Questionable fish with coral

[Anonymous]

I am looking at adding a navarchus or emperor angel to a tank. I was wondering if it would be better to add the fish and get it eating and then add corals or to have the corals in the tank and then add the angel. The thought of the angel first is that it will be eating and not have as large an interest in the corals. The thought of corals first goes to the mucus production after moving the coral and it interestying an existing fish. Any thoughts would be appreciated

 

[jdeets]

My thought is that it won't really make a difference. A questionable fish will either pick at them or leave them alone. IMO it wouldn't make a difference which went in first. Unless you have a HUGE system for the fish to have plenty of LR to pick at, I think you're just asking for trouble either way you slice it. JMHO.

 

[Anonymous]

These fish do eat other things

. Even if they do decide to have a go at a coral or two, no big deal. He will be well fed. It will be introduced as a juvenile and in 5 years be moved to a 1000 gallon tank. I am looking for people that have introduced these animals to see which method they feel would have worked better.

 

[jdeets]

I'd say that it would do fine in a 1000 gallon system! I still don't think it makes a difference what goes in first. If the corals are there when he gets there or come later, he's going to check them out. Who knows how fishes think--would he be more likely to ignore them when everything in his surroundings was new (like if the corals were there first) or will he pay more attention to them when they are added as "new" things in established territory? Who knows. But now that I read your original post again, I see that you mentioned the "interesting new toy" concept there.

Good luck. I wish I was getting a 1000 gallon system in a few years!

 

[Anonymous]

^

 

[danmhippo]

Very often when these angels are still juvenile, the corals picking behaviour may not show up. But when they do gets older and gotten used to their surroundings, the corals picking begins. You may be pushing your luck if you want to include these into your reef.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes I am

. As with adding virtually any angel to reef. That is why I have posed the question. To find out from those that have them or had them if they thought it was an idea with merit or pipe dream. I know angels can be kept in reefs and with minimal damage. There is just not a lot of information out there on the methods used to keep the angels "in line". It could be that everyone with an angel in their reef got lucky

or it could be there is a method to the madness

. It is the method I am looking for.

 

[gazpep]

Steve,
Whilst I've had no experience with the particular Angels you refer to, I do have a Black Velvet Angel in my 120 gal reef and he shows absolutely no interest in picking at the LPS or softies in the tank. As a matter of interest, my tank started life as a FO set up and the Angel was introduced before I converted it to a reef. Apart from an initial flurry of interest in picking at the Live rock he hasn't bothered any of the corals introduced over the 8 months since I began adding them. This fish is well fed, adding about 1 1/2 inches since I got it and is now close to maturity at around 6 inches.

 

[davelin315]

Steve, I have a friend who kept a juvenile imperator in his reef that was added way after the corals. It was added into an established tank (I've referred to it before, he had puffers and cowfish etc. etc. in his reef) and never had any problems (that is, besides disappearing one day in the middle of his color change

). I would think, however, that adding corals after the fact would cause problems. It seems like every time I add a new coral to my tank that has any exposed rocks, the whole thing gets picked over at least once by the inhabitants. Whether it's because there's a stray piece of tasty algae on it, or just because it's new and the locals are curious, I don't know, but it inevitably gets attention, and focused attention seems to be what bothers new corals the most. My established corals don't mind the occasional picking at (or even the occasional getting buried under a rock slide!), but new ones that don't get the chance to come out and that get picked at immediately tend to suffer more ill affects of attention.

 

[Anonymous]

davelin,
I kind of suspected that would be the most popular answer. Thanks for the input, you too gazepep and jdeets.

 

[Vins Fins]

Hi Steve, I probly keep more angles in my reef than any one else around the boards. i have a majestic adult, a french med, imperator juv, blue faced med. their in my 180 reef which houses many lps, sps, and leathers. the only coral that was nipped at was a green brain coral, my red brain coral was not touched at all, the only soft coral that gets an occasional nip is the finger coral, and the nipping dosen't bother it at all, they never nip it deep, just the outer layer. the leather looks great actually it might even be helping the finger to shed the outer skin. i have many polyp rocks that are never touched. the key is to feed well, i use an ehime auto feeder to feed a small amount of flake 3 times per day, i manually feed 1 cube of angle formula or formula 2 once a day and late at night 9pm they get a half cube of brine shrimp. i also feed either romaine lettuce which they go crazy for or green nori
which they also go crazy for once a day. so i guess my success is due to their being food in the tank every 3 hours. I do have a 200 gallon sump/ pond connected which also has an aero foamer 830 in it. my pond has a 12"deep sand bed.

 

[tonni]

That’s a good question, and both ways can work depending on your setup. Adding the angel first might help it get comfortable and eating well before there are any corals around to pick at, which could lower the chances of it nipping later. But adding the corals first gives them time to settle and recover from any stress before the fish comes in. Some people prefer that so the fish doesn’t get too curious with freshly added corals. It’s kind of a toss-up, but watching closely in the beginning helps either way. I’ve run into similar choices when setting up tanks and dealing with my fishing equipment, and it often comes down to what feels right for the fish and the layout you’re going for.