Bicolor Angel Not Feeding - Suggestions?

[hongqixian]

Hi guys,

I got a small bicolor angel from Reborn back on Saturday and it seems perfectly healthy - doing well in my 2ft tank. It has staked out a little cave in the live rock and stays within it - swimming out occasionally only to display and give "keep away!" messages awhen my bicolor dottyback swims too near the cave. I do not see it pecking at the rocks as is usual of most angels and it hasn't taken the pellet food, defrosted shrimp or raw crab-meat that I tried placing near its cave in the past few days. Any suggestions how to get it to feed? Henry's food?

Thanks for any help!

P.S. Oh, tank conditions:

Equipment: Prizm Skimmer, Eheim hang-on filter

Inverts: Various Mushrooms, zoos, small sarcophyton leather toadstool, small Cerianthus sp. tube anemone, Fromia star.

Fish: Bicolor dottyback, True percula, maroon clown - they've worked out all their aggression problems already.

Tank has been running for four years.

[bubble_gum]

try this as it works for me... get nori n melt a cube of mysis n mix together. take a small pieve of liverock coat the rock with the mix n put it in the freeze. once frozen, put the rock back in ur tank. ur angel shud b curios n nip at it. it should start feeding by then HTHs

[hongqixian]

hey thanks! where can i get nori? Regards

[bubble_gum]

ntuc? unseasoned hor. u dun want to make sushi out of ur bicolour

[big_ben102000]

live brine shrimps ?

[hongqixian]

heh okay i'll see if i can find nori. I tried rubbing a rock with mysis and the angel was interested, but it didn't bite. Interestingly though, it swam out of the cave and went to peck some other rocks - just a little. Getting a bit more daring now. I'll try the freezing trick tomorrow if it still doesn't feed. Maybe it just needs a bit more time.

Live brine might work but I think all the brine would be gone before the angel would start feeding - because of the skimmer and other fish etc. I don't want it to get too used to live food also - me poor student no time to keep buying heh - last resort I guess.

Thanks, ben and bubble_gum!

[big_ben102000]

haha i am a student too.. i think u have juz to feed it 2 or 3 times off the rest of the equipment while doing so. then try frozen brine. the angel should take the frozen brine by then

good luck

[kueytoc]

try this as it works for me... get nori n melt a cube of mysis n mix together. take a small pieve of liverock coat the rock with the mix n put it in the freeze. once frozen, put the rock back in ur tank. ur angel shud b curios n nip at it. it should start feeding by then   HTHs

wah LR in ya freezer compartment & I'm sure it must be 'stinko' & be careful of food poisoning hor.

Don't play play !

[hongqixian]

heh it's okay, i'm using a smooth round pebble of some kind of coral skeleton that i got from the beach a long time ago. Trying it with mysis alone first - since I don't have nori (yet?). Froze the pebble in a small plastic bag - no sweat. Using the pebble because I can't bear to freeze any of the worms (the rocks in my tank are limited and full of worms). heh.

[bubble_gum]

wah LR in ya freezer compartment & I'm sure it must be 'stinko' & be careful of food poisoning hor.

Don't play play !

i mean small like a pebble size. put it in a tupperware or ziplock ya

[hongqixian]

I tried it with pellet food and mysis - the angel took one nip at it but didn't seem to be too interested, although my dottyback came to eat a little bit too. It's starting to nibble the other live rocks though. Picky angel. Keeping my fingers crossed.

[rockfish]

try live brine.. so far.. this is the most effective method i tried..

can even get moorish idol to eat.

Mix some frozen mysis when u feed... Live brine is just to trigger its desire to eat.. once it start eating anything will be ok..

[hongqixian]

okay maybe I will, because it's back to hiding again. Does anyone happen to know what shops in the East sell live brine? Thanks!

[big_ben102000]

try iwana ? or pacific marine ? the lfs there all sell live brine shrimps. i think some freshwater lfs do sell them too

godd luck

[hongqixian]

k, will try, thanks a bunch!