I just bought a Potter's Angel on Friday and he doesn't seem to be interested in food. I tried my normal mix of frozen mysis, frozen cyclopeze marinated in garlic guard that I use in my display tank that the fish go nuts over. I tried live brine. I have also tried the least likely, flakes. What can I do to stimulate his appetite. The guy at the LFS said to go to the whole foods store an by mussels and to freeze them to sterilize them and then thaw them out and feed it to the fish. By the way, he is in my quarantine tank. Any suggestions on getting my Potter's Angel to start eating???
getting my Potter's Angel to eat
- Thread starter kj5432
- Start date
Ironsheikh
New member
mine didnt eat anyhing but live rock for 3 months, tried everything but it still stayed fat. then one day it started eating flakes and loved it ever since.
my fish dont care about garlic i noticed.
it'll eat some nori too and mysis, other than that --live rock is #1
my fish dont care about garlic i noticed.
it'll eat some nori too and mysis, other than that --live rock is #1
RichConley
New member
QT tanks will kill a potters pretty quick. Treat him like a mandarin.
Throw some sponge filters in the QT, some chunks of rock from the tank, and grab a bunch of macro from your fuge. Get a ton of pods and such in there. Get some algae going.
Generally,, if you can't get a fish eating, getting him natural food is the best thing you can do until he eats.
Throw some sponge filters in the QT, some chunks of rock from the tank, and grab a bunch of macro from your fuge. Get a ton of pods and such in there. Get some algae going.
Generally,, if you can't get a fish eating, getting him natural food is the best thing you can do until he eats.
Angel*Fish
cats and large squashes
Notice no quarantine & success.
What Rich above said in my opinion is best - put him in a macro & micro rich environment until he's eating regular food. It will be easier to train him on regular food in a small lush environment, without competition from other fish
Second best IMO is to put him in the main tank, assuming you have lots of liverock.
Putting him in a traditional bare quarantine tank is the worst possible thing for him unless you see visible signs of something that can only be treated that way
RichConley
New member
Exactly. I reccommend the same things with most of the more docile species of wrasse(leapords,etc). QT is good. Hospital is bad. Set them up their own refugium basically, and leave them there for a month or two. They'll get a ton of food, and you'll be able to feed them without having to worry about competition.
I directly introduced my last leapord to the tank, and it didnt turn out as well, I had to feed an absolute TON of food every day to get enough by them for him to eat. Real skittish, but if theyre given some time, they will eat. The problem is, in most tanks, teh food is gone by then. Potters are the same if theyre small, or have been roughed up.
I directly introduced my last leapord to the tank, and it didnt turn out as well, I had to feed an absolute TON of food every day to get enough by them for him to eat. Real skittish, but if theyre given some time, they will eat. The problem is, in most tanks, teh food is gone by then. Potters are the same if theyre small, or have been roughed up.
Toddrtrex
Premium Member
You are right, I didn't come out and say it, but I did not QT him. The
tank had recently been moved, but I kept everything completely wet.
Plus there is plenty of algae in the tank (not overrun by it, but a good amount). The size of the belly on my LMB is huge.
Plus while watch it at the LFS I got it from, he was active and picking at the rocks in their tank.
The same thing happened with my other recent purchases, a solar fairy wrasse and a pair of pink skunks.
IanInDC
New member
kjeanes... my good friend is a Potter's-head, has one, loves 'em, and we discovered that what makes Potter's Angels so "hard to keep" is the fact that they're deeper-water fish and are often brought up far too quickly. This cause swim bladder damage -- often irrevocable -- and other, similar damage.
It has been our experience that those Angels brought up and shipped conscientiously eat almost immediately while those brought up poorly have a very poor survival rate. The answer for those would be to apply treatments for various swim bladder-related ailments.
It has been our experience that those Angels brought up and shipped conscientiously eat almost immediately while those brought up poorly have a very poor survival rate. The answer for those would be to apply treatments for various swim bladder-related ailments.
Angel*Fish
cats and large squashes
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I doubt that kjeanes is in a position to treat for decompression & that if the fish has been damaged from being improperly brought up, it's too late anyway
kjeanes, I hope you have put this fish in a stress reducing environment -- this is your best chance with this fish. If your fish is only, say for instance, slightly swim bladder damaged and is able to heal, you are hindering his ability to heal by putting him in a hospital tank situation....... hospital = stress = compromised immunity
IanInDC brings up a very good point about the swim bladder issue, something to be wary of if you buy another one. Potter's angels are found as deep as 450ft... None of that changes the fact that his best situation at this time is to be in a tank full of macroalgae & live rock with no food competitors until he is eating. He will find natural food in that environment which is important to any healing he might be doing.
If you get him eating live brine, there are excellent nutritional supplements you can load them with that would be helpful to your angel.
Any update on his progress?
He is definitely in a stress free environment. He is in a qt tank by him self. I did dose with copper (the product is called copper power). So can macro algae live in a tank with copper? I have been feeding live brine, pygmy angel frozen food cubes. I have tried to overfeed a little. I figured if I overfeed it would help micro algae grow. He appears to be doing fine. The only thing is that I haven't actually witnessed him eat. When I feed my fish in my display tank they go nuts grabbing every litte bit that they can. I guess I am just not used to a fish that doesn't go nuts over the food. For instance, if I put live brine in my display tank it's gone in no time...no matter how much I put in. When I put it in the qt tank with the potter's angel it didn't seem to phase him.
Angel*Fish
cats and large squashes
I'm not sure what all copper kills -
Here's a picture of what I've been talking about for your fish - though the algae need not be decorative of course - Any algae would be full of delicious detritus items for your fish
I like that you are wanting to grow some diatoms/microalgae - does he constantly peck at the rocks? That is what you'd want to be seeing
S.Michael mentions that Potter's feed primarily on filamentous algae (niusance/hair algae) & detritus. So if you've got a rock with some filamentous algae on it, you know what to do ith it
Here's a picture of what I've been talking about for your fish - though the algae need not be decorative of course - Any algae would be full of delicious detritus items for your fish
I like that you are wanting to grow some diatoms/microalgae - does he constantly peck at the rocks? That is what you'd want to be seeing
S.Michael mentions that Potter's feed primarily on filamentous algae (niusance/hair algae) & detritus. So if you've got a rock with some filamentous algae on it, you know what to do ith it
Ironsheikh
New member
they'll bite it up --
RichConley
New member
These fish are substrate grazers, which means they spend a ton of time in close proximity to the reef. THat means they usually are within close proximity to a hiding place at all times. He doesnt have that in a QT.
What angelfish posted is great.
PatrickB101
Premium Member
i use a nano reef for a QT tank i would think about that in the future,
Angel*Fish
cats and large squashes
It's an excellent food to offer. Usually they have to adjust/learn to eat
the algae in that form as it is essentially a flake food
Exactly!
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