Problem with flame angel???

[brandom]

I just got a flame angel 3 days ago, and it is about 3 in. long. It was immediately obsessed with trying to get my peppermint shrimp to clean it... but the shrimp will not. I do not yet have a cleaner shrimp.
I was worried it may have parasites. It seems today as though a tiny white speck may have appeared above his right eye, but im not sure it is ick. this fish was in the dealers tank for about 3 weeks before i bought it. He said it would be a good add for that reason. It does not seem to want to eat any of the food I have tried to feed it... frozen mysis, flakes, slow sinking pellets, quick sinking pellets, and nori, but constantly picks at the live rock. Lacks enthusiasm of eating during feeding time and the sixline wrasse, 2 pajamas, and the peppermint and coral banded shrimp have. It has tasted some of these foods a fewtimes but spits them out. It seems as though it may be getting a little thinner. It does seem to eat peices of algae that make off the rocks and into the water. (normal hairy algae) I also have been running a UV sterilizer for a week now and It is a 54 gal. corner aquarium that is currently fish only. It has been set up for about 4 weeks now and the ammonia, nitrites are 0 and the nitrate is about 7 give or take a few. I had 3 pajamas but woke up to one sucked into the power head. This happened once before with a previous pajama... does that happen often with these fish? it is a maxi-jet 600 with a propeller mod. Thanks for any assistance!
bRandom
Im going to try to buy a cleaner shrimp soon and just wondered if it shoud be removed from the tank and brought back to store or if that would be even more stressful on it.

 

[luvmyreef]

Usually, diet of the Flame Angelfish should consist of Spirulina, marine algae, mysis or frozen shrimp, and other high-quality meaty items.
But ask the pet store what they had been feeding him...
IME it sometimes just takes awhile for your newbie to get used to your tank, the flow, etc..

 

[brandom]

Ya i will ask the store what they fed it before, he does seem to eat, just doesnt enthusiastically go after what i drop in like the others. I do not notice any spots or anything on his skin this morning. Looks healthy.
Thanks for the response, and i will just give him some time to get used to the tank.

 

[srfisher17]

IMO & IME; a real key to success with Flames is plenty of MATURE live rock. You said the fish was picking at the LR...but at 4 weeks, the LR is nor growing enough algae & other goodies for the fish. Even though they should get most of their food from you, they just don't seem to thrive without the mature LR.

 

[crypt keeper]

Flames and other Dwarf angels will chew and spit food out but trust me they are eating it. Just keep trying to feed him what Luvmyreef stated. I would also try NLS E pellets. They are for interanl parasites. Angels get them. If he is eating and not gaining weight then that is a problem.
IMO you should always qt angels. They are bulletprrof fish once established. But getting them there can be difficult.

 

[uneverno]

You might want to post this in the disease forum w/ some pics. A Flame that's not eating well is likely to be sick, IME. I've never had a problem getting one to eat vigorously within a couple days of introducing it to its new environment. They are among the easiest to care for angels.

 

[brandom]

It seems as though since i started my uv up, i have little new algae growth. should i turn it off so more grows for the flame angel. It is a new tank, but there seems to be significant algae and it probably has grown to 1/4 inch in several places and i actually cleaned much of it up with a toothbrush. I will try to include a pic

 

[brandom]

here is a pic b4 adding some additional base rock (11 lbs.) to the 50 lbs. pictured here as well as before my uv sterilizer was hooked up and b4 brushing away algae with a toothbrush and 6 hermit crabs and 1 snail. there is 1 emrald crab doing most of the cleaning in this pic. and about 30 more lbs of live sand was added as pictured in the previous post.

 

[crypt keeper]

You need your rock to look like this.

That is bare almost dead rock. I would go grab a few pieces that have great growth on them. This will help yours faster.

 

[brandom]

hey thanks for the advice.... i will find some good rock to add. I just was a little confused cuz the lfs said you cannot add live rock to a cycled tank, so i added the base rock on top.
Thanks
B

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by bRandom
http:///forum/post/3136999
hey thanks for the advice.... i will find some good rock to add. I just was a little confused cuz the lfs said you cannot add live rock to a cycled tank, so i added the base rock on top.
Thanks
B
Base rock goes on the bottom. That is why it is called "base" rock. Buy a few pieces of rock that is covered in coraline and other growth. It will quickly spread to the other rocks.

 

[crypt keeper]

either your lfs has no clue or is being careful since you are new. Shop around. Pick the rock up and smell it. It shouldnt stink. Rock with a decent amount of growth should be cycled and ready.

 

[uneverno]

+1 That's how I seeded the corraline in my tank. Got a nice small piece w/ virtually nothing else on it, so it was cheap as well.
Use a clean soft bristled toothbrush on it (in the tank) and the algae will spread faster.

 

[nycbob]

flame angels need a mature tank with plenty of lr to graze on. ur tank looks very new and doesnt hv enough lr imo. my flame picks on rocks all day long and actually didnt eat the 1st week. now its happy and fat.

 

[calbert0]

i have had plenty of fish not eat for an entire 7-10 days after introducing them to my tank.... but once they stop stressing and become comfortable with their new environment they eat like a 350+ pound linebacker.
even though your tank is currently Fish only it sounds like you might be thinking about corals in the future. Dwarf angles are not necesarily reef safe... its about a 50/50 chance if they will eat corals or not
there are a few measurements you can take to decrease the likelihood that they will nip at corals..
1.) buy a juvenile
2.) have an ample supply of hair algae for them to nip at when you introduce them to the tank
3.) I have been letting hair algae grow on one of my tank walls for the last few weeks in preparation for picking up either a flame or bi-color...
i am planning on rearanging my rock work in the next few weeks anyway, so it wont be a huge hastle for me if he starts nipping at corals and i need to get him out of the tank.

 

[crypt keeper]

Make sure your BiColor is Mac cught, It will most likley not survive if it is not.
To the OP
get about 40 more pound slive rock. You can mix in some base. I would do 30 10

 

[brandom]

hey thanks again for the responses from everyone! So i guess i should consider adding some more live rock. I just got hired at a lfs so i will be learning a lot more now! very exciting! and i will get a discount.

great looking tanks crypt an nycbob !! I cant wait till mine look like those. I have purple, bright pink and just a couple spots of green coraline alga marbles all over the rocks, but it is very thin and impossible to see on the pics. The hermit crabs i bought are pure purple, maybe that will help speed up the seeding process.
ThankYou
B

 

[brandom]

Well after 7 days the flame passed... just seemed to keep losing weight... my parameters are ammonia and nitrate-0 and nitrates 5-10... dont know the cause, but he was not being harrassed or anything. I have been trying to get my calcium up to 400+, but doing so as a slower rate than suggested on the bottle and i did put a fan across the top of the water which brought the temp from about 82 to 78, but i dont think that shoud be a problem. No other fish are having any problems. And the fish had been in the lfs for weeks before i bought him, so i dunno??? Well I will start my job at Optimum Aquarium in kennesaw, GA. in a week, so i will start learning more and hopefully correct any mistakes i could be making. thanks to everyone for your replies.
Brandom