Painted angler lives on my powerhead

jasonrusso · Oct 7, 2017

Let me start by saying this isn't really a problem because no one is sick or dying, this is a situation. I got a painted black angler a few months ago. He was about 2", now maybe 2.5." He made it through QT just fine, he was eating off a stick within 4 days and is very healthy.

The QT was a 10 gallon with a HOB filter and foam filter. He spent most of his time sitting on the foam filter or at the top of the tank on a thermometer. He quickly learned that is where the food comes from so he would wait there and "fish" at me whenever I entered the room.

He made it to the DT (210 gallon) a couple weeks ago. He eating the next day and spent the first week walking around the rocks. The DT is a much higher flow, but he seemed to be doing fine. I have a lot of caves so he could always find the lower flow areas.

Last Saturday I came home from work and couldn't locate him. After a couple hours, I found him perched on top of my Tunze powerhead. The powerhead was running at the time. I turned it off because it is a higher flow Tunze and I didn't want him to get stuck to the side.

So, that was a week ago!! On Tuesday I saw him on the sand walking around but he was back up on the powerhead a couple hours later. I tried pushing him off (gently of course) but he wasn't having it. He has been eating normally (I can hand feed him there) and seems content.

Now, hopefully this isn't permanent? Hopefully he will get over this new fad. I can barely see him, lol. I also can't turn the powerhead on because I don't want to hurt him. I guess it really isn't up to me as long as he's happy. I hope as he grows he will run out of space and relocate himself. I also wonder if this is learned behavior from the QT tank because that is where I fed him there as well.

This is him in the QT tank.

lion king · Oct 7, 2017

That's what most anglers do when you hand feed them . They find the spot where they are being fed and pretty much become an ornament. I've witnessed anglers that I never saw in any other spot from where they get use to feeding, and never physically saw them move. He has no purpose other than to wait for you to feed him.

LobsterOfJustice · Oct 7, 2017

Yeah I think the obvious answer here is stop feeding him in that spot

jasonrusso · Oct 8, 2017

So today he came down again right around feeding time. After I fed the others (It wasn't a food day for him) he returned to his perch.

@lion king You say they become an ornament. Isn't that what anglers do anyway? On the reef, do you think an angler would keep moving around after it found an easy source of food?

lion king · Oct 8, 2017

@lion king You say they become an ornament. Isn't that what anglers do anyway? On the reef, do you think an angler would keep moving around after it found an easy source of food?

Yeah but if they are hunting for food in the tank they are much more active. You will find them cruising around quite often, finding different positions to scout out the tank. When you acclimate a couple/few mollies from time to time it keeps them stimulated and you can watch them lure and plot. When their tank becomes a hunting ground, like a ghostie that just pops out from behind a rock they are much more interesting to watch. I just believe these guys need a live diet or they should be left in the ocean. To put these guys in a glass cage and feed them from stick is just not doing them any justice. If you have only seen anglers that are being stick fed, you've never really seen how interesting they can be. Eventually you will likely never see him move, and he will likely always be in the same spot. Then more times than not they lose interest in eating all together, usually within just several months. There will be exceptions of course, I've just never seen any.