Any reef safe angels?

[rhonna]

I love the look of angels and would love to add some to my tank but I have a fairly large reef consisting of leathers, polyps, xenia, etc. I have talked to a couple different fish stores and am not trusting of their advice. Some say if you buy the angel small enough any can be put in with your reef just take him out when they get larger, some say no angels, and some say bicolored or pgymy angels only are reef safe. Any ideas??

 

[montie]

my friend had a bi colour angel, which was fine in his 55gal, with all corels, soft hard, inverts etc. but when he upgraded to a 180gal the angel went mad, started attacking other fish, biting his xenia and clams. So really i wouldnt advise that angel and imo any other angel in a largish reef, as if it does become a corel wrecker in a large reef youll have an absolute nightmare getting him out. Other ppl in here may tell you totally different, just my opinion of angels. i would rather have a sailfin/purple tang

 

[fishnbarefoot]

Most Centropyges (pygmies) are ok. Some do cause troubles when they are adults. I keep a "Lemon Peel" in my 180. Here's some info you can read.

http://saltaquarium.about.com/blangelfam.htm

http://www.fishdomain.com/fishindex.php3?species=angels

 

[rhonna]

I tried the bi colored angel and my scopus tang has been in my tank since I set it up 2 yrs ago and he killed it within a few days. I was hoping to find a reef safe angel that could stick up to the bully!

 

[esmithiii]

No angels are 100% reef safe, IMO. The pigmy angels are suspect at best. I had to remove a small bi-color that was wreaking havoc in my tank.

Ernie

 

[ZigZagZombie]

I have a bi-color in my 70 gal. Haven't had any problems with mine, but you do take a chance with them. Some work out and some might not. I gave it a shot and so far it's worked out. Good luck on what you do.

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you Ernie

Took the words out of my mouth. Any angel is suspect.
Chris

 

[rhonna]

Thanks for help. I think I will just set up an angel tank and not chance it!

 

[Lynn]

According to Michael Scott- one of the best angelfish for reef aquariums is the Blackspot Angelfish. This is what he says:
Max Length: 7.1"
Min Aqu. Size 100 gal
Aquarium hardness " 3"
Reef Compatibility: One of the best anglefishes for reef aquariums because it poses no threat to stony or soft corals.

 

[Anonymous]

I think that probably the safest would be the Genicanthus angels. There are a couple that look pretty good. They are planktivorous just like anthias. The Watanbi angels atre in this group and are pretty cool.

 

[slojmn1]

I am currently in the process of quarantining a male and female Genicanthus melanospolis, blackspot angelfishies. I am really happy with the coloration on these beauties. They are not the spectacular blues, greens, etc. as other anglefish but they are fantastic. I have yet to take pictures as they are swimming about in a blue 30g rubbermaid and I thought the backdrop would be very unflattering to these beauties. The male is about 1-2" larger than the female and quite spectacular with his black and white stripes. The female has a beautiful lemon yellow body slowly gradiatign into whitish blue underside. Both fish have very cool tail fins, quite colorful and decorated. She is much less skittish of me 10 days into quarantine than he is. He is a bit of a bully to her but she holds her own just fine. They will go into a 120g sps and clam dominated reef. They seem to be decent eaters. I have noticed voracious eating for the first 5-6 pieces of food that come their way, then they just nibble and spit it out. I am unsure if they are being picky and don't like the food or if this is how they prefer to eat. I have another 3 weeks to go so I hope to nail this one down. I must say both of these fish are fat, immaculate and healthy. I'll post on their success in the reef as time goes on.
BTW, I purchased them from The Marine Center. It took them a few weeks to find the male but the female was and usually is in stock, I think.

 

[rhonna]

How does it work out quarantining them in the rubbermaid? I had a 10gal set up for quarantine and don't really have any space for it.

 

[slojmn1]

rhona, I am unsure what you are asking. I just set up the 30g rubbermaid with hiding places, cycled it with sponges from the reef tank, added reef tank water after a water change and put a powerhead and an AquaClear filter running on it to hold the sponges, carbon, whatever else, and stuck a heater in the container. So far so good adn very low cost. The first time I quarantined for ich I lost most of my fish to ammonia/nitrite as there were to many in the quarantine tank before it could handle the load. Big bummer

but I learned a lot about quarantine tanks . This quarantine seems to be working out just great. There is not near enough room for these guys to do there swimming but they don't seem particularly bothered at this point. They will be happy to get in the main reef though.

 

[KanUCme]

I have an ebili angel and so far have had no problems. I call her princess because she lets everyone know who is in charge. Nips at the algae and the corraline, but doesn't seem to bother any corals. I was told to watch out for them especially with open brains but my brain in fine...

 

[rhonna]

I had a 10 gal quarantine tank that was alittle small whenever fish got sick (I had all of my fish from my 55 gal in there at one point due to ich)and I was trying to find a cheap way to get alittle bit of a larger one started without buying a whole new tank. Now I have some new ideas! Thank You!

 

[southfla]

FWIW, I just extradited a "reef safe" Coral Beauty. Supposedly one of the "better" angels to try in a reef tank. Mine was okay for 3 weeks, then w/in one day began picking on any fleshy coral. It's too bad to, because he was a beautiful, healthy, active, interesting and personable fish...

I got lucky: I created a fish trap out of a bottled water container and caught him in a few hours. I've heard many people have had to tear down their tanks to get out Centropyges...

I'll never try an angel again

ja

 

[MarkO1]

I've never seen my flame angel pick at anything. I wish he would attack my Xenia.
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