Getting a large angel to eat?

[daverf]

I have a big Annularis Angel that is not eating. Not a huge surprise as he was wild caught big (so, accustomed to "real" food in the ocean).

I have frozen angel cubes, mysis shrimp, picked up brine to try, marine formula cubes, clams on the half shell, and grocery store frozen shrimp. I also have freeze dried krill. I am going to try these with, without garlic, see if I can get creative to coax him.

Suggestions from anyone who has had luck or has ideas on getting larger new angels/butterflies to start eating?

 

[jahmic]

If you can find some live brine try starting with that, then slowly mix in frozen food with his live brine feedings. If he's still adjusting and acting skittish when you approach the tank, that could also be a factor. You can also try feeding at night with the tank lights on and ambient room lighting off...or cover the front of the tank with a sheet so he can't see you when you go up to the tank to feed.

Haven't had these issues with a large butterfly or angel specifically, but have gone through the same troubles with other wild-caught fish.

 

[ReefCheif]

Your gonna have to ween him off live food, only way to do this is to feed live food initially. I have had great success in feeding live brine to my finicky eaters at start and gradually decreasing the amount of live food offered and increasing the amount of frozens offered. I have had luck with this method with multiple mandarins and a wild caught clown tang.
You simply start with all live food and gradually add in frozens until there is no live food being offered. DO NOT MIX LIVE BRINE AND FROZEN FOOD, made this mistake, the tempurate flucuation from the frozen food killed the live brine. LMAO.

 

[daverf]

THANKS guys! Huge help. Will give the brine shrimp a go.

He is a tank set up for QT with other vigorous eaters, so I'm guessing they'll start eating up the brine as well. Hm, this could be tough. So they may regress a little to brine for a while? Well there's only one way to find out...

 

[Rebel]

If you have any way to get some sponge, he would likely eat that. Keys Island has some plain green sponge growing in a frag tank that I buy a part of every so often, and my angel loves it.

 

[ShelbyJK500]

Dave...you've gotten some great advice already! And may I say I'm completely jealous you got an Annularis, mine didn't make it through QT which was too hard for me to try again (one of my absolute favorite fish ever).

Anyhow, I had awesome luck (too late unfortunately) with a really picky Pakistan Butterfly. Take some sort of frozen angel/spongivorous food or even something like Elite feast. When it starts to thaw, find a small piece of live rock that is fairly porous and smash the food into and over a portion of the rock. Angels pick at liverock in the wild as much as any other reef fish. It's natural for them to pick...and low and behold, you have food there.

 

[daverf]

Thanks for continued suggestions... at this point it's officially eaten some live brine shrimp and bloodworms, although not much progress today, will try Evan's idea if I can figure out how to mash some food into a rock as I see it constantly picking at rocks (as expected), and seems this may be a good bet. Again all, I appreciate it.

 

[ShelbyJK500]

Thanks for continued suggestions... at this point it's officially eaten some live brine shrimp and bloodworms, although not much progress today, will try Evan's idea if I can figure out how to mash some food into a rock as I see it constantly picking at rocks (as expected), and seems this may be a good bet. Again all, I appreciate it.

OH cripes...I forgot the most important step!! After you mash the food into the pores of the rock, you need to freeze the rock. So when you put it in the tank it will gradually thaw. DUH

 

[daverf]

Aaaaaaaaaah ok! Thanks, needed that clarification! Makes sense. Hm so I would need a peace of dry base rock to try this for? If I did that to a piece from my system it may kill stuff and cycle?

 

[Ghosty]

Subscribed for some great advice so far, especially that smash into rock and freeze thing, never tried. Thx, and good luck with the Angel! I've heard about the sponge deal when I worked at Catfish Charlies, but it was very tough to get enough in to sell. That's cool that Keys has it.

 

[ShelbyJK500]

Aaaaaaaaaah ok! Thanks, needed that clarification! Makes sense. Hm so I would need a peace of dry base rock to try this for? If I did that to a piece from my system it may kill stuff and cycle?

I just used a fairly small piece of liverock for this purpose. However, I did it in a small QT tank not my display. If you did this with a small piece of rock in a large display it wouldn't cause an issue. I would just use a small piece and lodge it in with the larger rocks that is accessible and looks to be part of the rockscape.

 

[jda123]

Get some nori in there. If it is grazing, then it might take to it. Which mysis are you using? PE, Hikari or what? Most of my fish did not like anything but PE. My large angels took very quickly to NLS 5mm pellets, usually within a few days of being brought home.

You might think that I am joking, but you could feed it some zoas if it won't eat anything else... although I don't know how you would ever keep enough on-hand for the long term.

 

[ShelbyJK500]

Oh yeah, that does remind me almost all of my large angels took to NLS pellets in QT. Most of the time they wouldn't show interest while they were floating down but after they were laying around on the bottom of the tank and they were scrounging for food...they would find them.

 

[daverf]

Thanks a lot for more suggestions, all great. It eats the live brine, may be starting on frozen foods but not really interested so far. I can't tell if it is eating the NLS pellets or not, as they sit for a few hours then either disintigrate or get eaten (not sure). He is starting to look a little emaciated, skinny with the slight organ bulge. Hm, I'll keep at it.

 

[ShelbyJK500]

Thanks a lot for more suggestions, all great. It eats the live brine, may be starting on frozen foods but not really interested so far. I can't tell if it is eating the NLS pellets or not, as they sit for a few hours then either disintigrate or get eaten (not sure). He is starting to look a little emaciated, skinny with the slight organ bulge. Hm, I'll keep at it.

Man, my favorite fish at the moment. Most likely its eating the pellets if they are disappearing. If a fish in my QT didn't eat them, they would sit without disintigrating for a few days at least. Hope he pulls through for you! I had one in QT and he was eating awesome and then one day, dead. Weirdest thing since it was doing so well. GOOD LUCK!!

 

[jda123]

Soak some pellets in garlic and see if it will hit them. The fish will usually hit them faster if they are softened.

Do you have other fish in there with him? Sometimes it helps for other fish to show a new one what to eat. Example - I rarely have small fish eat flakes in QT by themselves, but will chow down flakes in the display when they see the other fish attacking them. I could go on all day about how I hate QT and isolation, but I will save it for another time.