BiColor Buffet

[ReefFan]

Introduced a nice lively BiColor Angel yesterday. 2.5 inches of rock grazin, sessile invert chowin destruction. I kinda knew this was gonna happen when I got my Copperband 6 months ago. He scoured the rock of everything he found tasty too. Which bugged me alil at the time cuz there was some cool, ocean born rock critters I was feedin. But after the COpperband I decided it was gonna be the strippped down frag n colony reef that was fish stocked. Seems there were plenty of things that thrived that wasnt on the CBB's menu cuz the Angel hasnt stopped grazing since an hour after acclimation. I havnt seen him pick at any corals yet but i am worried about one type of Acro/Monti that the LFS owner wasnt sure of the name. Its the only coral that looks like it might be struggling.

Ill attempt to get pics of it later but its a brown stony coral with bright green very small polyps. Picture an old rotted tree stump with a nice beige color, with half of it broken off. Thats how this coral is growing, seeming to twist upward at the top. All over the outside are this lil green phosphourescing polyps. I said D__, whats this guy some kinda Monti? He said actually im gonna say its some kinda Acro.

So I got a two fold question in this thread I guess.. Anyone know what kind of coral this is based on description and will a BiColor Angel pose a threat to it or any other valuable corals I might have in there. The only reason I got him was because he was in fantastic health and very well priced. Was also told he should be ok in a reef, from the LFS guy.

I already have my sessile fascination tank, predation free. So im fine with haveing a fish-active MT with only choice corals and Coraline rock. I just really dont wanna have to get that fish trap out or worry about collapsing the rock formation when i find hes been eating my fav corals.

Anyone else have a BiColor or experience with em in your reefs? -3rd question

 

[ZANYMASTER]

Almost no Angels are reef safe.I don't know why he told you that.

 

[reefman]

question1- almost impossible to answer w/o pic. (brown stony coral with bright green very small polyps)

question2- any angel (especially a bi-color) will be a risk, present and/or future to corals. how high the risk depends on the type of coral n the fish itself.
this is like buying a box of chocolates.

 

[NYReef]

And once you put a bi-color in your reef, good luck catching it. They go after and pick at all the corals in your tank, keep it out!

 

[ReefFan]

G@# D#mm%t. I asked the owner if id be crazy to put an angel in my reef, he says no not necissarily theres ome that work well in a reef tank, coral beauty, flames, bicolor. I ask the next knowledgeable guy in the store, that day just to be sure, I shouldnt even think about putting this healthy Bi Color in there should I. "Nah he should be ok" then he offers this gorgeous fish for $15. I decided to trust their word cuz theyve been doing this a long long time and know aLOT.

Eveything was going so perfect in there :/ now i gotta worry bout this guy cuasing havok. I gonna go feed em again, maybe quell his appetite..

 

[ZANYMASTER]

Don't feel bad,we've all made some mistakes along the way and there are unscrupulous LFS that will prey on un-knowledgable customers.Next time,Just ask us or Dom,he's the fish guy:lol:

 

[ReefFan]

Nah what i feel bad about is i consider myself to be knowledgeable, had heard and read many times that ALL angles are a no no, but also heard that some were ok and Ive always trusted these guys in the past. They had no reason to sterr me wrong, one way or another this fish was gonna get sold at that price and health, eating brine.

I said in a prvious thread theres only two places around here ill buy from, and both said the statement that all angels are off limits, isnt true. But it is my fualt cuz if there was ever a doubt, you should slways just choose the safest option. Ill wait one or two more days to see if ANY damage has been caused to the pieces I care about and then decide to keep im or start trying to trap him.

 

[ReefFan]

BTW after searching the net all over for an ID on that brown encrusting type coral with the bright green spots, im 95% sure its a Montipora species. Which ever one it is, I didnt acclimate him properly. Golden rule of adding new corals, start them low and move em up gradually. I figured hey, i only have T5s, this thing is an acro or monti.. hes probabaly gonna want alot of light. Even though I only started him midway up the tank. Well after a couple days hes shown signs of bleaching at the very top. Green spots still come out but top of the vertical growing plate (i assume it grew like this because there was no surface on the frag to encrust to, so it just started growing upward, twisting and curling), its white but still with the green polyps poking through a bit. The owner at this very old and successful store I figured was more knowledgebale than 99% of the aquarists out there running such a successful aquatics store for over 20 years. But I guess he isnt 100% hip to corals, or else he probabaly wouldve agreed when i initially asked if it was a Monti.

Will def get pics on here though, just to get it confirmed. The experienced folks here at MR gotta know..

 

[ReefFan]

BiColor looks like he's gonna be ok!

