scooter blenny's average life span in captivity

I have successfully kept mine for a little over 3 1/2 years now and want to know how long others have kept theirs

 

The longest i kept mine was for about 3 years... then it died for no reason. Since then I have not been able to keep them for any extended periods of time (stopped trying )

Congrats on the 3.5 years though! Must be a big guy by now.

 

3 1/2 years is impressive for any fish, let alone one as challenging as a scooter. IMHO I think that with scooters and mandarins it depends on how many pods you have in your tank-and a little luck.

 

my scooter died in about 2 weeks
was kind of bummed because he had plenty to eat and everything
just one day he stopped eating all together

although he was full grown and i had no idea how long hes been around

 

In a biocube, a scooter blenny will have a hard time findig enough pods to eat to survive. While these fish, and mandarins are small, they need a big tank with lots of pods in them. I would not recommend any of these fish in less than a 75g with a fuge to sustain them.

 

i'm going on 3 days with mine! haha He was at the LFS for a while and loves brine/mysis..so i'm not too worried about him starving

 

Thanks!

He is pretty big (apx. 4" I would say) although I have seen some larger than that at the LFS.

My reason for this post is because he seems to be slowing down a little. It doesn't swim around looking for pods much anymore and even when I feed the other fish in the tank it doesn't eat anywhere near as much as it used to (even been target feeding and he is not eating much) so I was just thinking it had to be an age thing. I did lose his "mate" a few months back (both were purchased at the same time) from what I was assuming was old age (water quality good, plenty of pods and ate brine / mysis too) so have been a little worried bout him taking the plunge soon too.

 

UPDATE

Well woke up yesterday morning to find my clean up crew snacking on him. He was still in his sleeping spot so guess he died in his sleep throughout the night. Was still eating the day before even though it was very little so guess it was just his time.

 

I'm sorry for your loss

I have experienced this with fish too. At the shop, we had a Red Sea Purple Tang that was a complete buttwipe to all of the fish with the exception of one lawnmower blenny. I mean he was MEAN!!!! He was in a display tank and we were sick of the ripped fins, chasing, etc. so we netted him and put him up for sale for someone who could put him in a tank last (territoriality issues).

He laid on his side in the corner of his new tank for weeks. We could get him to eat but not much and he didn't swim anymore. I was truly confused. How could a completely healthy fish act like that so fast???? One of my part-time employees said, "Hey, let's put the lawnmower blenny with him". I was thinking, "Yeah, yeah, yeah....whatever. If you want to spend the time catching him and acclimating him, fine". When I opened the store the next morning, the purple tang was swimming around with the blenny and ate like a pig. We wrote on the tank, "These fish must be purchased as a pair"

FOOTNOTE: I disagree with anthropomorphism and this could simply be a coincidence, but it was odd to say the least

 

Thats what happened with my old girl. She got really big and was eating great, then one day everything slowed down and then just died... and got EATEN by the hermits and such... sad day.

Karma for your loss.