Feeding difficulties...

djcentropyge1

djcentropyge1

New member
I'm looking for some advice on feeding my Potters Angelfish.
He has an EXTREMELY beautiful coloration but isn't feeding well. My LFS said that it was the most beautiful specimen that they had ever seen in their store! I've tried feeding him specialized Angelfish formula foods (I hate the foods with the gel binders because they don't dissolve) but he didn't eat it at all! If anything, my five stripe wrasse was more interested in it than the potters was. I have Algae clips in my tank but he only seems to be slightly interested. I've also tried Mysids, but they haven't seemed to attract his attention at all. I've also tried krill and pellets but haven't had much success. He has been picking at my live rock, but he is starting to get the pinched stomach look that shows that he isn't getting enough to eat. I don't want him to die! Any suggestions?:confused:
 
I feed my Potters a mix of mysis, spirulina brine, Formula 1 and 2 flake and NLS pellets. I soak the food in Kent Garlic Extreme for a few minutes. I got my Potters from LADD and it did not eat the first few days but no problems after that.

I fed my tank twice a day to get the fish used to me (now only feed once per day). I would squeeze in a bit of food and walk far away from the tank and then add more and walk away again. I also added two drops of garlic extreme to my tank each morning to hopefully get her appetite going and I noticed that she was more interested in the food that moved so I left one PH going at feeding time. Not sure what part of this got her eating but maybe some of this will help you out.

Was the fish eating at your LFS? If so what were they feeding?
 
I usually quarantine any new fish and they usually end up eating, they have no competition in the tank. Unless your Potter has a damage digestive tract, I have bought fish that I should have ask the Lfs to feed first, too make sure it is eating before I buy it. When I got them home they would not eat and end up dying a week or two later.

Now I will not buy a fish unless the Lfs shows me it will eat mysis or brine shrimp, I just pickup a coral beauty and flame angel a month back and they were all eating at the Lfs.
 
^Good point. Although mine was not QT'd, the only other competitor in the tank was/is a B/W clown. This is a 40B tank BTW.
 
Unsightly Hair Algae while a nusiance in your Reef can be a life-saver for Centropyge acclimating to a new home. If the QT has a bunch, all the better. I got my C. bicolor going on that & frozen Mysis. Eats like a possesed hog now! Even out of my fingers. Well, actually this is my 2nd attempt with this difficult Centropyge. The first picked at the rocks & ate a little food on bottom. But faded out after 2 weeks, something I've had happen to Coral Beauties as well. But this 2nd one is thriving, so FAR..
Anyway, there is a thread here on feeding NEW C. potteri, it was a Sticky at one time..

Sincerely,
Matthew
 
I don't have experience with Potters, but I will offer some thoughts..

Try getting some PE Mysis (Piscene Energetics). It isn't cheap, but I have fed countless different reef fishes this mysis and I struggle to think of a fish that didn't accept it. It is nutritionally very sound and I also use it to feed various types of corals.

One important aspect of attracting a new addition is making the food look life-like. Live brine (enriched) are an easy way to get your picky fish eating. Typically it isn't hard to train them from the brine onto the more nutritious mysis within a week or two. Garlic, and Cyclop-eeze as mentioned can also work well as attractants. I like to take a fresh garlic clove, score it a few times and throw the whole clove in with the thawing food. I also enrich my reef's food with Reef Nutrition's Oyster Feast and some Selcon while it thaws.

I strongly encourage people to thaw frozen foods in COLD saltwater! Not r/o and most of all NOT 80 degree tank water! Avoid excessive rising and crushing of the mysis. The oils are what we want to preserve. The easiest way to accomplish this is to bottle up some tank water and refrigerate it.[ I freeze a mason jar for when I don't have cold tank water on hand. This is an easy way too cool the tank water off for a minute or so.] Take time to thaw frozen foods slowly (in the fridge is best). It will pay off.

Thawed in this manner, I believe that mysis (and other) reef foods will look more lifelike, maintain more of their nutritive value and leach less nutrients into the tank.
:p
 
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PE mysis is really too big for potters. I would do a FW dip on it to make sure it doesn't have flukes or something else. Then like others stated a tank with lots of nuisance algae and no other fish is great for potters. They will eat the algae and the little creatures that feed on algae. My potters prefer smaller food items in the water column. I have all of mine now feeding on Hikari mysis and they really prefer the pieces that have been choped up in the power head. Cyclopeeze or Arctic pods may also work as maynardjames stated. I had one large male potters that for the first month the only thing I got him to eat was cyclopeeze flakes. Now he eats almost anything.
 
You have a lot of good suggestions on different types of food already. Potters tend to have a poor success rate in captivity due to not eating. Some stores do not carry a guarantee on them due to there sensitivity. The key is seeing them eat at the LFS before taking them home.

When I had my potters a few years back, he ate all frozen foods, including PE mysis. He would not eat any flake food though. I had him for about 3 years before breaking down that particular tank and selling him off.

Its not uncommon for new fish not to eat right away of even be seen for a few days. I had a fairy wrasse hide for one month before I saw him again. I thought it had died.

I see your a new member. I hope though your tank is well established prior to adding any type of angel. Good luck.
 
I got my potters eating aggressively on H20 lifefoodd 50/50 blend. It is a combo of brine, bloodworms and mini-mysis. He started only picking out the brine, but slowly started taking the occasional bloodworm and now eats all of the blend, but not the bigger pieces of mysis, only the smaller ones.

I also think it is important to thaw out your food in cold water. I watched them prepare food at a public aquarium, and thats how they do it. Warm water apparently starts to cook the food, removing some of its nutrition, and can also promote bacteria growth within a minute or two.

I thaw it in cold water, let it settle to the bottom of the cup, and then decant off the water and refill it with tank water then feed them that. There is no cloudy substance going in to the tank, it is clear with just the food, and they retain all their nutritional value.
 
Yeah, that is what I always see here, yet all the blasted SW fish books list C. potteri as an easy dwarf angel.
Hmm..

Matthew
 
LargeAngels said:
PE mysis is really too big for potters. I would do a FW dip on it to make sure it doesn't have flukes or something else. Then like others stated a tank with lots of nuisance algae and no other fish is great for potters. They will eat the algae and the little creatures that feed on algae. My potters prefer smaller food items in the water column. I have all of mine now feeding on Hikari mysis and they really prefer the pieces that have been choped up in the power head. Cyclopeeze or Arctic pods may also work as maynardjames stated. I had one large male potters that for the first month the only thing I got him to eat was cyclopeeze flakes. Now he eats almost anything.
Click to expand...

+1 the pe mysis is much to big.I had to chop it up in a food processor to get any of my dwarfs to eat it.Rods food works real well and also hikari spirulina infused brine to get them eating better.
 
One thing to remember is that Potter's have pretty small mouths, so the size of the food matters.

I have had 3 over the years (( lost a pair to a pump issue while in the hospital )), and they have all loved the following; LifeLine's herbivore mix, Rod's food (( red, green and blue labels )), Prime Reef, Angel formula and Spectrum pellets -- the small ones.

But, as others have mentioned, having mature rocks in the tank for it to graze on is very important.
 
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