Juvenile emporor angel being a picky eater

[hoytoyed]

Added a 3.5” juvenile Emporer Friday and while he begrudgingly ate a little frozen mysis in the LFS, he’s not yet eaten any offered frozen foods at home. He had only been at the LFS 2 days but as he was the perfect size and the price on him was rock bottom I decided to take the chance. He is grazing all day on the live rock and eats some nori, but he’s a slow methodical fish and his feeding habits are the same. He slowly swims around the live rock, and you can see his eyes darting around looking for a morsel, then finally takes a bite and moves slowly on. When he goes to the nori pouch he slowly eyes every bit of the pouch, his eyes moving around looking for the perfect bite, and finally has a couple of pulls and slowly swims away.
I’ve ordered some masstick, and am still hoping that he’ll go for that as he grazes the rocks, but is there something else someone has found to get these guys eating more? I have a Tomini tang in my smaller tank and he ate only algae for about 6 weeks but now he’s first in line when I feed. Is it just an acclimation issue? The Emp seems calm and stress free, he just doesn’t seem to get that the stuff floating around at feeding time is edible.
I’ve never had a real issue with a non feeder except for the Tomini, and he was eating so much algae I wasn’t too concerned.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Grazing is a good sign.
best first food is live brine shrimp. If none. A small pinky nail of black worms
LRS herbivore diet is a great good as is Hikari angel formula

 

[timry2]

Dont worry, if he is grazing he is okay. Don’t stress when he turns on his side to look at food on the sand bed. Once he gets used to his new home he can be taught to eat out of your hand. I got mine as a 3 inch juvi and he is now 2 1/2 years old and eats everything.

 

[timry2]

This is my new build, moved from a 180 gallon in-wall to a 300 gallon peninsula.

 

[hoytoyed]

Dont worry, if he is grazing he is okay. Don’t stress when he turns on his side to look at food on the sand bed. Once he gets used to his new home he can be taught to eat out of your hand. I got mine as a 3 inch juvi and he is now 2 1/2 years old and eats everything.

When I fed tonight he tracked a piece of mysis all the way to the bottom, about a half inch from his mouth. I just knew he was going to eat it, but no, he just watched hit the sand and swam away. He’s not figured the food out yet, but he started on a fungia plate and was doing some damage til I moved it to another tank. Maybe I’ll get him some clams on the half shell.

 

[LaloJ]

Added a 3.5” juvenile Emporer Friday and while he begrudgingly ate a little frozen mysis in the LFS, he’s not yet eaten any offered frozen foods at home. He had only been at the LFS 2 days but as he was the perfect size and the price on him was rock bottom I decided to take the chance. He is grazing all day on the live rock and eats some nori, but he’s a slow methodical fish and his feeding habits are the same. He slowly swims around the live rock, and you can see his eyes darting around looking for a morsel, then finally takes a bite and moves slowly on. When he goes to the nori pouch he slowly eyes every bit of the pouch, his eyes moving around looking for the perfect bite, and finally has a couple of pulls and slowly swims away.
I’ve ordered some masstick, and am still hoping that he’ll go for that as he grazes the rocks, but is there something else someone has found to get these guys eating more? I have a Tomini tang in my smaller tank and he ate only algae for about 6 weeks but now he’s first in line when I feed. Is it just an acclimation issue? The Emp seems calm and stress free, he just doesn’t seem to get that the stuff floating around at feeding time is edible.
I’ve never had a real issue with a non feeder except for the Tomini, and he was eating so much algae I wasn’t too concerned.

The fish is beginning to discover what it is food and where it comes from, do not despair, it is just acclimatizing although to be honest I would never put a fish like this in the main tank without being in QT for at least 6 weeks, get food from LRS , are generally accepted by fish that are difficult to feed.

 

[hoytoyed]

Unfortunately I don’t have anywhere to keep a QT tank. I don’t think my wife will let me keep one in our dining room….I compensate by having a quality UV unit on each of my tanks, and feeding a variety of foods like LRS, Rod’s, PE mysis and Lifeline, and supplementing with Nori daily. The pros and cons of QT is a discussion for another thread.
I also think he will soon figure out that the stuff I’m putting in is food and this is just a period of acclimation. I was positive he was going to eat the mysis that floated to the bottom as interested and focused on it as he was. He didn’t, but maybe he will soon.

 

[i cant think]

Unfortunately I don’t have anywhere to keep a QT tank. I don’t think my wife will let me keep one in our dining room….I compensate by having a quality UV unit on each of my tanks, and feeding a variety of foods like LRS, Rod’s, PE mysis and Lifeline, and supplementing with Nori daily. The pros and cons of QT is a discussion for another thread.
I also think he will soon figure out that the stuff I’m putting in is food and this is just a period of acclimation. I was positive he was going to eat the mysis that floated to the bottom as interested and focused on it as he was. He didn’t, but maybe he will soon.

Do you have another smaller tank you can train him to eat in then move him over when he’s trained to eat frozen?

 

[hoytoyed]

Do you have another smaller tank you can train him to eat in then move him over when he’s trained to eat frozen?

I do but the competition would be greater there. That tank has a fox face that is greedy and the angel would be too slow to ever have a chance at anything

 

[i cant think]

I do but the competition would be greater there. That tank has a fox face that is greedy and the angel would be too slow to ever have a chance at anything

Is there any way you could have a bit of algae or something he can graze on on both sides of the tank? Just wedge it in between a rock maybe?

 

[hoytoyed]

Is there any way you could have a bit of algae or something he can graze on on both sides of the tank? Just wedge it in between a rock maybe?

He’s happily grazing on algae in the tank he’s in, and while he skipped eating the frozen again today, he is at the nori very frequently. Much more so than yesterday. I added a second pouch to the same magnet and he has his choice of green or purple seaweed.
He’s also using more areas of the tank. He had been really limiting himself to exploring just one side and now he’s exploring everywhere. I’ve also seen him eat some loose nori in the water column that one of the tangs pulled out, whereas before he wasn’t interested in anything that wasn’t on the rock or bottom. The masstick will be here Friday and I hope he’ll eat that if I stick it in the rock so he can graze on it. He seems more comfortable every day, so I’m hoping he’ll fully acclimate soon and go for the meaty treats.

 

[timry2]

That’s good news, he will learn from the other fish as to what to eat and when. He will be the last to come out to eat. Also try freeze dried krill

 

[hoytoyed]

It’s not that he won’t eat. He’ll eat, but it has to be appealing to him. He munched on a fungia plate that I had to remove to another tank, and I don’t think it’s going to survive. He was going at that big time. If the masstick doesn’t get him going I’ll get some clams, though keeping clams for one fish would really be a pain.