Emperor Angel...

[Anonymous]

Hi all,
I need some advice from folks who have kept emperors, or any other large angels, that have been reluctant to feed. I have, involuntarily I might add, a 5-6" adult emperor angel in my care now that is refusing to accept flake or frozen food. It picks at live brine, but this is hardly enough to sustain it long term. It also picks at nori, but I also feel this is not enough to sustain it long term. I tried offering flake, Angel formula, and krill with no success. So what are some tricks to get an angel to feed on non live foods? Will it eventually figure out that the formula food=food?

 

[Minh Nguyen]

Go to the Japanese supermarket and get fish eggs for sushi. All fish will eat these fish eggs. It is cheap to in compare to fish food. Goodluck.
Minh

 

[Anonymous]

That's really funny, because the fish tank is located in a sushi restaurant....I can probably get fish eggs there easily enough. Are you sure they don't have pickling chemicals or anything in them?

 

[Minh Nguyen]

They are frozen, unsalted and untreated. I feed these to my fish all the time. The fish where the eggs come from in a salt water fish species.
Minh

 

[john f]

Two ideas:

1. Fresh clams

2. Frozen mysis shrimp ( Psicine energetics if possible)

The clams I would only try if you have no tridacnids in the tank. Don't want to train him to eat clams if you want to keep them


John

 

[MHLTCOB]

I agree with minh and john. These foods usually entice reluctant angels to eat. Sometimes they need a little time to get accustomed to their surroundings too.

 

[NewMan]

my emperor eat pellet food...it takes a little more time to coax it to take dry food

 

[Anonymous]

Great advice so far. Funny, after doing this for so many years how I can still learn something from this place. I've never thought of fish eggs! :roll: You'd think that by now I'd have heard of, or thought of that. Oh well, that's what makes this place to so great I guess.
Anyway, my latest imperator just last weekend starting eating prepared foods after only acceping brine for over a month and a half. You are very correct that this diet will not sustain an emperor, especially one the size of yours, for very long.
Matt, keep offering the frozen food as well, one day it will just decide to start eating it, and chow down on it from that day on. It's really strange, but that's usually how it happens. In might be weeks away, but it will happen. Try angel formula, formula one and two. Imperators are fairly ecclictic in their eating habits compared to some other angels, and long term feeding problems are uncommon furtunately. Once in a while the often seen short term finickyness is enough to do them in though, so stay on him.
Good news again, P. imperator is one of the hardiest pomocanthids! I would rank only P. paru and P. maculosis ahead of it in that department. I have an emperor in an SPS reef. :wink:

Off to the store for some fish eggs - thanks Minh!

Cheers
Jim

 

[Anonymous]

Well, he didn't eat the fish eggs, although he eyed them for a lot longer than he did flake and frozen food. I will keep trying to get him to feed. For now all he will eat is nori and live brine, so that will just have to do for awhile. What do you think about adding 20-30 lbs of live rock to the tank? This is a fish only tank, 125 gallons, with all dead decorations. I know he would probably pick it clean in a few days/weeks, but it couldn't hurt, right?

 

[Anonymous]

Glad you mentioned that. I forgot to add that imperators spend a lot of time grazing the rock for small pods and shrimp, more as juveniles than adults. That's one of the things that helped the little imperator I spoke of get through his brine only stage. I'm not sure how much an imperator at the size that yours is will graze for small shrimp and such, but like you said it couldn't hurt.
Have you tried the frozen mysis shrimp?

Jim

 

[Anonymous]

Jim, do you know of any Bay Area store that sells frozen mysis? Unless I'm willing to buy pounds and pounds of it, it's just way too expensive through MO. 2nd Day air plus box charge plus shrimp=over $50 at www.premiumaquatics.com Where do you get yours?

 

[Anonymous]

I bought some at Aquarium Concepts in Hayward, although I can't remember the brand off the top of my head.
Kind of a long haul for you though, hour and a half or so. I might be worth the run for you though because you can visit Aquarium Concepts, and Tropical Paradise too, a great store. I'd definitely call and make sure they have it in stock though before you came. If you can come on a week day, I'll buy some for you and hold it here at work, as I work right across the street almost! Then we can go check the store out.

Cheers
Jim