A little success......

socalracer

Member
Hope Im not jinxing myself but my rock beauty has made it to six weeks and looks stronger then when I first got him/her. It eats anything I put in the tank (oraglo clownfish food, nori, scallops, reef flakes, brine shrimp) and is very active. I know Im lucky so far.
 

socalracer

Member
sorry rock beauty angel....most said it would likely die within a month b/c its diet is mainly sponge...ill try to get some pics
 

crimzy

Active Member
Just curious why you aren't feeding any sponge or sponge based foods. If I were you I'd pick up some Angel Formula... it has sponge as an ingredient. Probably the reason that they have such a poor survival rate is because sponge serves an important nutritional need. It's probably going to do better if you try to simulate it's natural diet rather than looking for the fish to adapt to the foods you want to feed.
 

aquaknight

Active Member
Congrats! I'm doing a Rock Beauty too. (thread). Exactly 3 1/2 months today....

IMO, there are two hurdles to Rock Beauties. The first is the one month'ish period. This hurdle is the 'I got a healthy specimen' period. Many RB's fail to adapt to captivity, and do not tolerate the collection process. The second hurdle is the 3 month to 9 month period. This period is where you know you've got their diet some what correct.
Yea, as Crimzy stated, for Rock Beauties, sponge is a integral part. Well, for any large angel, sponge is crucial, but it's thought Rock Beauty feed almost exclusively on sponges. I use sponge cubes from Ocean Nutrition, then with a food grater, shave off tiny slivers, since mine is so small. It took a good bit of time, and perhaps some guideness from my Blueface, but the Rock Beauty is now picking at the sponge pieces. I'm a bit lucky too, in that small juvi large angels typically don't start to eat sponge until they grow, in the meantime, they have a mostly algae based diet.
 

socalracer

Member
well he is prob 3-4 inches, not sure if that classifies him as a juvy....and i do want to get it some sponge based food I have never heard of frozen sponge cubes....are they expensive? Also I have heard you can go to asian markets and get sponge but Im not sure what to look for (would i get dried sponge, is it alive, packaged wet? I have no clue).
 
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