My New Angel

[Mike612]

I was driving to my lfs today with the idea of adding a new dwarf angel to my tank. I was thinking particularly about the Golden Angel. As you all know, it's an uncommon fish, not horribly hard to find, but not-so-easy either. I was thinking the entire time that I was driving that the lfs will have a Golden Angel. I finally got there and I'm looking around and sure enough, there were 3 small Golden Angels there

I looked at all 3 of them. The first one was hiding behind a filter intake and refusing to come out. The second was much more adventurous and was coming out into the open. It was also shy, but it was leaving its corner so that was a good sign. It was showing that it was alert. The third one I didn't even notice until the owner at the lfs pointed it out to me, but it was showing similar behavior to the first one I saw.

I checked to see if any of them were eating, particularly the second one I looked at because it looked like the best of the bunch so far. The owner put some frozen brine into the tanks. The first and third Golden Angels that I looked at showed no interest. The second one was swimming away from it at first but then took a couple of bites.

No signs of disease. It was eating. It was venturing out. All signs said take it so that's exactly what I did. I chose not to quarantine this fish because I feared it wouldn't do well in there. It was added directly to the main tank. It's been in there for about 3 hours now. It is adjusting very well. It was hiding at first, but it is already venturing out into the open and checking me out as I watch him. Nobody is picking on him. He seems to be very alert of his surroundings and is grazing on the algae in the tank

 

[Anonymous]

Oooh. You do know that we'll want pictures now, don't you?

 

[Mike612]

He still needs to get used to me. I tried taking a couple of pictures last night, but he kept on swimming away. He's probably afraid of the camera... I will definitely post some pictures of this guy when he lets me get a couple of decent shots though! Really beautiful fish though. I can't remember the last time I saw such a small and colorful Golden Angel

 

[Mike612]

Update (now that the lights are on and I can actually see him): He refused frozen mysis today, but he's still grazing all over the tank. He seems to like my Swissguard Basslet. They're sharing a cave and have become good roomies. No signs of ich or anything along those lines.

Minus the fact that he's not eating prepared foods in my tank yet, he's doing well. I think he'll be ok if he just continues to graze in the mean time.

 

[Anonymous]

Tagging along for the pics.... :wink:

 

[Mike612]

Sorry, he's still afraid of my camera!

He's still not eating the frozen foods I'm throwing in for him, at least I don't think he is... I fed him some formula one this morning. He didn't go after it while it was flying around but he was going nuts picking at the rocks after it all settled down. It's possible he was picking at the formula one. He could also just be picking at the algae and pods like he's been doing since I put him in there though. I'm not worrying yet though. He still looks amazing and he seems to really enjoy his new home.

 

[Len]

I had one for a long time, and it always stayed shy It made seeing it in the tank that much more of a special event!

 

[Mike612]

My little guy's always out so it's even more special for me because I know how shy they're supposed to be

 

[Anonymous]

If you want to turn him into a friend for life, get some brine shrimp eggs and make up a batch of newly hatched brine shrimp- you will be surprised how easy it is! Feed him withing 48 hours of the shrimp hatching- while they are still full of nutrients. Just syphon off some of the midwater in the hatch container and put it in the tank.(Unhatched eggs sink to the bottom, cysts ,used hatched shells float on the surface, avoid both.) Your corals and your new angel will be forever indebted to you!

 

[Mike612]

I was actually considering that a couple of days ago, but I'm actually really determined to get him to eat frozen foods. The biggest issue I think is that he doesn't recognize those floating pieces of whatever as food. He thinks it's going to attack him so he swims into a cave to protect himself until it settles down to the ground lol. You gotta love weird fish like that!

I've been feeding him small meals with various types of food, that way I can introduce him to a bunch of different foods in a short amount of time. If he's not eating by Friday morning, I'll go get those brine shrimp eggs. Thank god he grazes all day and it still as fat as a horse. I'd worry if he just stayed in a cave and did nothing.

 

[Mike612]

This is the best shot I can get for now. I know it's blurry and horrible, but it's all I've got. Ignore the blurry Black Clown. She insists on being in every picture I take in that tank

 

[leftovers]

i'm jealous...id add one but i have a 13 yo coral beauty that's been in my tank since i started it...

 

[Mike612]

That's amazing though! A 13 year old angelfish is very special. It means you're doing a good job of taking care of it. Hopefully my Golden Angel will live to be that old if not older.

 

[Mike612]

The angel's still resisting the prepared foods tonight. I tried something a little different tonight with the feeding. I noticed that it's been eating copepods off the walls of the aquarium. Since he's going for food that small, I decided to try feeding him a little daphnia. I mixed it up with a little mysis shrimp also. He swam away from the food as it was floating around, but then went nuts picking at the rocks. I'm sure he was eating the daphnia amongst other things that he can find. I also saw him playing with a piece of mysis shrimp also. There was a piece stuck to the filter intake and I saw him just take a bite out of the back of the shrimp, but he didn't actually eat the rest of it. That's a good sign though! He's slowly learning!

Another update regarding this angel and the Swissguard Basslet: they're still sharing a cave and the Swissguard Basslet is now much more daring since I added the angel. I've had this basslet since this past October and I was honestly lucky to see it once a week. The basslet seems to like the angel and it follows him around, but only around their cave. Now I can actually see the beautiful colors on the basslet, until he notices me, then he runs away . I've kept basslets in the past but I've never known them to establish relationships like this with other fish. I'm impressed. I just wish I could get a picture of him too...

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the pic! Blurry, but I can see how nicely colored it is. 8)

 

[jamesw]

Looks like a great golden angel. I used to have one back in the 90's but then it started picking on my clams to the point of killing them :-( It is a beautiful fish, but not worth the risk to me.

I tried EVERYTHING to catch him. Eventually I just took out the rock piece by piece. Eventually I did find the fish wedged WAAAAAY back in one of the rocks. Man that was a hard fish to remove.

Cheers
James

 

[Mike612]

He's learning how to eat prepared foods faster than I anticipated . I've been mixing up a bit of daphnia and other foods at every meal because I know he likes bite-sized foods. After I put the daphnia in, I was never sure if he went for it because he hid from the food while it was floating around, but then went nuts picking at the rocks. Tonight I fed him the usual bit of daphnia and krill. I saw him pick at some daphnia in the water column (finally), not only off the rocks, and I'm pretty sure I saw him chase a piece of krill, but he didn't eat it. At least he's showing some interest though. In a few days though, maybe even by tomorrow, I'm sure he'll be a pro!

 

[Mike612]

I threw in some daphnia again this morning and he went for it with gusto! I wasn't 100% pleased though to see that of all the things that I give him, that's what he's eating. The other two fish that he's with in the tank don't eat the daphnia, so I decided to throw in some formula two about a half hour later. Sure enough, he went for that too! The only issue was that he only ate the small pieces. When I say small pieces, let me remind you that he's eating daphnia, so we're talking small pieces like that. He spat out bigger pieces.

He's only been in captivity for a week and he's eating and he's always out swimming. I definitely got a good one!

I just want to say thanks to everyone for their suggestions on how to get him eating and also for their support. I promise to put up more pictures when I have a chance. I'll try to get some that aren't too blurry

 

[Anonymous]

Glad to hearMike!!! Keep the updates and the eye candy coming!!!

 

[Gaffes]

Congrats. This is a beautiful fish...