acclimating potters angel

[Outerbank]

I bought a potters angel on September 30. I thought I would post my experience since threads have been posted about the difficulty to get this species to feed. Here is my first week experience.

At first my fish was reluctant to take food from the water column. He would occasionally mouth food, but would spit it out. It would then fall to the bottom and he would mouth and occasionally eat the pieces that fell to the bottom, preferring small pieces. He eventually became more aggressive eating off the bottom and now he more aggressively tankes food out of the water column. It is interesting, however, that the fish will still mouth and spit out food. It has taken him a week to immediately eat half the food, but he still takes his time spitting out the rest of the food many times before consuming all the remaining food. The fish is fat, as he now eventually consumes all the food that falls to the bottom of the tank. I am sure he will take more and more foods out of the water coliumn and I will be slowly adding different types of food while he is in the QT. The QT is set up as a basic 30 gallon BB tank with base rock, including some volcano rock with a hole drilled through it. He enjoys hiding and swimming through the holes and I feel this makes the fish more comfortable. He is eating PE mysis and bay scallops, all cut nto very small pieces. He is tolerating hyposalinity well and lights do not seem to bother the fish. The fish is very active and I don't think I would recommend a tank smaller than 30 gallons as a QT. Despite being active, in my limited experience, potters angels do not become thin very fast. This is a abig plus. They also like to nibble off the glass and rock which buys you more time. They may be pretty fat at the LFS and this may be due to the fish coming from Hawaii (since they are endemic to Hawaii, I assume this is where they are coming from.

It is interesting how similar his feeding response is compared with the 2 moorish idols I have owned. IMO, it is very important to quarentine fish that are difficult to eat.. Quarentining has as much to do with acclimation to feeding as it does with healing and treating illness. The small food pieces on the bottom of the tank are eventually eaten. When the fish become used to eating these morsels, they will begin to eat food out of the water column more aggressively. However, they usually will try the food first off the bottom. This is not possible, for the most part, in a DT with a lot of fish. I think it is also easier for the fish to eat off the bare bottom versus sand. The current in the tank will swirl the food, which promotes some interest from the fish to try the food.

HTHs, as it has worked for me numerous times I have acclimated a PBT, copperband butterfly, and 2 MIs to eating in the exact same manner. I have never lost one of these fish in quarentine and they all were aggressive eaters of anything I threw into the DT when they made it there. All the fish lived in my DT for 4 years or more until I moved across Texas and I gave everything to a friend except the MI. I lost the MI during the move as I crashed my new setup immediately after the move before the setup stabalized.

[sunfish11]

Thanks for taking the time to post your experience. Getting certain fish to eat can be a challenge and it is good to get first hand experiences of those who are successful. Sounds like you have a good system going. I always wanted a MI but I don't want it to pillage my reef and I am borderline overstocked as it is. Congrats on your sucess with them. I have been successful in a different manner. I don't qt difficult fish. I like to get them in the reef. I know that this is risky but it has worked for me.

I also got a potters angel a few weeks ago. I didn't quarantine her, I put her in my 210 display which has been established for 3+ years. For the first couple of weeks she ate off the walls and rocks and sampled the feces of the tangs. After a week or so she started feeding with the other fish. Monkey see Monkey do. I also have a copperband that I have had for two years and also didn't QT it. I started by feeding her live brine and then mixing the live brine with mysis. She began eating frozen in a few days. I supplement her diet with aiptasia from the sump. Whenever I get a new fish, expecially a difficult eater, I feed the tank up to 6 times throughout the day. Once the fish is eating they go back to the standard 2-3 times per day. I did the same thing with my anthias. I do think that seeing the other fish eat helps as well. None of these fish were eating at the LFS.

Lisa

[revaltion131]

I have noticed as Lisa has, that some fish do respond in a monkey-see, monkey-do manner. My clown is the only fish I have had that took to food immedeately. When I introduced new fish, they took a few days to come around. They would react to the scent in the water, but not place the food with the source. However, when they seemed to see the clown eating the food, they tried it and that was that.

I am setting up a QT for my new tank, but when it comes to introducing the difficult to feed species, I think I will put them right into the main tank (if they don't need treating) for the same reason the OP is putting them in QT. I want them to be able to go into an established system right away with a plentiful food source and hopefully a less-stressful environment. I'm planning on getting a Potter's for this new tank and I might go so far as to get a very small specimen and start it off in my 34, then catch and transfer when he/she is ready. But, we'll deal with that when we get there.

Thank you for sharing your experience Outerbank, it is definitly interesting and helpful to read the techniques of people that have been successful with difficult species.

[Outerbank]

Lisa and revaltion, that is great to hear and your technique has worked very well for you. When I place my "difficult" fish into the DT, they immediately become some of the most aggressive fish at feeding time, as they are already accustomed to the food and the "eat first or not eat" mentality is in full swing.

How do you like your potters? Mine seems very fiesty and it is very blue in the body, so I assume it is a male. LiveAquaia has an orange one for sale which is likey a female. I am tempted to buy it to try and see if they will pair up.

[Outerbank]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13504545#post13504545 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sunfish11
I always wanted a MI but I don't want it to pillage my reef and I am borderline overstocked as it is.
Lisa

I am shocked that my new MI (2 months old today) hasn't touched a LPS or my clam. I am theorizing this is because I really managed to get this one to eat everything, like a pig, very fast and while it was very young. It has never been thin. It his grown 3/8 to 1/2 inch already. MI become thin very quickly, thus I strongly recommend my technique for MIs and I think people will be shocked as to how successful they can be with a MI. They will also likely have ick and have an outbreak, thus another reason to quarentine a MI.

