Feeding Picky Angelfish

[Anonymous]

I tried something new to feed a Pomacanthus imperator I recently purchased, and I'm happy to say it worked extremely well. I had been keeping the angel in quarantine and it would only feed on live brine. Wouldn't touch mysis shrimp, nori, or any other prepared food.

So I thought I might try something different and see how it worked. I grabbed a head of fresh broccoli. I also chopped up a fresh table shrimp. Chop it up so fine that it's like a paste. Then I spread it over and mashed it into the head of broccoli. It sticks to it pretty well even in saltwater. It was like a homing beacon for the angel or something. Went straight to it and chowed down. I think these guys are much happier to be scraping food off a surface rather than picking it out of the water.

Anyway, thought this might help some folks with finicky angel or butterflyfish or the like.

 

[Anonymous]

You can never tell with these fish Matt, but I'm going to file this one away. P. imperator in general is not normally problematic once fully acclimated. Live brine is standard for just getting them to eat something while acclimating, but other food should always be offered at the same time. FULL acclimation however actually takes place long after most people think it does - many weeks down the road after all seems well. Prior to this time, they are rather picky about what they'll eat, and their immune response is still weak. In my experience full acclimation is about a 3 month journey for them, although again, all may seem good to go before that. Anyway, it's at this latter stage that they generally start feeding better, and after a time they will eat ANYTHING. Flake, frozen, whatever, they're not picky. They also do not show any preference for picking something off of a rock versus eating it out of mid-water as you insinuated, your fish is just not acclimated fully. Just start adding other types of food along with the things he's already eating and things will fall into place.

P. imperator is one of the more predatory species of angels, much more so than say, the genus Holocanthus or Centropyge. This means more attention should be payed to the protein content of their diet.

Regards
Jim

 

[Anonymous]

You can never tell with these fish Matt, but I'm going to file this one away. P. imperator in general is not normally problematic once fully acclimated. Live brine is standard for just getting them to eat something while acclimating, but other food should always be offered at the same time. FULL acclimation however actually takes place long after most people think it does - many weeks down the road after all seems well. Prior to this time, they are rather picky about what they'll eat, and their immune response is still weak. In my experience full acclimation is about a 3 month journey for them, although again, all may seem good to go before that. Anyway, it's at this latter stage that they generally start feeding better, and after a time they will eat ANYTHING. Flake, frozen, whatever, they're not picky. They also do not show any preference for picking something off of a rock versus eating it out of mid-water as you insinuated, your fish is just not acclimated fully. Just start adding other types of food along with the things he's already eating and things will fall into place.

P. imperator is one of the more predatory species of angels, much more so than say, the genus Holocanthus or Centropyge. This means more attention should be payed to the protein content of their diet.

Regards
Jim

They do in the wild, though, right?

 

[Anonymous]

Oh, and Jim, I'm feeding it a combo of Spirulina flake, frozen mysis, Angel Formula, nori, and some other carnivorous flake food. Any other suggestions on stuff I should be feeding it?

 

[Anonymous]

Oh, and Jim, I'm feeding it a combo of Spirulina flake, frozen mysis, Angel Formula, nori, and some other carnivorous flake food. Any other suggestions on stuff I should be feeding it?

They are one of the more ecclectic feeders in the wild, as is the genus in general. They spend a tremendous amount of time picking at the substrate in the wild of course, but pull a few more pods, shrimp and such out of there than some other species. In the home aquarium they just become another pet that knows YOU are the source of their food. He'll be eating out of your hand in time. One of the best and most appropriate angels for the home aquarium. Not counting dwarf angels, I rank only H. passer, H. clarionensis, P. maculosus, and P. paru ahead of P. imperator in the across the board hardiness department. 4th place aint bad considering all the species out there.

One of my main concerns with this species is long term color retention. In the aquarium, the transition to the adult pattern can be slow, incomplete, and somewhat lackluster compared to the wild, or even the juvenile color pattern. My last one was starting to change finally, then died while I was away for 2 weeks. :? Anway, you know as much about this stuff as I do, but for the benefit of other folks reading - I would make my own food cubes out of shrimp, squid, algae, octopus, scallops, a bit of vitamins, fish eggs, whatever else you can think of. Mix it up, and pack it into an empty Formula or other cube-type good package. This will help with the pattern change, and health in general.
I also would harvest a few pods out of my sump now and then for him. WHOLE food items are important IMO, and different than just giving the fish (or bird, or lizard, or snake, whatever) just the flesh portion.
Good luck with that guy.

Jim

P.S. Looks like I'm out of excuses not to answer queries - off to check WWM. 'sigh'