Help. Flame Angel wont eat.

[alki]

I am trying to feed a new flame angel, & a OS lawnmower blenny and I cant get either to eat. The angel runs everytime she sees me, which I heard was ok, as long as she eats.

I have a new 29 gall qt tank with aboot 20lbs lr & one of those overtheback filters.
I know these vish are vegans so heres what Ive tried.

1. sea veggies algae sheet.
2. Formula 2 frozen cubes. I thaw & chop it.
3. dried granule things. I forget the name, but my clowns love it.
4. Flake food with a fricken picture of a angel on it. Though this is from a fresh water setup my clowns still love it.
5. Bloodworms while feeding other fish.

Anyone know how I can get these to eat? They are both new, and I want them to live dammit!



Heres a pic. The lawnmower guy, lets call him frank, Has a perfect sized hole on a rock to fit in. He just pokes his head out, its sweet.
And the angel.

 

[lizardarm]

Flame angels are not vegans. They prefer to munch on plant matter, but will routinely eat flake food that has animal protein in it, or your clams and other corals. If the fish is still fairly new to your tank, then it might still be adjusting to captivity, i.e. stressed out. That's kind of a small space for that fish to be in anyway. Looks like you've got some algae growing on your LR and I'd bet that the angel is picking at it; that's what flame angels do in the wild.

 

[leebca]

The best place to train a fish to eat is in a quarantine tank where places to hide are minimal and the hobbyist and fish can adjust to one another. Please read this: A Quarantine Procedure.

The Flame Angel is not a vegan. I'm unsure where you've gotten your information from. It is an omnivore, that leans towards the carnivore end of the scale. You will need to offer pods, ocean plankton, and some meaty foods, along with some that are formulated for omnivores. You should read this post, also: Fish Health Through Proper Nutrition.

Fish usually don't eat because they are stressed. For a new fish this is usually because it hasn't acclimated enough to get into eating. But it could be from other stressors, such as water quality, environment, disease, injury, etc. If these are both new fish in a relatively new system, the water is most likely not right. These stressors also include overcrowding.

From your post it almost sounds like you have a new setup and put two fish into it. This would stop many fish from eating, since the setup is young. Or putting two fish into a tank at nearly the same time would cause the water quality to fall off. Also a reason for a fish to stop eating.

You should look for ways to reduce stress on the fish, try the proper foods (and ANY food) and give it time. Please read this post above all others: My New Fish Won't Eat -- Tips.

However, I recommend you start reading even more, such as these posts:
What Size Tank for that Marine Fish?.
What is Water Quality.

Good luck!

 

[Herefishyfishy]

One more suggestion, your tank is a nano and angels do not belong in them.
a 29 gallon tall affords very little swimming and territory room for an angelfish, even a small species like a flame. It might not acclimate well enough to be happy and eat.

 

[alki]

This IS a qt tank as I said. I thought they were algae eaters so I said vegan. Do they not eat what I have tried? Algea sheets?? Flake??

There is also pods in this tank, as I seeded it liverock from my other 55 gallon (which he will be moving to after qt) Plus I added tiggerpods a while ago so there should be some.

The only reason I am worried about these 2 fish is that they are the only ones that have died on me in the past. This was when I didnt have a qt tank, so I set this up for that reason. I never saw the other fish eat either, and the lawnmower dissapeared one day, and I found the angel dead another day. These were seperated by a month or so.

Leebca Thanks for the link on the qt setup. The only thing I did diff was add liverock, as when I am done with these fish my qt tank will turn into a small reeftank

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Ah, QT not GT, the live rock threw me. Yes, if newly introduced to your QT, the angel will be feeling trapped till it acclimates a bit. Though a 30 is perfect for treatment and many including Lee likes them for QT, I often feel they are a bit small for most fish's comfort and lack of comfort means added stress. I have always used a 72 for QT, but theis is NOT the norm and most feel it is nuts being just my personal preference.
What is the size of your display and what is in it?

If you need to treat the QT, then it is perfect, but the live rock would have to go.
Lawnmowers are pretty tough, but Flame's have a pretty high mortality rate. I suspect many die due to them being so popular and many of these "pretty fish" get bought by newbys without any idea on how to mature and maintain an artificial reef.

Yours should do fine if allowed to acclimate and get feeding. Hard to keep trying to feed and not spike the ammonia, and nitrates in a QT.
Keep trying, patience is your best asset.

Best of luck with all.

 

[jgraeff]

Try frozen mysis shrimp it seems like everything will eat that even when my tang wouldn't touch anything else it would it the shrimp. Same with the mandarin goby.

 

[alki]

OKay mysis did the trick! She munched down last night. PLus my seaweed sheet is all gone this morning so I hope the lawnmower was at work.

Thanks for the tips!