Feeding Angels?

[scottracy]

Picked up a three barred gold marbled angels Wednesday. These are my very first angels. Only one of the three has eaten anything. I know they can be picky eaters and you must vary the diet. I'm thinking that its just new tank confusion for lack of a better way to describe it. They appear healthy and not stressed. Just not interested in food. Any thoughts from the experts. Thanks!

Scott

[Blinky]

I am by no means any kind of expert, but I do have one very sassy angel so maybe I can offer a bit of help ;)
My guy isn't picky, but then again I feed a pretty varied diet and he's still young so there's plenty of time, lol.
I find he really enjoys freeze-dried blood worms, bits of freeze-dried krill, and for some reason he goes nuts for the spirulina flakes I feed my platys & swords. He also picks at the Hikari bottom feeder and algae wafers I put in, and he'll eat staple flakes but he's never thrilled with them. Any time I find a gnat in the house and can catch it I throw it in for him and he goes absolutely bonkers :D
If you feel so inclined, I'd love to see a picture of your new guys - angels are, IMHO, some of the most beautiful fish there are.

[scottracy]

They are suppose to develop a strong orange/gold crown when they mature. This is the one that is eating well. I could not get them all together. The other two hang out together more. Thanks for the food advice. I will pick some stuff up today. Do you know anything about live black worms or brine shrimp? SCOTT
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~scottracy/fish/angel11_06.jpg

[125gJoe]

scottracy,
From that pic, it looks like a young Angel Fish. Feeding thawed out brine shimp would be fine....
I've heard that older fish do not benefit from brine shrimp, since the shrimp are very "fatty" when it comes to nutrition.

(Angel Fish are another absolute favorite of mine..!)

[Dangerdoll]

Angels are a favorite of mine too! Whenever I had a picky eater amongst the bunch, I found the frozen blood worms always did the trick over anything else. If you're having trouble with flakes, you could also try cichlid pellets, sometimes it's not what it is, but what form it's in. ;)

[biogirl361]

my angelfish usually eats flakes, now and then when he gets stressed he will refuse to eat, but sometimes i can tempt him to eat some frozen brine shrimp. no experience with the bloodworms. even when he is healthy i have never been able to convince him to eat cichlid pellets (unfortunate, because i have a whole can of them that i can't use since my cichlids died a while ago.)

[Blinky]

I don't have experience feeding live foods (other than the occasional insect), but I agree that frozen foods are a good thing to try - most fish go crazy for frozen blood worms.
You can get brine shrimp eggs at most LFSs and hatch them yourself, if you've got the inclination. I've never tried it, but some people swear by brine shrimp, especially for young fish. Sometimes picky eaters want something that wiggles; brine shrimp fit the bill nicely. A very nutritious, often free, live food is earthworms - you can buy them or dig them up, keep them in the fridge between damp newspaper for a day to let them expel the dirt in their digestive tract, and then (if they're too large) cut them into manageable pieces. A long time ago I had baby oscars, I used to dig for ages until I found a few very small worms so they'd have a treat that they could actively hunt.
I should have mentioned that I use my angel as livebearer population control - about once a month a platy gives birth to ~20 fry and for a few days, he eats like a king. He doesn't always catch them all, but about 90% of the fry born in my tank are destined to become angel snacks. If you have access to fry, I'm willing to bet your angels' hunger strike would end pretty quickly!

[scottracy]

Picked up a variety of frozen food last night. Got home too late so I will test it out today. I seemingly always have platy fry in my other 2 tanks but I would be voted out of the house by my wife and children if I purposefully sacrificed any!! Thanks for the advice.

Scott

[Gunnie]

It sounds like you are doing everything right to get your new angels to eat. I got 7 angel babies from a trusted friend and breeder (6 koi and 1 sunset blusher), and they didn't eat for 2 days! I was panicking! My friend along with other fishie friends all told me that they are just getting used to their surroundings, and not to worry yet. On the 3rd day, they were all eating like pigs! I feed them Omega One (http://www.omegasea.net) color flakes as their staple, Omega One veggie flakes at least once a week, Omega One veggie rounds at least once a week, freeze dried bloodworms, freeze dried brine shrimp, tubifex worms (Hikari), and some store brand concoctions from The Fish Store (http://www.fishstoretn.com). I think your new babies will be just fine! ;)