I give up on my Flame Angel

R

rcreations

Guest
I've had this nice flame angel for a couple of months. It's doing great but it's constantly picking at some coral and it's not the same one every day. One day it's picking at the devil's hand leather, the next day at the toadstool, next day at the Xenia. So what are my options here? Should I trade the flame angel for another, hoping the new one won't do this? Should I just leave it alone to pick at the coral?
I think part of the problem is that it doesn't eat any food I give it. I tried, mysis, brine, algae sheets, home made food. The only thing it eats is stuff off the rocks and glass. All day it swims around picking at rocks and algae off the glass. So it's probably hungry, that's why it goes after the coral.
 
renogaw

renogaw

Active Member
personally, i'd take it out of the tank, put it in my QT and train it to eat the food i give it.
you may have a problematic fish, but training it to eat what you want would be the third option, sending it to the lfs or keeping it eating your corals would be the other two.
 
R

rcreations

Guest
I was thinking of doing that, if I can ever catch it. It would be good for it to be in the QT with no other food sources, other than what I give it.
Would it kill my coral if it keeps picking on them? I don't see any long lasting bad effects. Like when it picks on the toadstool, it just retracts those polyps for a while, but then they extend right back. Same with the xenia... it just closes its "hand" but in a few minutes it re-opens.
 
renogaw

renogaw

Active Member
tbh, with the growth rate on both of them i'd say its a GOOD thing to have something picking at them.
 
R

rcreations

Guest
I'm starting to REALLY hate this fish. I tried all morning to get it out of the tank with no luck.
 
jtrzerocool

jtrzerocool

Active Member
i have a lemon peel angel in my tank that started to pick at my kenya tree...he would not eat any of the prepared foods that i fed to him...i tried everything like you did...and then i used mysis and mixed it with garlic juice and he went NUTS for the mysis...so try using garlic juice mixed in with the mysis...as for the coral picking, mine still picks at the kenya tree every now and then but i dont mind because i have kenya ALL over my tank...however if he starts to pick at others or my clam i will be forced to remove him...
 
R

rcreations

Guest
Thanks, I'll try the mysis with garlic juice. Because my chances of getting it out of the tank are very slim and I don't want to move my LR just for this.
 
R

rcreations

Guest
No luck, it won't eat... except my corals. This means war! I wonder if I got a bigger angel fish, if it'd kill this one. My friend has a huge tank, maybe I can temporarily borrow one of his.
 
jtrzerocool

jtrzerocool

Active Member
dont kill it...its not its fault that he wont accept prepared foods...just be patient and try and remove him from the tank...if you can, try and section off a part of the tank with the flame angel in it and that will make it easier to catch him...but please(i know you are frustrated) dont kill him...there are many others out there whom dont have coral that are willing to take the time to get this fish to eat prepared foods...
 
R

rcreations

Guest
Oh, I was just kidding about killing it. I would never kill a fish no matter what. Sorry about that... sometimes it's hard to express an emotion like joking over the internet. But no, I'd never do that. I'd loose the xenia and leather corals before that. Best case scenario is to get it out of the tank and trade it into the LFS. If not, then I'll just leave it be. I'm sure it'll eat prepared food sooner or later.
 
grabbitt

grabbitt

Active Member
This sounds like a trade-in case. I've had a couple situations that required a trade-in, but I always feel bad about doing (and a couple times backing out, as a result) since I'm putting them right back in the most miserable place they could be
 
aquaknight

aquaknight

Active Member
Originally Posted by RCreations
http:///forum/post/2459889
Oh, I was just kidding about killing it. ....
LOL, yea, if you're mad at a little flame angel about eating your corals, what would a big, mean, large angel do to the coral ? lmao...
 
srfisher17

srfisher17

Active Member
Originally Posted by Angler man
http:///forum/post/2460056
Does anyone in here have any theories on why Flame Angles are so hit and miss?
This is true with lots of fish. Fish might not be very high on the IQ scale; but, they're not cloned and have individual personalities. (Maybe not the right word.) This applies to many areas, such as aggression, feeding, etc. I have a trio of Carberryi Anthias and the male won't touch frozen frozen Formula I; he actually hides when its in the water. I've never seen a carnivore (or planktivore) that didn't love this stuff. Who knows why? There are just a lot of gray areas in this great hobby and keeping dwarf angels in reefs certainly is one. From the number of recent posts, it seems that Flames are really a bigger problem with corals than I thought.
 
angler man

angler man

Member
Originally Posted by srfisher17
http:///forum/post/2460120
This is true with lots of fish. Fish might not be very high on the IQ scale; but, they're not cloned and have individual personalities. (Maybe not the right word.) This applies to many areas, such as aggression, feeding, etc. I have a trio of Carberryi Anthias and the male won't touch frozen frozen Formula I; he actually hides when its in the water. I've never seen a carnivore (or planktivore) that didn't love this stuff. Who knows why? There are just a lot of gray areas in this great hobby and keeping dwarf angels in reefs certainly is one. From the number of recent posts, it seems that Flames are really a bigger problem with corals than I thought.
Good theory, I'm leaning more towards the idea that coral tastes like chicken myself.
 
R

rcreations

Guest
Well, I know why mine is picking at the corals. At first when I got it, it didn't want to eat any food I put in, but there was tons of algae all over the place. So all day he was picking at it from the rocks and glass. He was never hungry. Now I got my algae under control and he's hungry, so he's turned to some of the corals for food. That's why I'm hoping one of these days he'll start eating the food I put in.
 
R

rcreations

Guest
SUCCESS!!!!
It actually ate some mysis with garlic today.
 
sean48183

sean48183

Member
He will be a pig in no time. Actually took my yellow angel 2 weeks to touch food and when I ring the dinner bell(turn the powerheads off) he comes a chargin. No sweat. My rusty ate right from the get go though. Neither ever touches my corals.
 
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