Swallowtail Angel stopped eating after almost 30 days

andrewkw · Nov 24, 2018

I debated putting this in the disease vs fish discussion. 33 days ago I got a small female swallowtail angel and a small female blue throat trigger. First they went through TTM and they have been in a 10g qt since then. Instead of switching tanks I've been doing 50-75% water changes to maintain water quality plus a sponge filter.

Initially the fish ate really well and it was the trigger that was more shy. Now the trigger eating really well and for at least 3 days the angel has not eaten. There does not appear to be anything physically wrong. They were treated with prazipro twice in addition to the ttm. The prazi had no noticeable effect on either of their appetites.

I basically feed everything so it's not a food quality issue. LRS, pe mysis,calanus, fish eggs, even tried brine to see if that would make a difference.

Fish is acting fine, active, swimming, using the pvc pipes to hide and appears to swim around when food is added but doesn't even look at it. To be fair it's possible she has eaten just hasn't gone after food when I've been watching a couple of times I did overfeed but it's more likely the trigger just ate everything after I stopped watching.

Any suggestions? I could remove the trigger to make it easier to monitor the angel, or even more her to the reef but I'm less inclined to do that until I see her eat. I could also move her to a 55g tank that is a coral overflow / frag tank that has lots of live rock / live food but I'd rather not only because I will likely have to tear that tank down to get her out.

Flippers4pups · Nov 24, 2018

andrewkw said:
I debated putting this in the disease vs fish discussion. 33 days ago I got a small female swallowtail angel and a small female blue throat trigger. First they went through TTM and they have been in a 10g qt since then. Instead of switching tanks I've been doing 50-75% water changes to maintain water quality plus a sponge filter.

Initially the fish ate really well and it was the trigger that was more shy. Now the trigger eating really well and for at least 3 days the angel has not eaten. There does not appear to be anything physically wrong. They were treated with prazipro twice in addition to the ttm. The prazi had no noticeable effect on either of their appetites.

I basically feed everything so it's not a food quality issue. LRS, pe mysis,calanus, fish eggs, even tried brine to see if that would make a difference.

Fish is acting fine, active, swimming, using the pvc pipes to hide and appears to swim around when food is added but doesn't even look at it. To be fair it's possible she has eaten just hasn't gone after food when I've been watching a couple of times I did overfeed but it's more likely the trigger just ate everything after I stopped watching.

Any suggestions? I could remove the trigger to make it easier to monitor the angel, or even more her to the reef but I'm less inclined to do that until I see her eat. I could also move her to a 55g tank that is a coral overflow / frag tank that has lots of live rock / live food but I'd rather not only because I will likely have to tear that tank down to get her out.

As you may already know, they are more omnivore than herbivore. They will eat plankton out of the water collum in the wild.

Could be stress related from the trigger in such a small tank. I'd at least separate them to see if that helps.

Big G · Nov 24, 2018

+1 ^^^ exactly

Flippers4pups said:
Could be stress related from the trigger in such a small tank. I'd at least separate them to see if that helps.

You could try placing some eggcrate between the fish and then give it a few days.

andrewkw · Nov 24, 2018

Yes I am aware. This is not my first genicanthus angel. I've actually switched to a pack of herbavor lrs. In my experience though most if not all onmivours will eat protein based foods over plant based when given the choice. My use of fish eggs / brine was just to stimulate an eating response.

You guys may be onto something as far as the trigger. I have not seen them fight but the angel spends more time in the pvc and the trigger spends more time in the open when it was initially reversed. The pvc is a Y so they can both hide and not be beside each other.

HotRocks · Nov 24, 2018

The only concerning thing is that it was eating well and has slacked off. This is usually not a good sign. If separating them does not allow the fish to pick back up eating does not help let us know. You have recieved great advice.

This is the difficult part of QTing fish. There could be something going on that is not visible with external symptoms. Keep a close eye on the fish and watch for behavioral symptoms.

andrewkw · Nov 25, 2018

So I transferred the angel to her own 10 gallon last night and waited until today to feed and she's eating again. I'll give her a few days to eat and they should be good to go in my display. Both are quite small and roughly the same size so I was a bit surprised to see this was it but you guys were right. Glad I posted instead of just trying to figure it out on my own.

I almost moved the trigger into display but just in case it was something I just moved the angel into her own qt.

The plan is for them to go into my 5 foot 112 gallon but if it turns out the trigger does have some kind of vendetta against the angel I do have a 90 gallon one of them could go in.