Blue Ring Angel ?

[DrHank]

I'm thinking of adding a Blue Ring Angel to my mixed reef (LPS and Softies) and would be interested in hearing from anyone else who is doing it or has tried.

[jda]

Do you mean annularis? Pomacanthus species are about a 50/50 bet with coral. If I had to guess, they would like to eat some of your coral. It could work though. People have had success with them. I would not try it unless you can easily catch it or don't care if it eats some coral.

They are more safe with SPS than LPS and Softies. You see some in SPS tanks that do well.

[DrHank]

Yes, I'm thinking annularis. Also, my tank was originally intended to be a FOWLR and just sort of gravitated toward a mixed reef. I figure that if he shows a preferance to a specific coral, I'll move the coral to a seperate tank. I'm just hoping that he won't like all corals (I doubt that he will).

[JamesJR]

The blue ring angels sure are beautiful but they can be pretty destructive but I think you will be okay with soft corals. What corals did you have in mind?

[DrHank]

Well right now I've got a Pearl Bubble, a Moon, a Frogspawn, a Candy Cane, a Toadstool, a Kenya Tree, some Xenia, yellow polyps, and a few mushrooms. Haven't really thought of future additions yet.

[jda]

Moon and Candycane would be my guesses at what it would like to eat - if anything at all. The fleshy ones.

It is unlikely that it will eat all coral. If you can move some coral out, then that might work.

I would still have a plan to catch it just in case. It can be as simple as cutting some eggcrate to divide you tank into half (or thirds) so that you only have to tear-down part of the reef - of course, you will need to keep the tank open all the way to the substrate without rock.. You could also QT the fish and get it used to eating out of a trap - once they enter, they will not have any problem going back in and are easy to catch. I use "the trap," but there are many like it.

[jda]

You might also factor in the amount of food needed to keep a good sized fish happy. Adequate feeding could cause a rise in N and P whereas under feeding might cost you some coral.

There are no for-sure answers here, just things to consider.

[DrHank]

That's pretty much what I thought too. I really don't care about the Moon but I am ready to move the Candy Cane if I need to. The only way to know is to try it. My wife wants the angel so if I wind up with a small seperate reef system, so be it.