Captive bred juvenile multibar angels not eating

[jrmailo]

3 years after my battle to get a captive bred regal angel to eat, I am now having another battle with an even smaller captive bred multibar angel (~0.3”).

Last time, I released the regal directly into my DT and the regal was able to stay alive for 1 month exclusively by picking at live rocks before finally eating prepared food (at the time, I added another small fish to the tank and the regal was able to observe and learn how eat out of the water column)

This time around, due to the size of the fish, I decided to keep it in a 20 gallon observation tank with a few live rocks from the display. Also, I made sure to purchase another small fish (captive bred gold flake angel ~0.5” in the case) along with multibar. These 2 had since formed a buddy system and transverse the habitat together.

On the first day of arrival, the multibar did seem to have interest in food (picking at small pellets and frozen cyclopods). HOWEVER, since he found the live rocks, he became hyper focused on them and completely ignore everything else. He will glance or occasionally swim up to the food I offer (without actually eating them) and then ultimately go back to picking at the rocks.

Since he seems to like the rocks, I had tired sticking masstick on the rocks as well as squishing pellets into the rock crevices. But to no avail, he will NOT eat any of them.

As of now, I am slowing running out of live rocks to put in the observation tank. And I am worried that what I have won’t sustain him for long.

I have the option of removing the live rocks to maybe condition him onto prepared food again, but I am afraid of starving him further if he continues to be a picky eater.

I also have the option of releasing him into my display so he can continue to pick at rocks to his heart content. But at the moment, the multi bar is the size of my harlequin tusk’s mouth…

If anyone have an advice on very small angels, please let me know

 

[jrmailo]

More pictures

 

[ti_lavender]

Tagging @Biota_Marine for their help.

You could try freshly hatched brine shrimp and start transitioning the fish to frozen baby brine shrimp. Then you can continue the conditioning process to work all the way to pellets or other food you usually feed.

 

[Largeangels]

I second the freshly hatched brine shrimp and seeing if Biota can say what it was eating. Captive bred fish not eating for the first couple of days is not uncommon.

I conditioned a wild caught multibar. Fed it freshly hatched brine shrimp for 5-6 weeks and then got it to eat frozen brine shrimp and Golden Pearls pellets. A lot of smaller fish really seem to like the Golden Pearls better than some of the others.

 

[areefer01]

I do not have the small angel but I currently have several fish that I purchased directly from Biota that are all small upon arrival. They are, in no order, pink square anthias, gold lined rabbit, matted filefish, radial filefish, upside down goby, links goby, 11 lyretail damsels, and a milletseed butterfly fish. The milletseed and lyretails being the last ones introduced. Since I purchased direct some went directly into the display while others the refugium. Size and flow had more to do with it than anything else. Acclimation box was used but that even fooled me a few times as my pink squares are not the best at welcoming new family.

Anyway here is what I do and it may, or may not help. The first thing I do is look at Biota's page and see what it is eating and make sure I have that on hand. That is what I will start with. So whatever pellet, masstick, and frozen. Usually that works for me. Next up is my rotation. New fish, small, young, to me means they are going to forage, hug the reef, and want to eat a lot. So I feed small portions hourly. I will rotate through dry starting with what Biota uses then mine which is TDO x-small (size matters here, you may have to crush this also), TDO small, PE mysis small, then Hakari S, and another which I forget, sorry. This is when smaller tanks, isolation, work best as you can usually drop in and sit from a distance to see what they like. Note it and feed it while rotating through the others. The display can be fast especially with larger fish so healthier systems matter more to forage then the feeding frenzy.

Lastly I rotate 2 frozen feedings a day. This is using LRS nano (usually works due to size), LRS Reef, prime reef (I think that was the name, sorry), angel blend (has sponge), PE Calanus (usually works due to size), mysis (small), brine (small), and that is about it.

TL; DR - I believe young fish need mature rocks to forage and feel comfortable. I feed hourly. Small portions. Young fish especially. I have a variety of food, x-small pellets, crush some, feed, and watch. Note what they strike. Note what I see them keep down. Always feed that while rotating through the rest.

 

[F i s h y]

Additionally i would recommend supplementing pods into your 20 gallon. put them on auto order every few weeks until you can successfully get your angel to eat prepared or frozen.

