Angels in a reef

[Ruth]

Just curious about how many people have angel fish in thier reef tanks. I have a coral beauty in my 230g that so far has not bothered my coral that I have noticed. I am more curious about the full size angels. I am thinking of trying one (Goldflake) in my 190 which is mainly SPS - a few zoos and 2 anemones. Anyone have any experience?

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

I know a few reefers with Majestic angels in their reef systems & if its a big enough tank, little nips here & there won't do any of the corals too much harm seems to be the consensus.

Before I moved last summer, I had some softies in with a Queen & a Koran no problem. Heard that if you have brain corals, those are like a nice T-bone with all the trimmings to most angels.

Anthony

[Tom R]

Hi Ruth

Angels are my favorite fish.

I have 2 in my 125G a Pygmy Cherub and a 5 - 6" Majestic.
I have 3 in my 185G a Flame, a Pygmy White tail, and a 3 - 4" Majestic

As Angels are very inquisitive they seem peck at any new corals I put into my tanks for an hour or two but from that point on they seam to leave everything alone. Well maybe not the odd zoo.

Tom R

[mr_alberta]

Are you eyeing the one at JL's Ruth? Beautiful fish. Not very common either from what I've seen.

[dirtyreefer]

Goldflakes are supposed to be one of the "safer" angels in a reef, especially an SPS dominated reef. IME with angels, "meaty" corals such as brains, blastos, and acans are probably their biggest target as well as zoas.

As they all say, it all depends on the specimen. I would love to get a goldflake if I could only afford it.

[Ruth]

Yup eyeballing that one Harvey - I have wanted one for a long time as next to Tangs, Angels are my favorite fish. I am fortunate that I do have a backup plan if this one decides to munch down on my corals in that I can just move them to my 230g and go FOWLR if I have to in my 190g. Also only have 5 fish at the moment in my 190g so still lots of room. It also has lots of live rock (300+ lbs) and is skimmed with a BK400 skimmer so heavily skimmed and oxygenated (is that a word?).

[mr_alberta]

I love angels as well. So far I am batting 2 for 3 with angels. I've had a coral beauty, swallowtail (died ) and a Juvi-Emperor. The Emperor started out fine, but then started nipping one day. I do have a suspicion though that the coral it was nipping at was already on its way out, which perhaps enticed the nipping...

I would like to try another angel, but now that I have a couple of clams, I'm overly concerened since they aren't the easiest things to remove (the fish or the clams).

[Ruth]

Well I decided to try it and the fish will be here on Monday so I have my fingers crossed. Right now there are no clams in that tank although I would like to try a couple in there so I will probably make a place for the clams to attach to that will make them easy to remove them if I have to. No meaty corals in this tank - just SPS and a few hairy mushrooms and rics. The only thing that could be considered meaty I guess are the anemones but from what I can gather they do not normally bother those (Sebae and RBTA)

[Tom R]

Hi Ruth

I have clam's in my tanks with the angels. They have never bothered the clams. I let my clams attach to large oyster shells, that way you can move them any time you want. The oyster shell cover with coraline after a while.

Tom R

[Ruth]

I was thinking of doing the same thing Tom. Do you have anemones in your system? Have they ever bothered it?