tips for feeding an angler fish

smitty65 · 04-01-2007, 05:55 AM

I recently purchased an antennarius (sp). I saw him eat a large piece of krill at my LFS before buying. We also bought a leaf fish at the same time. That one ate 2 ghost shrimp yesterday and wanted nothing to do with the one I put in front of him today. My concern is the angler. I tried krill, silversides and squid this morning with no success. Are there any tricks to get him to eat? I don't want to take him back to the LFS but I will if I can't get him to eat. I refuse to watch a fish die by starvation.

JustPhish · 04-01-2007, 06:57 AM

First don't overfeed. It may be that it's just not hungry. They don't normally get to eat every day in the wild.

It also might be having a hard time adjusting to your aquarium which can be expected. If worse comes to worst, I would bit the bullet and try and elicit a feeding response with live food. If at all possible use a damsel. It might take some time retraining it to take prepared foods again but it's better then letting it starve.

Whenever I had angler fish and it was feeding time I would hold what I was feeding at the surface of the water and gently move it around until the angler got his little "fishing pole" going. Then I'd let it go and while it floated down the angler would strike.

Good luck.

smitty65 · 04-03-2007, 02:58 AM

I finally got him to eat yesterday. I guess it was more like "force feeding". It had been 4 days since he last ate and, as small as he is, I was worried about starvation. I took krill, soaked them in Entice, and started wiggling. He did nothing. So I took the krill and hooked one end in his mouth. He slowly sucked it in and ate it. I did this with only 2 as I didn't want to overfeed but wanted him to have something in his stomach. I'm hoping this isn't the way he is going to eat for the entire time we have him. I plan on trying the wiggling method every other day to try and get a response. If not, I'll do the hook method every 4 to 5 days just to make sure he doesn't starve. This is the LAST fish we get that has specialized feeding. I don't care how "cool" or "strange" it is. If it can't just eat thawed mysis, brine or krill on it's own it is staying at the LFS for someone else to be aggravated with !

RAVEN · 04-03-2007, 12:23 PM

Try feeding some mollies if you decide to try some live food. Also, do you have a feeding stick? If not get one and wiggle the food in front of the fish.