Angels in Reefs ... some observations

[delbeek]

Aloha Greg!

We have kept several anglefish species over the year here at the Waikiki Aquarium, some of them in tanks with corals and anemones.

Six-bar and Gold-flake - kept with anemones, no problems.

Emperator (raised from juveniles) - kept with SPS, LPS and Sarcophytons - eat Sarcophytons completely

Pacific Regal Angel (raised from juveniles) - picked at tissue at base of LPS corals where it met the skeleton.

Lemon peels -- no problems in tank with LPS, SPS and softies (Xenia, zoanthids, Sarcopyhton, Tubipora)

Flames - no big problems

Potter's - never a problem with Hawaiian (SPS) corals.

Coral Beauty - no problems with anemones, SPS or LPS

Bicolors - no problems with SPS, LPS or anemones

Hotomatua - picked at some SPS but not a lot

Colini - picks at LPS (Trachyphyllia only), SPS occassionally

Golden - picks at LPS (Trachyphyllia only)

Nahakyi - never a problem with any coral

Genicanthis watanabei - picks at SPS occassionally but only underneath table Acropora.

Clipperton Angel - no problems with any corals

Aloha!
Charles

 

[GSchiemer]

Charles,

Thanks for adding to the database of information on angels in reefs. Your list only emphasizes my point about unpredictability.

Your experience with bicolors surprises me the most. I've tried a few specimens and they were all notorious pickers of soft corals, clams, and SPS corals. All the goldflake angels I've tried eventually started picking at soft corals. Boy it killed me to get rid of that fish. IME, the golden angels seem to have a predilection for zooanthids and flame angels for "fuzzy" Acropora corals. Glad to see I wasn't crazy when I said that G. watanabei picked at Acropora corals.

Greg

 

[Anonymous]

Marked for Archiving

 

[huig]

hello
i've got a little harem of c. acanthops, and in my tank they are definitely not safe. they were fed up to 8 times a day, never picked anything, but when i came home from a holliday (no feeding) all my Sinularia sp. were retracted and had bite marks. even on their normal feeding regime they continued to eat my Sinularia's (luckily nothing else). so be carefull when adding angels to a reef as even the 'reef safe ' species can devellop a taste for your precious corals. but even if they ate everything in my tank i'd never get rid of them, they are magnificent fish.
greetz