I imagine like most fish, the large angels' growth is significantly slower as they get larger, since these fish live an extraordinarily long time. An 8-10 inch asfur or scribbled is very rare because of this I'd guess.
I imagine there's a big difference in growth between being grown out in a rearing vat versus a full blow reef tank. Also, depending on facility size, it might cost them to hold up valuable space that could be used to breed more of the species that move quicker. That might not apply to Poma because they only work with a few species, but Biota works with at least a dozen or more at once.
That's the weirdest part: the inconsistency. They all generally come from the place (Bali Aquarich), but whoever the middle men happen to be seems to make a difference.
I believe he got all of them from Biota.
Biota seems to take the extra step to at least train them on pellets. Like I said before, the multibar I got from them ate pellets before anything else, even live baby brine. Makes me wonder what the original breeders have them on, that's what kills me about losing these fish more than anything (although the cost does sting).
Their broodstock tanks wouldn’t be the same as holding. Not growth so much. What I’m after is sustained, consistent diet. Sure, it would be less beneficial on cost. But how many of those dozen or so fish command a $500 price tag? Or half? With 6K + of square footage, They can spare a few tanks for fish that need a little extra rearing time.
Did you try switching the reef beauties guy back to baby brine?
Just for another data point I have another thread but I got two muiltibar and one Goldflake from biota and literally in 2 hours every one was eating tdo and new life spectrum x small pellets. I had fresh hatched bbs and frozen but they mostly ignored those for the pellets.
I tried it but she never really took to it again. It's frustrating because out of the three I had, two died from what seems to be starvation because they would only take nibbles of certain foods and then ignore the rest of those same foods, like they lost interest or didn't like the flavor.
That’s the tricky part with these tiny specimens. There’s no fat reserves for them to fall back on, if they happen to get an upset stomach or something. That happened to my Regal a few times. Sometimes it’s just a case of the fish having an upset stomach were they don’t eat for up to 10 days. But if they don’t have fat reserves to fall back on, they start drawing on their liver for nutrition and that’s pretty much the beginning of the end. Sorry about your loss dude.
Indeed. Very frustrating, especially after I've gone through so many wild individuals trying everything to get them to survive, I thought these little ones would be my dream come true. Seems to be only occasionally more successful.
If I may offer a recommendation in the event you want to give it another go. If you get them eating something, whatever it is, stay with it for a while before you wean them onto other food. Try to fatten them up with what works. Good luck in the future. I’ve always loved raising tiny Angelfish.
I do have another multibar, probably my last unless this one actually eats with any gumption. From Quality Marine. While I understand the suggestion, it's not like I'm swapping foods daily. If I notice a fish eating one food, I'll offer it daily in addition to other things to see what else piques their interest. I figure offering multiple things during feeding time gets the brain working, like, "hey, this stuff showed up when food showed up, maybe it's food," kinda thinking. I tried to start the previous multies on live baby brine at first, then mixing in things like arctipods and calanus, but even with the pure brine they never seemed to stuff themselves. Maybe I need to culture rotifers or something, I don't know.
If the fish are not aggressively, frantically eating the live baby brine, then they are not healthy. If you see that, you should address it with the supplier.
That's the thing, all three came from different places. One from Biota, one from Reef Beauties, and this newest one from Quality Marine. I assume they all come from Bali Aquarich, which means it would have to be an issue with these middlemen. Of course, Reef Beauties considers the fish Expert Only which means you're on your own after it arrives. Biota has a week-long guarantee, which usually means if it takes longer than a week to starve to death then that's on you. And Quality Marine is a wholesaler, so if it arrives alive, it's no longer in their hands.
