Help Goldflake angel not eating

aldiver311

New member
Hi all I know this should be more in the FOWLR section but I see a lot of post in this section on these angels .Just got a Goldflake from Ron Tubbs 2 weeks ago 6-7 inches, cannot get him to eat anything. Have tried almost everything, PE Mysis, frozen brine ,live brine, Ocean Nutrition form 2 flakes, Ocean Nutrition Angel formula cubes, Osi spirolena flakes, live little neck clams ,frozen clam strips, nori, frozen shrimp, squid ,even soak food in Bright Well Aquatics Angel Lixor. Wont touch anything. Any suggestions?? I got a blue line angel, also the same size was really tough to get to eat finally got him to start picking at the live clams.
 
Is he in QT alone? Maybe get another fish in there with him that is eating, so he'll figure out it's food? That's a really big goldflake. Good news is such a large fish can go a VERY long time without eating. Bad news is it may never accept food. GL!
 
Ya I had him in a 150 QT with Prazi and cupramie for 2 weeks. Showed no signs of ich or flukes so decided to put him in my display with everything else hoping the same thing, that fish that are eating really well will get him to eat. he has only been in the display for 3 days still nothing. That did work for the Blue Line Angel though, he started eating yesterday, the clams that is. Still wont touch anything else. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I collect my own fish down in the Keys and Bahamas. The GL acts just like a large Rock Beauty. Swims around for about 2 months and withers away to nothing.
 
Next time I would suggest that you get the fish eating before you treat him with anything
 
Ya I had him in a 150 QT with Prazi and cupramie for 2 weeks. Showed no signs of ich or flukes so decided to put him in my display with everything else hoping the same thing, that fish that are eating really well will get him to eat. he has only been in the display for 3 days still nothing. That did work for the Blue Line Angel though, he started eating yesterday, the clams that is. Still wont touch anything else. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I collect my own fish down in the Keys and Bahamas. The GL acts just like a large Rock Beauty. Swims around for about 2 months and withers away to nothing.

This isn't nearly enough QT time, it isn't even one life-cycle period for ich. I always get fish eating before treating with Cupramine, if the fish stops eating, its the first sign of copper sensitivity. IMO & IME; its always easier to get new fish eating in the QT. No bullies, competition, mayhem, etc.
 
I really didn't have the copper up high enough. There has been copper in the tank from previous time but it only showed less than .25 on my test kit. I did Prazi because I have had a lot of angels with fluke and the treatment is only for seven days also I read that these come with internal parasites. He and the blue line are the biggest fish in the 265 and nothing bothers either one of them. I'm trying to figure out what is the best steps now to take not what I should have done can't change that. Thanks I will try the sponge I got a stubborn Rock Beauty to eat that way before.
 
aldiver311 said:
I really didn't have the copper up high enough. There has been copper in the tank from previous time but it only showed less than .25 on my test kit. I did Prazi because I have had a lot of angels with fluke and the treatment is only for seven days also I read that these come with internal parasites. He and the blue line are the biggest fish in the 265 and nothing bothers either one of them. I'm trying to figure out what is the best steps now to take not what I should have done can't change that. Thanks I will try the sponge I got a stubborn Rock Beauty to eat that way before.

Only 2 weeks with an ineffective copper level? Hope it doesn't haunt you down the road...


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ya me too, but the Goldflake just didn't act right in the 150. Its a 4 foot 150 and was constantly swimming around the tank like it was too small. That's why I cut QT short. Plus my Nitrates are a bit high in my QT so I just wanted to get the fish into water with less nitrates. I run bio pellets in my display but not my QT tank, just a skimmer. Like I said before I just want to get some advice on what would be good steps to take now. Thanks again for the advice
 
Found a lfs about 45 min. from me, also said they are good for getting hard to eat fish eating. Thanks for the tip ill let you know how it turned out
 
cool, they sometimes do great job eliciting a feeding response from even the most picky eaters...can get them online fairly quick...good luck...
 
I guess I should have posted sooner ,when I got home the Goldflake was swimming upside down. I couldn't watch it suffer I took him out and froze him. Thanks for all the help:uhoh3:
 
I guess I should have posted sooner ,when I got home the Goldflake was swimming upside down. I couldn't watch it suffer I took him out and froze him. Thanks for all the help:uhoh3:

Sorry about your loss, I also recently lost my Goldflake for unknown reasons. Since I started this hobby, The Goldflake has been one of my favorites, and with every tank I put up, my display has to have at least one. That being said, the only real success I have had with this fish long term was a subadult specimen I received from Serdar at Phishybusiness back in 2006. This fish ate from day one and actually put on weight and fattened up for me. I wound up losing it after 2 years to a velvet outbreak. I wasn't as stringent with QT back then and I payed for it.

Since then the Goldflakes I have received eventually waste away even after going through extensive QT and eating like pigs. There was a thread a couple years back where there was discussion of bizzare occurances of the fish we had getting a mysterious lump on its body and then gradually wasting away. Here is the thread, it is an interesting read:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1719291&highlight=goldflake+angel

If I try this fish again, it will either be a juvenile or another small subadult.
 
Thanks for the link I found that thread a couple of days before I posted on here. I knew right away after reading it, the out come for my Gold Flake would probably not turn out good. Not sure If I will try another one or not. I really hate killing fish. It takes me a while to think up something different I could do next time to make the out come out different. I just sold off about 5 of my really large angels that I have had for years to make room for this Gold Flake, Blue line and a beautiful 9 inch X-mas Island Orange Tail Emperor. So far the Blue line and Emperor are doing well. Really had my hart set on a Gold Flake. Not sure what I'm going to do at this point. Thanks again for the help.
 
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