Need Angelfish information/advice please

[holbritter]

I've been looking for info about my baby angels, but usually end up at sites that are mainly for breeding. I'm not interested in breeding, just raising the ones I have.
I'm trying to find out about how old dime to nickle sized marbles might be.
I'm also trying to figure out how much to feed these guys. I have 4 of them. I feel like I'm starving them, but the alge growth proves otherwise! When I sprinkle the flakes in (I crush them very small) one or two of them come up and pick once or twice, and that's it! So I'm left with food floating up top for over 5 minutes.

My honey gourami, which is just a tiny bit bigger than my angels, doesn't seem to eat at all! At least, not when I'm looking.

Soooo....I need help understanding their feeding/eating habits. Very curious and fun little guys/gals (don't know which yet)

Oh, I also just bought some freeze dried bloodworms, and they didn't seem too interested in them either.

TIA!!

[Lady Hobbs]

I have 9 angels and they are furious eaters. It takes a while for the adult angels to come to the top and are more pickie about what they eat but the juvies are faster and grab everything. Adults also need less food. I fed mine 3 times a day and also give their blood worm "treats" sometimes after a meal maybe twice a week.

They do not eat pellets, floating cichlid food or dried shrimp. If I put a romaine lettuce leaf in the bottom of the tank under a rock, they go right after it. Adults don't touch that either.

The ones you mention are probably 6-7 weeks old. I've noticed the wild silvers grow at an alarming rate and are 3/4 the size of the adults in 4 months. They will be a year old before becoming interesting in mating or 14 months, thereabout.

Like you, I am not really interested in mating but I know it will happen eventually with 9 of these guys. All the separating them and dealing with fry is something I don't know if I want to bother with but it might be fun once time to watch the process. But, having 100 angels is somewhere I don't want to go.

I originally bought 2 that were said to be a pair. No way of knowing this unless they were seen mating. They got along wonderfully together and then all the lip locking and sparring started so I separated them. I have felt so bad for my largest (and prettiest) to be stuck alone without social content but each time I returned him to the other angel, here they'd go again.

They are now all together due to me trying to organize tanks and getting them planted and after the initial mouth locking they are fine together but the largest is going after the juvies. All this behavior tells me they are indeed male and female so who knows what will happen but they have never made an attempt to mate and have been together several times.

Due to having no LPS around me and no great foods to chose from, mine have been fed Tetra Total flakes since the beginning. They did not care for the Warbles. I also use the large flakes so they remain at the top longer. They bite off what they want and they don't mess up the bottom of the tank so quickly.

I have noticed, also, that the gold and marbles have a slower growth spurt than the silvers but now at 3 months are catching up rapidity.

My pic will show how the size of the juvies and female (?) compare to size already. She is on the lower right and as you can see, nearly all the same size already.

I would keep them on flake food you know they like and the other stuff is strickly "treats." Blood worms should not be given more than a couple times a week and only after they have already eaten their regular food.

Keep temps at 80-82. They will stop eating if stressed, as well, so possibly they don't have enough room, are bothered by another fish, food is grabbed from them by others or they are intimated by others and are afraid to go after it. Being much smaller than others may also be intimating them. Often angels are kept in grow out tanks before being put with others for this reason.

PS......mine eat no algae.

EDITED 20 TIMES!

[holbritter]

Thanks hobbs! I just knew you would show up :)

I have 9 angels and they are furious eaters. It takes a while for the adult angels to come to the top and are more pickie about what they eat but the juvies are faster and grab everything.

The ones you mention are probably 6-7 weeks old.

Mine are not eating like that at all! Now I'm really worried. They only have the baby honey gourami to contend with (which is the same size as them), and they seem to get along fine. At the time of this reply, I still have food floating on the top!!

Will they starve?

Going to do my weekly water change right now....will be back shortly.

[Lady Hobbs]

Their temps are very, very important and the higher temps promote their appetitie. What temp is your tank?

Fish can be odd and given too much meat products will shy them away from regular flake food but you say yours are eating not much of anything. What kind of flake food are you giving them? It sounds like they just plain don't like it.

I noticed, too, your siggie says "lots of bubbles". Angels don't like lots of bubbles and like quiet still water. I have a bubble wand in my tank, as well, but have it only on the far end so they can get away from it. They don't even go to that end! lol I also have to keep the tank full to the top to stop current from the filter.

[holbritter]

I have the temp at 76 and I'm feeding the TetraMin ProCare Tropical Flakes. I just started trying the bloodworms yesterday, so I don't think they got "spoiled" by that.

Yes, I thought about the bubbles the other day too, so I turned them down. Since it's a hex tank, there wasn't really a lot of room for them to get away from it. It didn't change their eating (or non-eating) habits, but it did bring them out to the rest of the tank more. I'm keeping it on low from now on.

Except for the eating, they seem perfectly fine, and all my water parameters are good. I don't know....I'm at a loss, but will try anything.

Thanks for your help :)

[Lady Hobbs]

Bring those temps up. Six degrees might make a world of difference here. Fish metabolism slows way down when not in the correct temps. I have a feeling you also are not seeing much activity from them.

[holbritter]

Thanks Hobbs...I will try that.

Your not going to believe this, but I just noticed my baby honey gourami staying near the top of the tank for a long time, which is odd, she never did that before....I quickly tested the water, after I did a 50% water change just this morning, and my ammonia is way up!!!

I panicked and started changing to the water again....while doing that I tested my tap water, and their is ammonia in it!! It was NEVER there before! I'm leaving the tank 1/2 empty, because I don't want to put more in and starting a new thread for help.

What a terrible day!

[Lady Hobbs]

I just responded to your other thread and yes, this is not good. If there is a store near you, you could pick up some bottled water for now until you see what in heck is happening. Does your well water go thru a cleansing system at all before reaching the house? If so, perhaps the problem is there and it needs salt or something.