Quote:
Originally Posted by
MarvelFan http:///t/391429/question-about-the-flame-angel-fish#post_3471293
I actually just got a flame angel on Saturday morning from SWF.com (BEAUTIFUL FISH!!!). Mine is in QT. I was starting to wonder what to do to make mine eat as well. I placed an algae strip in the tank but I've been watching it and never seen it nibble. its nibbling on the sides of the tank. i was worried because I don't have any LR in my QT so I was wondering what it will graze on. I tried frozen brine and it didn't touch it.
I was at my LFS yesterday and asked the owner what I should do. he recommended placing a piece of LR from my DT into the QT so it can graze on something.
I picked up some live brine to try as well (since it was only 50 cents for a good portion) I placed some live brine into the QT and the angel went nutz for it. It ate it all up. I don't want to have to feed live brine all the time, I find it funny it didn't eat the frozen. I did buy some Mysis this weekend but haven't fed it to either tank yet.
Do you think a piece of LR from my DT to my QT is a good or bad idea? If I have to do any treatments down the road I'd have to take the LR out?
The LFS guy said it may take some time (2-3 days) for a new fish to start eating after a trip like that.
The trip can definitely stress them out.
Are you just observing this fish in QT and not treating it with hypo or anything?
Personally, I'm not a fan of rocks in the QT. If a rock is used in the QT, don't put it back in the main tank. The whole purpose of the QT is to make sure a fish isn't diseased, etc. You don't want to transfer something that it might have to your main tank. I definitely understand where the LFS owner was trying to come from, but long term, it's not a good idea. A fake piece of coral or they make fake foam rocks that look like live rock would have been better.
Few things you can both try to entice your Flame's to eat the algae sheets:
1) rubberband it to a small piece of live rock or a frag plug and drop it in the tank. It will have the appearance of being more natural and look like a growing piece of seaweed to the fish. This can entice a fish to start picking at it and once they get used to the sheets, you can usually move them to a clip.
2) keep offering the algae sheets on a clip
3) turn off filters. Take a small piece of the algae sheet and hold it in your hands in the water and rub it between your fingers so that it starts to break apart and look like flake food. This will sometimes get your fish to start eating. Slowly you can increase the size of the flakes, etc and hopefully eventually you can get it to move to a clip all together. This method has been the most effective for me. The other plus is that the broken pieces will land on things around the tank, so if the angel really is only grazing, the hope is that they'll eat the algae off the things it's grazing on. You need to be careful though, because too much can make a mess, especially in the QT where you don't have an adequate CUC. This method also helps to get the fish used to you and your hand. I've hand trained almost all my fish. It makes it much easier to catch them if there is an issue because when they see my hand, they associate it with food (not so much fun when your Foxface decides to join in and stabs you with his quills, lol).
4) if method #3 doesn't work, try it at the same time that you also feed something you know the fish is eating, such as live brine. While brine is really not an ideal food long term, it can be a great food to jump start a finicky fish's appetite. Just make sure it doesn't become the only thing they eat. I use salmon for the same reasons, most fish will go nuts over small chunks of salmon, but it's very fatty so it needs to be used in moderation.
5) If all else fails, try a flake food such as Formula 2, and then move to method 3 and so on.
My coral beauty would not eat algae sheets in any other way than broken up in this manner for well over a year, but now she will accept off the clip. It took a long time. The dwarf angels have been my hardest to convert to the algae clips for whatever reason, which is why I really do not recommend they go in young tanks. The live rock really needs time to mature so that there is enough filamentous algae there for them to graze on.
