Flame Angel in a Reef Tank? yes, no, maybe?

[Viajeque]

My next fish I am planning to buy is a Flame Angel. I hope you can share with me your experience and let me know if I could host a Flame Angel in my Reef Tank. I have 1 anemone, 1 xenia, zoanthids, greenflower coral, toadspool mushroom...etc. Thanks in advance!

[Chris27]

That's a solid maybe......

Most Dwarf Angels can be safely kept in a reef provided they are fed well, but there is definitely no guarantee that they won't much on polyps or xenia, or nip at SPS.

[Uncle Salty 05]

I had a flame angel for years in my 180 and it would nip at corals occaisionally but never did any real damage.
Putting any angel in a reef has risks. It depends on how badly you want the fish, how big your tank is and the individual fish's personality.

[sn4265]

I have heard no on this. For this reason I'm planning on going with a Coral Beauty Angel instead of the Flame. My understanding is the the Coral Beauty is much more reef compatible.

[Mandragen]

I really want one in my 120g full reef with every coral under the sun, but I have been advised against it. I have yet to test it, as I love the coral more than the fish.

[Uncle Salty 05]

I have heard no on this. For this reason I'm planning on going with a Coral Beauty Angel instead of the Flame. My understanding is the the Coral Beauty is much more reef compatible.

I would agree with this even though they are both Centropyge angels with similar attitudes. My coral beauty has never touched any of my corals and spends most of the day picking at the rocks.
Flame angels are a little more aggressive IME.

[Emerald525]

Coral beauties can nip at corals too. I had a flame angel that did great for a while and then developed a taste for softies. I even had hippo tangs that were pecking at my acans that I finally just got out. There are always going to be many people who have had good luck with these fish but there is also going to be a risk.

I have decided after seeing some of my favorite corals die or do poorly from nippers that I am not ever going to risk having one in my reef tank again. The fish are just doing what comes naturally and it ends up being stressed again from being trapped and removed again.

[scubasteve06]

From what I've seen out of mine it would be ok, but I'll go with a strong maybe. Mine does love to go over anything and everything it deems edible with a nip, nip, nip to see if he/she likes it or not. I've seen them in reef tanks before and most of their owners say that they are model citizens, but not with the more fleshy type corals such as LPS. SPS I would say should be ok, but their is a chance that it could nip at them, but I don't see one causing any lasting damage.

[Uncle Salty 05]

As said, there is always a level of risk when adding any angel to a reef tank.
I have had my coral beauty for at least five years and I have Candy Canes that can only be described as full and pouty like Angelina Jolie's lips and my coral beauty never touches them.

[IShark]

I have both flame and coral beauty and neither has ever touched any of my coral. But a friend of mine has both as well and his coral beauty always nips at his brain and clams, so its a risk you have to be willing to take.

[Floowid]

And the answer is, as always, an definite maybe.

[tozzi]

Def a crap shoot. I had a coral beauty who was great, my friends ate most his acans

[cveverly]

I have one in my 180 and it nips SPS causing poor PE during the light cycle. Never seen it bother softies or LPS. However, they are all different. If you value your corals more than the fish I would not get the Flame.

[Brian94558]

This seem to be hit or miss. Just make sure to keep it well fed.

[Sk8r]

I think stony coral is the worse risk. I've had coral beauty angels with discosoma mushrooms and green button polyps and had no trouble. But again---it may be an individual difference in the angels. Some peppermint shrimp (much farther down the evolutionary tree) eat aiptasia, and others won't. There's a lot more room for individual variance in the brighter species, imho.

[mrstihl]

Definate hit or miss. Persoanlly I wouldn't chance it.

[Sk8r]

And...a fish can go along perfectly well behaved for months, and then suddenly decide something looks edible.
Or something bumps a coral and there's the coral equivalent of blood in the water. Who knows what triggers it?

If that green flower is a goniopora, it is extraordinarily fragile.

[Mike Ordner]

I have one in a 75 gallon and he is pretty bad at nipping my open brain, but leaves the sps, clam, xenia, zoas, favia and acans alone. I am not sure he is doing any real damage as the brain still comes out at night to feed, but you can tell it is not happy when the lights are on. If the angel was not already in the tank I would probably say no to one just from his nipping and the stories I hear of them getting worse over time.

[Dustin1300]

Hit or miss. IME I have one that is sitting back in the QT tank. I bought him about 6 weeks ago....Kept in QT....Once I moved to my DT he nipped at my SPS like crazy. 15+ colonies had no polyp extension the third day I added him. If my SPS tank was much more mature I'd say its not a big deal, let him nip but my SPS is only 4-5 months old and growing so I don't have massive colonies that are just pestered by it, they are actually hendered and could really be detrimental:(

Mines going back to the LFS soon. I love the coloration but not worth it at this point. I was feeding a few times a day with small portions to keep him plump but that still did not do the trick!

[fish77]

+1 for Maybe

[sunil6784]

Mine nips at my open brain occasionally. I waited almost a year to add him until I got growth on my live rock and got more corals in anticipation of a potential nipper. My theory is, if he's got plenty of other things to nip at, he's not going cause any damage to any one coral.

When I first added him, he nipped my open brain (trachyphillia) 20+ times a day. Now I see him at a most do it 3 times a day.

IMO, he's GORGEOUS and well worth the risk.

[thi7b]

My som coral have great PE after I sold the flame angel. He's a beautiful fish but the nipping cause no PE.

[Toddrtrex]

I have heard no on this. For this reason I'm planning on going with a Coral Beauty Angel instead of the Flame. My understanding is the the Coral Beauty is much more reef compatible.

I currently have 4.1 (( the .1 is a blue Nox that came today and not released yet )) dwarfs, with a Flame and Coral Beauty among them, in my case the Coral Beauty is the LEAST reef safe, whereas my Flame is the MOST. In the end, no one can say for sure, depends on the fish, the tank, amount fed and luck.

[saltwater freak]

In my case i have a coral beauty angel and a flame angel (different tanks).

They coral beauty i have had for over 2 years he or she has at least doubled in size and it has never nipped any corals.

I have a flame that i added in a different tank and he has not nipped at all (but i have only had him 3 months).
I had a torch coral have a rock fall onto it and it looked dead the skeleton was broken and the every polyp was ruptured.
By the end of the day the polyps healed and by day 3 the coral was open to its full extent so if my flame is going to nip i am sure the coral will be fine.
I have a clown that hosts a frog spawn and he ruptures polyps all of the time and its fine (he is real ruff protecting the coral from other fish)

I have heard from more than one fellow reefers that they go after open brains but i have no brains in my tank so far it has worked for me

As everybody said proceed with caution but in my opinion (from my experiences) the fish just get a bad rep and is a beautiful addition to any reef bigger than 60 gallons

[Toddrtrex]

.....

I have heard from more than one fellow reefers that they go after open brains but i have no brains in my tank so far it has worked for me

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[saltwater freak]

LOL i thought so dam #$%^en angels

that's why i have not tried any brains acan etc.

I checked out your pics thats a nice collection is that flame angel Hawaiian he is really red very nice specimen mine has yellow in the bars more common look

[Viajeque]

Thanks a lot guys for sharing your experiences! I will wait some time before I try hosting one. I liked that theory that the more corals you have, the less damage the fish will do to a single coral, so I will wait till I have more corals.

[sunil6784]

Oh, this just came to me so I thought I'd post it...

I noticed my Flame nip less when I started mixing an Angel specific food into my food rotation...