Dwarf angels in SPS tanks?

[Wd40]

I have always been scared but cant seem to get my eye off of those flame angels, flameback, and golden angel..
What do you guys think about having them in an all SPS tank...
Bad idea?

[Elan L.]

my flame does fine in my mixed that is transforming into an sps. definately wont pick at sps. Clams maybe- hit or miss with that.

just go for it.

[CubeNoob]

Golden would be the one on that list that would be the most concerning. Plus they are not the most hardy of angels to get established.

One of the most distinctive, as well as cryptic members of the genus, the Golden Pygmy spends most of its time searching for sponges underneath rocks, and is seldom far from cover. Attempt this fish only in a reef tank where it has plenty of rock to graze on. Quarantine tanks, copper treatment, or anything but complete luxury spell death for this finicky fish.

I have a Potters in mine and it is perfect around my corals. Obviously nothing is a certainty but some dwarf angels are much more likely to live in peace with SPS corals than others.

[soccerbag]

Had a golden angel and he was an awesome fish....for the 10 days he was in my tank. I have an SPS dominated tank with a few clams / acans / chalices. In 10 days, he ate a clam, 6 acan heads, and a superman LE chalice. He also started in on a few of my prized SPS as well.

There are many that keep angels without issues in SPS tanks. Just know that you may have to break down your entire tank to catch one if they get out of control. I gambled and lost. I will never have an angel in another SPS tank. I am very jealous of those (mpoletti comes to mind) that keeps them with great success with SPS.

Proceeed with caution... : )

Just my experience of course...

[akopley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15553888#post15553888 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by soccerbag
Had a golden angel and he was an awesome fish....for the 10 days he was in my tank. I have an SPS dominated tank with a few clams / acans / chalices. In 10 days, he ate a clam, 6 acan heads, and a superman LE chalice. He also started in on a few of my prized SPS as well.

There are many that keep angels without issues in SPS tanks. Just know that you may have to break down your entire tank to catch one if they get out of control. I gambled and lost. I will never have an angel in another SPS tank. I am very jealous of those (mpoletti comes to mind) that keeps them with great success with SPS.

Proceeed with caution... : )

Just my experience of course...

+1

It is hit or miss no matter what anyone says. I have kept two lemon peel angels and one was a model citizen and the other caused me to tear down my entire tank...I will only get another angel if it has come from a fellow reefer who has confirmed its habits. Even then, with time they can start picking though.

[RealReef7]

I totally regret buying a flame angel.. he eats sps like no tommorow but leaves the lps and softies alone!

[acrylic_300]

My flame angel was bad news. Killed all my LPS and caused the SPS to retract their polyps during the day.


I use to have a picture of every fish in my tank inside a fish trap together. The Flame Angel looked at them kinda curious but never would enter the trap.

[CubeNoob]

Ok, thought it was just me. I tried to catch my Potters Angel a couple times and ended up catching every fish in my tank 3-4x each and the Potters Angel would never enter the trap. Get close, look inside, and turn around. Finally just gave up trying and left him in there. I just wanted to get him out because he is a tad on the aggressive side in my tank and I wanted to make my tank a Leopard Wrasse only tank... maybe next time.

[Reefer08]

If you feed your angels very heavily it will reduce the possibility of them picking at your sps. Usually they will pick at sps if they're hungry

[divewsharks]

my flame angel initially continuously picked at my SPS, i had zero PE; however as i was unable to catch him and after about 3 weeks, he suddenly stopped picking/eating them. he did however then become the most dominant fish in the tank, and would harass/kill any other fish minus a yellow tang that was added to the tank.
ultimately I was able to trap him and remove him, as awesome as his colors were, i won't be adding a dwarf angel to an SPS dominated tank again.

[Goodwood]

I have tried about a dozen Centropyge over the years.

50/50 long term on polyp nipping in my experience.

If you can reasonably trap/catch it out. I would say..... done deal.

[Dejavu]

I have kept several Centropyge in reef tanks. Fleshy LPS are hard to keep with them without them picking away at them... but I have had good luck with SPS. Some will pick but over all there is little harm besides less PE.

[Wd40]

So negative on those angels then..
So is there any angel that seems to be reef safe or butterfly?

[JDigital]

I've got a coral beauty in my 30G SPS cube and he is perfectly fine, he was in my previous 75G and fine there as well (except for my 2 clams which I had to sell off).

[dadonoflaw]

if you value your corals dont try any. that being said i love angels and couldnt imagine a tank without at least one. i have a cherub that is more like a tang with his diet. he eats more than my naso that is three time his size. i have had angels from the species genicanthus with great success but not 100% even though they are planktivores.

[Paco]

Years with a Coral Beauty and no problems. Can't comment on anyone else's.

[crispyreef]

I have had an Argi for about 3 years in a dominated sps tank. I also have a clam, few lps, couple softies. He will pick once in a while but corals are not effected. I also have a Regal that will pick a little but that doesn't bother the corals or me enough to do anything about it. I still have good growth, color, and PE. I suppose it all depends on tank size and if it's heavily stocked or not.

[bradleyj]

I now have 5 angels in my reef, mainly sps, but I also have quite a bit of lps and zoo's and ricordia. My 3 genicanthus angels never touch anything. My regal angel will nip on sps if I dont keep him well fed, and likes certain lps which I no longer keep in this tank. My latest addition is my joculator angel and I havent had him long enough to know yet.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v714/tileman/003-6.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v714/tileman/009-5.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v714/tileman/010-7.jpg

[M007]

I have a flame angel and a gold flake angel and two rather large and juicy clams. Never a problem with clam nipping, zoos, sps or acans. Not interested in my softies either. Just keep them fed.

