hey, pellets aren't normally part of a dragonet's diet. I trained him to eat frozen foods (brine, mysis, bloodworms, etc) but one day he took to pellets. I was very pleased that day, but he was the happier one of us because he munched and munched til his stomach was going to explode! I would feed him frozen foods twice a day through a feeding tube just for him, and then I dosed copepods with phytoplankton in my double refugium that feeds into the tank to keep his food supply up but he now prefers pellets and would actually pass on frozen mysis shrimp soaked in Selcon or garlic! Still a bit camera-shy, but he's a bit hungry to even care. As you can see he's REALLY fat because after the stuffing his face with pellets he goes off munching on pods because he just LOVES to eat!

PS, you can see he flashes his beautiful dorsal fin at 1:45. He used to do this a lot when I got him and I never understood why except think it was really beautiful but slowly I got the impression that it was because he was hungry! Now everytime I see him in the morning he would flash his dorsal fin and beat his fins just to make a mess and let me know that he's HUNGRY! After he eats, he doesn't do it anymore so that's why I figured that's what it meant.

*please know that caring for these types of fish of the dragonet family are extremely difficult and is best left if you are absolutely sure you can properly take care of one. This could mean you have a 50 gallon tank or larger with more than 50lbs of live rock that has been established in your tank for a year or longer in order for the tank to produce copepods and other live creatures; these are foods that these type of fish feed on constantly during the day. A connected refugium with live rock, macro-algae and live sand is also a good way to assure an endless supply of copepods and other creatures. Just because you see other people successfully caring for them doesn't mean you should go out and buy one too. Training a dragonet is a very time consuming and often times difficult thing to do, but it CAN be done if you put the time and effort into it but as you can see it has its rewards. Alternatives could be to wait for ORA to release captive-bred scooter blennies (dragonets) who are trained to eat frozen foods and pellets availabe later this year.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• dragonet
• scooter
• blenny
• dragon
• marine
• mandarin
• goby
• gallon
• bow
• front
• reef
• coral
• tank
• fish
• dragonets
• Synchiropus
• splendidus
• Pterosynchiropus
• red
• ocellatus
• pellets
• formula
• new
• life
• spectrum
• NLS
• trained
• frozen
• foods
• prepared
• picturatus
• stellatus
• spotted
• green
• blue
• fishtank
• reeftank
• ocean
• saltwater
• health
• happy
• pets
• animals
• SW
• FOWLR
• anemone
• clownfish
• hermit
• crab
• Salarias
• fasciatus
• sailfin
• algae
• yellow
• tang
• surgeon
• Zebrasoma
• flavescens
• hawaii

[CTKenyon95]

i'm about to get my 4th tank, all 3 are tropical at the moment, and i'm getting a marine for my birthday. Apparently they aren't as hard to maintain as people say. Is it true that the best size tanks are about 100 litres because it is easier to keep the water balanced?

[doRYEmon]

@CTKenyon95 Well converting liters to gallons 100 liters is about 26 gallons. In the saltwater hobby 26 gallons may be considered a nano tank which often cases is very difficult to maintain due to the smaller body of water. However, if you do lots and lots of research and know exactly what you're doing prior to starting, you'll thank yourself in the long run. Just know that this is a VERY expensive hobby, and that you should be prepared to fork out the necessary cash. =p

[allSaLTwater]

I've never had a scooter blenny but wanted to know if they were easy to keep

[doRYEmon]

@allSaLTwater it all depends on your current setup and how established it is. that means how big is your tank, how much live rock it has, if it has a refugium connected, and how long it has been setup for. with the right setup scooter blennies are pretty much maintenance free. thanks for checking out my videos!

[esa841]

@doRYEmon Hi...i have see ur message earlier and try to make the vids via my digital camera....but somthing not right when i copy from the memory card...looks like its pictures are separated from sounds...i don't know why? i'm using Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX33..do u have any experienced with this camera?? but when i played it in my camera it looks ok...only when transfer to my PC its separated...

[doRYEmon]

@esa841 I'll message you!

[MsUntapped]

Would you mind perhaps going into detail about the training of your scooter to eat frozen foods? My local pet shop said she would eat frozen food but my poor little gal is wasting away - I did not do proper research before I purchased my scooter. I thought that I was pretty thorough, but am finding I have missed some key info. My tank is around 5 months old, and I added copepods around 2 months ago...any knowledge you could share would be wonderful. Thank you.

[jusso99]

@CTKenyon95 I read everywhere that saltwater tanks are hard to maintain etc I just started one with no experience and I can say it's easy. I made my own water and only had to wait 10 days before I put my seahorses and scooter in. I did put my live rock in at the beginning. Anyway I have had my tank running for 2 months now with no problem at all. My seahorses and scooter all eat frozen brine shrimp etc It only cost me about $300 for the complete setup!!

[CTKenyon95]

@doRYEmon oh believe me i know how much we spend already haha! and sorry i meant over 100 litres! the one i'm looking at is a 400 litre, and its got the best cabinet. i think you're blenny is adorable by the way :)

[HaloKiller1166]

@doRYEmon how do u train these guys to eat frozenfoods, pellets, or even plakes? if i could do that i would love to keep him in my year established 10 gallon reef. or possibly the red scooter dragonet which i think r actually less picky...from what ive read at least. how big is the tank hes in? nice fish!

[HaloKiller1166]

@doRYEmon how exactly do u train these guys to eat ya kno pellets frozens foods or even possibly flakes?..if i could train 1 i would love to get 1 for y 10 galon reef which has already been established for a year..