Midas Blenny

 Quick Care Facts

• Care Level: Easy   • Temperament: Peaceful   • Maximum Size: 4"
• Minimum Tank Size: 30 gallons   • Water Conditions: 72-80° F, dKH 8-12, pH 8.1-8.4, sg 1.020-1.025
• Diet: Omnivore   • Origin: Indo-Pacific, Maldives
• Family: Blenniidae   • Species: Blennies   • Aquarium Type: Reef Compatible

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Midas Blenny's are found throughout the Indo-Pacific where they inhabit reefs and rocky out crops, which can afford them with plenty of caves and crevices in which to investigate and hide in when they feel it necessary. They have been a popular aquarium species for many years as they bring attractive color, strong personalities, unique swimming style and a peaceful demeanor to any aquarium they inhabit. They are able to vary their body coloration greatly depending on their mood, surroundings and activity.

Midas Blenny’s spend their days swimming or bumping about the reef, moving from one rock crevice to another in search of small meaty prey like zooplankton or similar foodstuffs. Part of their unique personality comes from their unique bobbing swimming style and the way that they "climb over" the reef with a combination of swimming and crawling motions. Overall a great community species that is equally at home in a peaceful community aquarium with plenty of live rock or in a complete reef setting with live rock and coral species.

Midas Blenny's do best in aquariums that are at least 30 gallons in size, so that they will have enough live rock and territory within the aquarium to provide them a reasonable amount of space to be comfortable. They tend to become more aggressive towards tank mates when kept in very small aquariums or overcrowded aquarium, as do many fish species. However, given ample space Midas Blenny's are a very peaceful species towards other fish, invertebrate and coral tank mates. They should be provided with an aquarium that contains plenty of live rock and medium to strong water currents to simulate their natural habitat, where they inhabit the upper regions of the reef which contain plenty of water current.

Midas Blenny’s are well known for their color and pattern changing abilities as they often take on different appearances depending on their mood and activity within the aquarium. It is not unusual for a Midas Blenny to exhibit different coloration depending on whether feeding, hiding within a cave or swimming about the currents within the aquarium. In fact, it is not uncommon for Midas Blenny’s to modify their appearance to that of other tank mates when they are found schooling with similarly sized and shaped fish species. Equally at home within a community FOWLR or a reef setting, the Midas Blenny can make a solid addition to a larger nano aquarium all the way to larger reef aquarium setup.

Unlike most Blenny species that are herbivores, the Midas Blenny is Omnivore whose diet is made up mostly of meaty foodstuffs that it feeds on from the water column along with some algae and seaweeds. While in the wild the Midas Blenny will eat zooplankton, copepods, amphipods and other small organisms floating about the water column, they will eat a variety of prepared meaty foods within the aquarium environment. They will readily accept a variety of prepared foods including meaty frozen, flake and small pellet foods, along with brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, cyclopeeze, krill or other meaty marine foodstuffs. Their diet should be varied with some flake, frozen & pellet foods with vegetable matter included along with access to marine algae and seaweed.