[Nereaga]

I have had the C Argi for over a year in a SPS dominated tank with no problems. Eats from rock and I feed daily. He is fat and healthy. Corals show no ill effects from nipping....IE closing polyps

HTH,

It is still a 50/50 shot at getting a nipper. At best! :)

Brad

[SnookSlayer08]

I'ts hit or miss, I've had an argi be a nice modeled citezen, not mean either, then he just went on a coral eating rampage one day and ate my eagle eyes, and picked on an acan and annoyed my birdsnest enough to make it rtn in places. Took my rocks out and took him t the LFS, they even put a note on the tank that he was a nipper. Now I have a juvi french angel that just pics at my gbp digi and an unkown acro frag and they never get pe anymore so soon as I can catch her she's going to the LFS along with my blenny that continuosly spits sand everywhere, and it's probably a molly miller since I caught it, not some sandsifting fish.

[eagleONE]

I've had a multicolor and potter angels in my tank before. Model citizens in my tank :)

[dflad]

I have 3 angels in my reef, golden dwarf, regal, and majestic. I also have a burgess butterfly too. The tank is 100% SPS. Head over to the reef fishes forum and search for Copps, you can see a huge mix of angels in SPS reefs.

[nava405]

i think this been discuss many times on RC, some ppl say it's depends on luck, but i would say it's really depends on how well you feed your fish. Personally i never have any problem, however, i have seem blue tangs eats xenia..so i guess everything could happen.

[Jettin]

Just sold my flame angel, started to pick a the sps.

When i bought a new monti digi the polps wouldnt even come out during the day.

Mind you a mate of mine has a coral beauty that does great with everything.

Touch and go id say, some are ok some arnt, best to try it out for a while.

[lunner]

In a mix reef with SPS/LPS. I have a pair of Golden, trio of African Flameback, Bellus female, Watanabe female and a 3.5" Majestics. They all have been in there for awhile now. The dwarf especially the Golden does nip on the LPS, but they don't damage them except for a colony of Rainbow Acans I have. One of the Golden loves it so much that this piece of Acans doesn't open up much. I moved that Acans to another reef tank. And haven't had any problem since.

Another tank of mixed reef of SPS/LPS/clam. I have a pair of Cherub with a male-ish Watanabe. No problem with them at all. I even trust them with my Rhizos...

As a bonus of keep them in a reef, I notice I don't have aiptasia anymore. :)

[Greg Hiller]

I also have had a pair of golden's for several years now. The female nips at the base of Acropora, also pecks at the Elegance. It never does enough damage to the Acropora to make any real difference, but this is in a 400 Gallon system with some large colonies. I found that moving the Elegance to an area of the tank that is more exposed seems to have gotten the golden to leave it alone. Goldens are pretty reclusive and I rarely seem them venture out away from the rockwork unless there is lots of food flying about in the water.

[CamBarr]

I have a potters in my 120 and he does fine with my sps and clams

[Lowredranger]

I have had to sell 2 different flame angels b/c they picked at lps and sps. I also had to sell my Coral beauty for the same reason. If you are able to catch them I would give it a try but be ready to loose corals if you can't catch them. I lost my large purple lps plate coral. The only way I ended up being able to catch them was to put the dieing plate inside the fish trap. I think you might be more likely to get a nipper if you don't feed well but I don't think feeding well will save anything.

[mpoletti]

I have a pair in my tank. They nip, but a little nipping does not kill the corals. As long as the tank is healthy, the corals will be fine.

[Gatorfan]

I've had a 1.25" Coral Beauty in my tank for 5 days now and so far no interest in my SPS or my maxima.

[madimod]

what about African pygmy angels or flame backs been wanting one for a while but afraid of buying a coral eater

[divewsharks]

you could always try quarantining them with some SPS, see how they respond to them, easy to catch in a quarantine tank.

[Living Ocean]

I had a bicolor which completely devoured a decent sized birds nest frag in one day. I had to tear my whole tank apart to get him out. He would never go in the trap.

That said, I have always been a pretty light feeder or my tank.

[Jar*Head]

I have blue face angel, queen angel, Majestic angel, Emperor angel and Regal angel in my 480g for couple weeks. So far no damage have been done by these fish but i did remove all LPS out of my tank and they show no interest to my Zoas and paly's.

I hope they will stay the same after getting established. My feeding consist of

3 times daily with spectrum pellets via auto feeder 2 turns each time 1 Romain lettuce, 1 large sheet of brown algae. They will have mixed frozen for dinner.

Frozen food consist of: Rod's food (3 different type), Jumbo mysis, PEmysis, Ocean blankton, Brine shrimp, Selcon, zoocon, Garlic juice. I always rinse frozen food in RODI water before mix them together and add Vitamins and garlic...

My next batch of angel will be Swallow tail, Wantanabe, and bellus angel...

Here is some old shot of my tank.
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f123/NgoSH0311/new%20pic%2009/blueface.jpg
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f123/NgoSH0311/new%20pic%2009/Emperor.jpg
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f123/NgoSH0311/new%20pic%2009/Queenangeleating.jpg
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f123/NgoSH0311/new%20pic%2009/queenangel.jpg

[soccerbag]

Very nice Jar*Head!!!! Love the shot with the yellow tangs and angels.


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