New Angel wont eat!

angelfish7

angelfish7

New member
I picked up a scribbled angel two weeks ago and Im having a rough time getting her to eat anything. She's currently in a 55g qt and all parameters are good. I did add prazi pro last week cause i saw something white on her eye and wasnt sure if iit was a scratch or flukes. The eye is fine now. I was advised to do a 50% water change becuase prazi can suppress appetite. I did the wc two days ago but shes still not eating!! Ive tried numerous foods including frozen & fresh clam, mysis, brine, flakes, pellets! Though she hasnt ate she still looking ok and swims around just hides alot in the pvc. Any suggestions would be appreciated. thanks
 
i could never get any fish that I've had on prazi to eat at all. Maybe try to clean out the rest of the prazi from the system with some carbon or another partial water change. Can't hurt to try imo...

Also see if you can acquire some live brine. It worked once for a finnicky butterfly fish i had and couldn't get to eat for 2 weeks. Then slowly do a mix of frozen and live, and eventually just frozen.

Hope it works out for you they are amazingly gorgeous fish, wish i had a tank big enough for one.
 
how big is the scribbled?

maybe try making new water in a different QT tank and transfering it over. i have a 6" BL angel that was eating for 14 days(while under cupramine(10 days) and 2 treatments of prazi), then quit eating overnight. it didnt eat for 10 days. i tried everything(many WC, different foods) and finally just transferred it over to another 29g QT with fresh SW. it ate the very next day.

i've prazi these angels in the last 6 months and the one that didnt/or quit eating was the BL. i also had did 2 prazi treatments and it ate fine during that time, so i cant blame BL not eating due to prazi.

adult blueface, emp juvie, 2 false personifers, chrysurus, passer juvie, and the BL. 2-3 prazi treatments on every one of them and no problems eating.
 
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The crazy part is that I've always treated all new fish with prazi and cupramine and never had any go on hunger strike. Thats said, I usually don't begin treatment until the fish has been in qt for a few days. I treated the scribbled two days after arrival when I noticed the white spot on the eye. I put in carbon after last wc. Will do a 20% tonight. Hopefully that'll remove any remaining prazi. What about cuppramine? Is that also an appetite suppressant? Thankso
 
angelfish7 said:
I treated the scribbled two days after arrival when I noticed the white spot on the eye.
Click to expand...

White spot of "fuzzy" eye? Flukes on the eyes cause the eye to look fuzzy or hazy and not like a white spot. If it was flukes then it usually takes 2 -3 Prazi treatments as the medicine doesn't kill the egg so you have to wait for them to hatch and then kill them.

Some fish are just a little more finicky at getting to eat. Try freshly opened clams. Most angels can't resist it. Other than that just keep going down the list of flakes, PE mysis, Hikari mysis, Nori, etc.

IME parasites have more affect on eating than Prazi or Cupramine.
 
LargeAngels said:
White spot of "fuzzy" eye? Flukes on the eyes cause the eye to look fuzzy or hazy and not like a white spot. If it was flukes then it usually takes 2 -3 Prazi treatments as the medicine doesn't kill the egg so you have to wait for them to hatch and then kill them.

Some fish are just a little more finicky at getting to eat. Try freshly opened clams. Most angels can't resist it. Other than that just keep going down the list of flakes, PE mysis, Hikari mysis, Nori, etc.

IME parasites have more affect on eating than Prazi or Cupramine.
Click to expand...

Largeangels
It was more of a fuzzy eye look but i think she scratched herself when she was all over the place and may have scratched against a rock. The eye cleared up though with 5 days of dosing the prazi so not 100% which one was it. She's not showing any other symptoms of having flukes. I just did a 20% wc. Will try more variety of foods this weekend. I gave her a clam and frozen krill . She would swim up to it and just stare and swim away! :headwallblue
 
I've used Prazi-Pro in QT on every fish I've owned for years; see no connection to appetite. Cupramine, however will suppress appetite. I dose all my new fish with Cupramine too; but don't add it until they are eating. Angels can be very touchy with copper as well. I'd remove the Cupramine with Cuprisorb or carbon ASAP, and see if the fish will start eating. If the copper was the cause; once he's regained health and is eating well, slowly add Cupramine (over several days ) up to about .30 ppm. Cupramine is very effective at lower levels with Angels. If you have Cupramine at the suggested .50; I wouldn't be surprised to see him start eating as soon as the copper is removed. When you start the lower dose of copper, monitor feeding closely and back off on the copper if he stops eating again. I don't think he will.
 
Thanks for the info Mr.Tuskfish, I've changed 70% of the water over the last week and been running carbon for three days. I had the cupramine level at .25. Hopefully she'll start eating soon. Will keep you guys posted.
 
geaux xman said:
how big is the scribbled? have it ate at all since you had it?
Click to expand...

She's about 6 inches. I haven't seen her eating but she may have when no one is around as she hides alot when people are near the tank. Its going to be two weeks now since arrival. She looks and swims around fine except not eating! Now that the meds are out hopefully she'll eat soon
 
Another thing to try is to take nori cut it into strips and put it onto an algae clip. The strips float and dangle in the water and can entice them to nip. Often they will eat this at night with the lights dim and no one watching.
 
Folks I'm happy to say that my Scribbled angel finally started to eat!!:celeb1: I tried giving her clams on the half shell several times but would ignore them. I bought some little neck clams couple of day ago and we finally saw her ripping up the clams. Thats the only thing she's eating right now though. Nothing frozen, algae or pellets! hopefully i'll be able to get her to eat the frozen stuff soon ! thanks all for your advice and help :thumbsup:
 
You might try Ocean Nutrition Angel and Butterfly food (frozen) as it has greens and sponge in it. Also, if the fish continues to eat clam, try saving some of the clam juice that drains out when you open the.clam and put it in an empty half shell with some food (say NLS pellets), mix well, and freeze, then put it in the tank frozen. You could also add garlic to enhance flavor.
 
I will try to start adding other food. Now that shes eating(2 clams a day), perhaps she'll be interested in other food..
 
you got any pics of the Clams that you are using? or can you google a picture that looks like it and post it. i bought some Ocean Nutrition clams on a half shell before and it is junk.
 
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