Aggressive Lawnmower Blenny - what other fish to add?

[mander]

I have a Lawnmower Blenny that has a mean streak. :mad: I am pretty sure he killed my Mandarin last year (he only lasted a week, tops, and died after a chunk was taken out of his face). I added a beautiful wrasse a few months ago that was thriving for a week then disappeared. I never saw anything but a skeleton so I'm not sure what got him.

I'd like to add a few more fish to my tank, but I'm worried about his aggression. Current tankmates are:

mated pair of false percs
mated pair of bengaii cardinals
desjardini sailfin tang
coral beauty
1 cleaner shrimp

He leaves everyone else along, I think b/c the tang is the tank boss and keeps him in line.

I have a 125 long (6' in length), and would like something like a flame hawk, a few anthias, or maybe a royal gramma. I don't want to add anything that will be destined for death though.

Any ideas? I don't really want to take the tank apart and catch the little jerk, so I'd rather work around him if I can.

[mander]

Perhaps a 6 line wrasse?

[29reef]

Why not remove the lawnmower? And also the sailfin while your at it ;)

That would open a few doors for new fish to be added to the aquarium. Sometime the only thing to be done with problem fish is relocate them.

[mander]

LOL I quite like the Sailfin, and he seems to keep the peace.

I honestly have no idea how I'd go about catching the lawnmower. If it were easy I'd just do that, but I am pretty sure it would require tearing the tank apart and I'm just not up for that with a 3 year old and a 3 month old. ;-)

[29reef]

You use a fish trap. The sailfin will get much too big for your tank. Better off with something a bit smaller.

[zachfishman]

I removed a lawnmower from a 300g display tank with a simple trap. I used one of those plastic critter tanks (the ones with the snap-fitting colored plastic tops), removed the middle "door" from the hood, and baited it with some nori held down by a small rock. Within 1hr the blenny had found the nori, and tried to hide under the rock inside the critter cage when I went to remove it from the tank.

The trap was probably 10" x 6"... and I also caught a 4" yellow tang and a 5" pacific blue tang at the same time! You could try this for your sailfin as well. I'll be trying to catch my overgrown (8") sailfin from my 120 later this year.

[mander]

I know the sailfin will outgrow the tank eventually, but he's currently only about 3", about the same size as my coral beauty. The fish store will trade him once I'm ready to give him up, but for now I quite like him.

I will have to look for a fish trap. He's up in everyone's business so I wouldn't be surprised if he went right in.

So then no fish suggestions except to get rid of the 'problem'?