[sunfish11]

I have a coral beauty in the tank that has been there for 3 years, so we know he is a male. The potters I got appears to be a smaller female. I was interested to see how he would react to the potters and he didn't mind her at all which surprised me because he was chasing around the new wrasse (introduced at the same time). He was the first to bully my new tangs and other fish as well. Interestingly enough he would ease up to her and they appeared to display to each other. They arched their bodies in a funny way and wiggled around. It looks like those two might pair up....who knows. At first the potters was pretty shy but now she is out in the open quite a bit. She has taken a few bites out of a acan bowerbanki so I will probably have to move that coral to a different tank. I am letting her nibble a little for now as no major damage has been done. I think it would be really neat if the Coral Beauty and Potters paired up.

Lisa

[sunfish11]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13504870#post13504870 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Outerbank
I am shocked that my new MI (2 months old today) hasn't touched a LPS or my clam. I am theorizing this is because I really managed to get this one to eat everything, like a pig, very fast and while it was very young. It has never been thin. It his grown 3/8 to 1/2 inch already. MI become thin very quickly, thus I strongly recommend my technique for MIs and I think people will be shocked as to how successful they can be with a MI. They will also likely have ick and have an outbreak, thus another reason to quarentine a MI.

That is great! I also find that well fed fish don't tend to pick at coral. I haven't seen the potters pick at the acan since she started eating frozen. Hopefully she has quit. I have a lot of LPS and a crocea clam as well. I will try a MI someday, but I just don't have room to try one now. When I do I will probably do it your way.

It is a bit off the subject, but my CBB killed all my snails. About a year into her new life she started biting the eyeballs off them. I now have a large reef with no snails in it. I take that back, I have one, a giant turbo that is approaching baseball size after 4 years. He is too big for the CBB to kill. I also have a fighting conch left that is smart enough to tuck his eyes in when the copperband comes around. Have you ever seen this behavior? The reef is fine without the snails though, the big snail, hermits, and the tangs take care of everything.


Lisa

[Outerbank]

Lisa, I had my CBB for about 4 years and I never saw it pick at a snail. I had probaby thousands of unidentified very small snails on my rocks and DSB and only 2 turbos, that was it.

My CBB would only eat frozen food and aptasia. I couldn't train it to take flakes.

[sunfish11]

Yes, my CBB doesn't eat flakes/pellets either, nor does my Achilles tang. I don't know why the achilles wont touch them, all the other fish/tangs eat them. I like to feed flakes or pellets for breakfast.

My CBB killed about 50 small turbos. They don't do well without eye stalks, LOL.

Lisa

[Outerbank]

Lisa, that is a neat pattern of behavior with your potters and coral beauty. Like you said, that would be one real cool pair. I always wondered how hybrids were introduced to the hobby.

[Toddrtrex]

One thing that I have noticed about my Potter's is that it appears that they have smaller mouths compared to other dwarfs of the same size. Lucky for me mine started eating prepared foods right away, but would always go for the smaller pieces. To this day it stills tries to eat the bigger ones, but always spits them out. Doesn't seem to have any problems with Spectrum pellets, or Rod's Food.

As for picking on corals, mine has never touched any of my SPS, Clams, acan, zoas, or my Haddoni anemones. Have had him for just over 10 months now.

[Outerbank]

Well, I have sad news to report. I lost my potters after 18 days, of which 13 were in hyposalinity. I am not sure why he died. I was away for a day and came back and he was dead. I was a little worried as he was eating less aggressively and more shy for the last 36 hours before I left. He was eating 3 different flakes, scallops, and mysis shrimp. No signs of illness. I would hate to think I had a mild ammonia spike. I checked nitrates one week after I found him dead and the were 5-10.

I am posting because I am not sure hyposalinity is the way to go when treating a potters. He had no visible spots when I bought him and I debated on treating him. So much so, that I took 4-5 days to lower the salinity. He was picking off the rocks until I finally lowered the salinity completely. At 1.0095 SG, all the algae had died (not much to begin with). I checked my refractometer with RODI and calibrated fluid and it was right for both tests. No signs of flukes as I FW dipped prior to placing in quarentine. I am sad to see him die as I seldom have fish die. He was eating well and very fat.

[BigJay]

That's sad news, I hope you will try again sometime. These really are amazing fish.

Mine just started eating prepared foods this last weekend. I just about jumped for joy when he ate his first bits of chopped clam.

[revaltion131]

I'm sorry to hear that Outerbank. By far the worst death has to be a healthy, fat fish from a species whose usual problem is food. Hopefully the problem wasn't something you did, but was shipping stress. I also hope that you will try again.

I ordered a tiny Potter's since I posted and s/he is less than two inches and doing very well so far. I did a FW dip for flukes and got nothing. The angel arrived very healthy, active, and in great shape. I got the little guy from Vivid Aquariums and so far, would definitly recommend looking at them if you decide to do it via online sources.

The fish actually took to pellets before anything else, about four days in. I had a nori sheet in the tank, pellets, and fed my mysis/cyclops mix. It is in my 34 right now and will be moving on to the 65 in a few months. I'm hoping to be at at least 4 months on the 65, but it all depends on how quickly the angel grows. I am overfeeding a bit, but I want to make sure the fish gets ample food in the smaller tank. S/he has actually gotten a little thicker and is visibly growing.

[ahayes13]

aww... sorry bout the potters.

[sunfish11]

Well, I am very sorry to hear about your potters angel. I can't imagine what the issue was.

revaltion131, good luck with yours.