 

[rebeccajst]

I also have a multibar that I received on July 1st. I started with the food on the biota page that they said it was eating with no luck. I started it on fresh hatched brine that I put in every morning and night, I also started giving it frozen food during the evening. Like yours mine mostly would pick at the rock that I put in the acclimation box.
After a week though it started to eat the frozen as well and now will both pick at the rock (where I assume brine is landing) and go after the frozen food. It is now it my display with other fish where it spends a lot of time picking at rock but will come out for frozen food when I feed the tank.
I’m still putting in fresh brine as all my fish seem to like hunting it in the morning.

 

[reeftwincities]

In my experience with tiny biota angels, frozen PE Calanus and spirulina brine shrimp usually does the trick. I would do small feedings 2-5x per day as well. Don't be afraid to feed and walk away from the tank and observe from afar so the fish feels comfortable.

 

[areefer01]

In my experience with tiny biota angels, frozen PE Calanus and spirulina brine shrimp usually does the trick. I would do small feedings 2-5x per day as well. Don't be afraid to feed and walk away from the tank and observe from afar so the fish feels comfortable.

Yep and if you have a Gopro or similar mount that up and let it record while out. Easier to see if it is shy.

 

[jrmailo]

Tagging @Biota_Marine for their help.

You could try freshly hatched brine shrimp and start transitioning the fish to frozen baby brine shrimp. Then you can continue the conditioning process to work all the way to pellets or other food you usually feed.

Emailing biota was the first thing I did. However they were half suggesting that I release the multi bar directly into the display. While I see their reasoning that this will give the multibar a mature and diverse habitat to get comfortable in, this is simply too risky in my opinion. First, the multibar is so tiny that there is a a good chance that I will never be able to find him nor will I be able to condition him onto prepared food ever again. Not to mention that the DT also host many large fishes which will no doubt outcompete and intimidate the multibar. To release a very very small fish (that's not eating) directly into a large tank is an irresponsible advice to me.

 

[jrmailo]

I second the freshly hatched brine shrimp and seeing if Biota can say what it was eating. Captive bred fish not eating for the first couple of days is not uncommon.

I conditioned a wild caught multibar. Fed it freshly hatched brine shrimp for 5-6 weeks and then got it to eat frozen brine shrimp and Golden Pearls pellets. A lot of smaller fish really seem to like the Golden Pearls better than some of the others.

I have a brine shrimp hatchery kit on the way!

 

[jrmailo]

Additionally i would recommend supplementing pods into your 20 gallon. put them on auto order every few weeks until you can successfully get your angel to eat prepared or frozen.

I have pods from algae barn coming tomorrow!

 

[jrmailo]

In my experience with tiny biota angels, frozen PE Calanus and spirulina brine shrimp usually does the trick. I would do small feedings 2-5x per day as well. Don't be afraid to feed and walk away from the tank and observe from afar so the fish feels comfortable.

I have tried calanus and spirulina brine with no luck so far. The brine is simply too big for his mouth and the calanus is ignored.

 

[jrmailo]

Good news the Multibar has started eating!

Today my TDO B2 pellet came in and it finally triggered a feeding response. Before, I had tried the TDO C1 and crushed-up version of C1 (to make them smaller) before but he was not interested in them.

Interestingly enough the crushed up TDO C1 pellets were approximately the same size or even smaller than the B2, but the multibar didn't eat them. He only swam up to inspect them before leaving.

So the lesson here I guess is that in addition the appropriate size of food, the shape of the food also matter. Possibly because they were conditioned to eat "round things" and not jagged /irregular shaped crushed up pellets.

 

[Biota_Marine]

Good news the Multibar has started eating!

Today my TDO B2 pellet came in and it finally triggered a feeding response. Before, I had tried the TDO C1 and crushed-up version of C1 (to make them smaller) before but he was not interested in them.

Interestingly enough the crushed up TDO C1 pellets were approximately the same size or even smaller than the B2, but the multibar didn't eat them. He only swam up to inspect them before leaving.

So the lesson here I guess is that in addition the appropriate size of food, the shape of the food also matter. Possibly because they were conditioned to eat "round things" and not jagged /irregular shaped crushed up pellets.

Glad to hear the multbar is starting to eat well for you. Sorry it took so long to settle in. The latest batch we shipped out was with us for a few months so they were eating well in their group but sometimes that can change in new environments as they readjust