how to get my flame angel to eat??

cc23k · 03-31-2002, 11:41 PM

hi guys, i've a maroon clown for bout a mth now and it's doing great.
decided to add 1 more fish, and i got a flame angel yesterday.
But it's not eating.. and it's starting to fickle and scratch itself a little now..
how can i get it to eat and keep it's health in check? i really dun wanna lose it. thanks.

beach bum · 04-01-2002, 03:51 AM

Not eating after a day is nothing to worry about. Feeding it will not stave off dieases.

- did you observe it in the shop for long?
- if so, what was its behavior there?
- what was it eating?
- are there any physical blemishes or respiratory distress?
- quarantine tanks are great in times like these, do you have one?

It helps to keep the lights low when acclimating new arrivals, if it does not seem to be acclimating well just try to keep stressors to a minimum (low lights, no quick motions around the tank, correct temp, Ph, and whatever else you can think of).

If symptoms change or increase in urgency, post the details, ok?
HTH, chris

cc23k · 04-01-2002, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by beach bum
Not eating after a day is nothing to worry about. Feeding it will not stave off dieases.

- did you observe it in the shop for long?
- if so, what was its behavior there?
- what was it eating?
- are there any physical blemishes or respiratory distress?
- quarantine tanks are great in times like these, do you have one?

It helps to keep the lights low when acclimating new arrivals, if it does not seem to be acclimating well just try to keep stressors to a minimum (low lights, no quick motions around the tank, correct temp, Ph, and whatever else you can think of).

If symptoms change or increase in urgency, post the details, ok?
HTH, chris

-ya, i did observe it for bout 30mins before i purchase it, and it's behaving normally in the tank.

-i was told by the LFS that he feeds flake to all his fishes.

-when i first introduce it into the tank yesterday, there are signs of respiratory distress for bout 10mins before i went back to normal.

i'll try to keep everything as stress free as possible and see if there's any improvement.
thanks alot

MontanaRocknReefer · 04-01-2002, 06:58 PM

Just a thought here! Have you noticed any aggressive behavior with the maroon clownfish toward the flame angel? Maroons can be quite territorial and cause stress to the flame angel and thus causing it not to eat at present!
If this may be the case, things should settle down and the flame will begin to eat. Keep a close eye on the maroon. Johnny

JMOR · 04-01-2002, 09:18 PM

How is your Angel doing ?

You should continue to keep a good eye on it until it starts eating. You mentioned that you noticed it scratching, how often does this occur ? How are your water parameters ?

I'm a big fan of Q-Tanks and would highly recommend it.

murphy · 06-21-2002, 11:23 AM

Just wondering if your flame angel eventually ate and what did you do? Because I recently acquired one that is very healthy, but it's been a week and he still has not eaten. I have tried live and frozen brine, little clams, and even flake - nothing. All he does is pick at all the live rock. Maybe thats enough. I do have a Hippo, orchid dottiback and 2 percula clowns - all very small fish and no aggression. They swim together and not bothered by each others presence. Any ideas?

mapster · 06-21-2002, 12:07 PM

Hey guys, just thought I would share my experience with my Flame angel. I just woke up, so if this sound like jibber jabber I will fix it later. My angel didn't eat any of the frozen foods I fed at first. It constantly pecked at the rocks and noticed it eating algea, so I wasn't too concerned. Ive had mine for about a month or so and it is just now (withing the past week) going after the frozen food. I would be less concerned abou the eating and more concerned about the flashing (scratching). Do you have any cleaner shrimp. Also one of my clowns took a chunk out of its tail on the first day. It has since grown back and the two have gotten along great.

Freckles · 06-21-2002, 12:49 PM

When I had my flame angel, it took him a few days to finally eat. Eventually, I got him to eat both frozen and flake foods!

Big Dave · 06-21-2002, 02:27 PM

My Flame is a pig. Once I got him acclimated he was eating. I always feed right after adding new fish. You never know how often the LFS was feeding. He even tries to steal from my huge brittle when I spot feed it. He is pretty well behaved, chases the pair of Hippos once in a while, but not too often. I would try putting some garlic or selcon in the food once he starts eating. Sounds like he may have some parasites or ick. He could be scratching from the difference of water between your tank and where you got it from. HTH

-Big Dave