He's still finding plenty to graze on but Ive watched him while stringing a racquet and so far its just rock hes nippin at. So far all 30+ species in there im really concerned about are untouched. He hasnt even pecked at the nice blue n white sponge that grew out. I dropped a vita soaked baby clam on the halfshell in there and he trashed at that a few times.

So hopefully I can keep him fed enough to not resort to other things on his menu. We shall see.

really gorgeous fish though, cool active personality. Hope he works out.

 

[jcolon2]

Not all angels are not reef-safe. It depends on the individual angel. I purchased a potters angel a few weeks ago and was told it wasn't reef safe. It has yet to nip at my clam or corals.

 

[ReefFan]

well this guy really digs clams as I found out today, so maxximas and such are out of the question as long as i keep him. BUt so far hes just fascinated with the stuff growing on the rock, that the copperband hadnt decimated. I still keep 4 large aiptasias in there as a constant source of grazing for for the CBB. Aside from those 4 (which do look pretty cool in full adult form) the whole MT has been lil aiptasia free. Maybe the angel will enjoy all the lil aiptasia seedlings as well.

They sure are nippers though. Like i said, gotta keep him well fed, maybe he'll leave my sponges alone too. That would be cool as they look awesome having grown out on the underbelly of a few rocks.

Im sure theres a few other species that will have to be off limits, at least to that tank. Can anyone think of anything else that might be on the Bicolor's menu? Feather Dusters have already been isolated to their own display tank within the system since I got the CBB. So i always have that area and the future frag tank to keep anything.

 

[tomtoothdoc]

i have some angels in my reef....the less likely to be destructive ones...bellus, japanese swallowtail, and a flame. i also have a cbb who loves feather dusters.....haven't had a feather duster in 4 yrs.
you already found out that they are nippers....even if they were well fed, they still like to nip. ime, i find that they like the "puffy lps"....especially brains like trachy and wellso. they haven't been that bad on "healthy" clam....but dying or pinched mantle ones, they will chow them down over night. and of course, small shrimps like anemone, sexy or dancing, even the peppermint....though these i suspect, may have been the victims of the wrasses.

 

[ReefFan]

i have some angels in my reef....the less likely to be destructive ones...bellus, japanese swallowtail, and a flame. i also have a cbb who loves feather dusters.....haven't had a feather duster in 4 yrs.
you already found out that they are nippers....even if they were well fed, they still like to nip. ime, i find that they like the "puffy lps"....especially brains like trachy and wellso. they haven't been that bad on "healthy" clam....but dying or pinched mantle ones, they will chow them down over night. and of course, small shrimps like anemone, sexy or dancing, even the peppermint....though these i suspect, may have been the victims of the wrasses.

Well i dont have any of those corals in there yet but i do have a new Blasto colony that im very fond of. Was pretty expensive and its doing great in there. But i notice the happier it gets, the puffier it gets. I worry that puffed up tissue might be too tempting to the Bi Color. But as of today I have 14 quarter sized blastos and 3-4 babys. We'll see if that number decreases in the next few days.

I can see already hes gonna have to learn his way around an aquarium. Just like the Copperband was at first, he grazed and grazed til i finally got him taking garlic soaked blackworms, then finally garlic mysis and brine. But that took a while. I dont know if my corals will have that kinda time for him to adapt to aquarium feeding. Time will tell. Very worried about the Blasto though, its my fav piece.

 

[tomtoothdoc]

thank god they never touch my blasto's. and my blasto's are big....each head is more than 2" across when they puff up.
oh also they ate all the candy cane and some hammers, with the help of the moorish idol.....i have no candy cane left but luckily still got crap load of hammers.

 

[ReefFan]

Well my intention with this tank is to make it as fish friendly as possible. Its really a fish tank, with alot of live rock n corals in it. So type of corals will be dictated by the kinds of fish Ive always wanted in there. Im about at maximum holding capacity right now, with room for the juvenile Moorish Idol and small/med PB Tang. I will have to ge that 240 gallon acrylic outside polished very soon and plug it into the existing system some time this year. My fish are starting to outgrow this 4 footer. A 1.5 inch hippo tang I got 5-6 months ago, is now close to 4 inches if not more. I had to get rid of my Sailfin Tang cuz he was over 5 inches and i just thought it was wrong to him im in there.

Anyway im happy to hear your fish, including the eventual Idol, has left your Blastos alone. I dont have any Candy Canes in that tank nor Feather Dusters. I have a separate 30 gallon chamber to house all my favorite sesslie inverts that are often preyed upon. Xmas tree, coco worms, feather dusters, shrimps, crabs and corals like the candy canes are all safe in there with a 250 wat sunpod above. Only fish in there is one PJ cardinal.