Captive Bred Angelfish Experience?

[Toby The Puffer]

Hi there,

I have been eyeing a captive bred goldflake angelfish for some time now and I want to hear from people with actual, long-term experience keeping the captive bred angels. Do they eventually nip on softies and lps just like the wild caught ones?

I know biota claims that people have better luck but exacylu HOW much better has everyone's luck been?

I'd appreciate it if you could all chime in. Thanks!

 

[i cant think]

Hi there,

I have been eyeing a captive bred goldflake angelfish for some time now and I want to hear from people with actual, long-term experience keeping the captive bred angels. Do they eventually nip on softies and lps just like the wild caught ones?

I know biota claims that people have better luck but exacylu HOW much better has everyone's luck been?

I'd appreciate it if you could all chime in. Thanks!

I voted no purely because I want to see the results, this is definitely going to be interesting to watch.

From my understanding, it’s the same odds as wild caught. Captive breeding doesn’t remove the instinct of sponge feeding (I find the Corals that are nipped off tend to be much like a sponge in texture).

 

[JayM]

I had a wild caught Lemonpeel for a few months (lost it to some sort of disease), but it never bothered any of my corals in that time.

But I’ve also wondered how much of fish behavior is learned vs. instinct.

 

[adsf430]

Also interested, might get a goldflake

 

[Jmp998]

My Biota Coral Beauty has been good so far (had her about 2 years). She is very well fed though, and I know this could change any time. I have mostly LPS, zoas, softies, only SPS are birdsnest.

 

[OrionN]

should have a choice: have not keep captive bred angelfish.

 

[Tchung23]

Following

 

[Cthulukelele]

I didn't vote as Ive only had wild caught angels, but the general rumbling on the forum has been they're similarly 50/50 with coral as their wild caught counterparts especially fleshy lps.

 

[Bohemian Waxwing]

The only Angel I have ever really trusted with the Swallowtail. I've never seen or heard of one being a bad reef citizen. All of the others are varying degrees of probability.

I know Sprung kept big Angels with his SPS but I believe he said he would never keep them with fleshier LPS or Zoas.

 

[carri10]

bump. I'm looking at a captive bred regal or goldflake and so this is an interesting thread for me.
Any new info?

 

[corosato]

I haven't had any problems with my Biota Coral Beauty but I think any fish can go rogue if you don't feed enough.

 

[OrionN]

I have a pair of Majestic Angels CB, both doing well and a Regal Angel CB. All three are doing well, no problem for me.

 

[carri10]

Good info. Thanks.

 

[jwheels10]

Don’t own one, but at my LFS today I saw a captive bred 2 inch goldflake nipping at a spongy looking orange coral ( I’m not into corals) hope this helps and good luck

 

[fandaga]

I have Biota coral beauty and swallowtail. They look gorgeous and neither eat my corals. I also had a Biota golden angel that died after 1 month. I think it got a bacterial infection. It didn’t nip anything while I had it.

The Coral Beauty looks like it nips my scoly, but there’s not been any damage after many months. I think it’s just stealing food or picking off pods.

The swallowtail apparently is the safest angel with corals - great fish.

Edit: Also, I should mention that I have a bunch of zoa and paly colonies and a lot of LPS (torches, hammers, frogspawn, gonis, chalice) , as well as a clam and some SPS. I only feed once per day. The angels haven’t bothered any of that. All my fish but a Randalls goby are from Biota.

 

[areefer01]

Doesn't matter what we vote for to be realistic as each fish and environment is different. Case in point place one in a newly setup display with frags of various types chances are high there will be collateral damage. Extend that coral growth from newly setup to 5 year mature with sizeable colonies it may behave differently. Overall display maturity may be the game changer due to their ability to forage in between feedings which prevents boredom (in my opinion).

Another thing to note is feeding. Seems the general theme these days is don't over feed to prevent algae and high nutrients. I am of the opinion that more feedings throughout the day, smaller portions, prevents aggression and drive by nips. In fact I feed my reef hourly between the hours of 0830 and 1830. Then a small frozen feeding.

I've kept a Coral Beauty - wild collected - and it was fine. It did harass Xenia but it was spread out around the display and growing faster than it could do permanent harm. Another thing to note is that I didn't care to be honest. I wanted the fish and accepted the risk. In short I didn't try and save the one coral and let it go. In the end it was fine and thrived until I added a Pyramid and Zoster butterfly which cleaned all signs of it within 30 days...

TL; DR - if it is something you want just ask yourself what is acceptable or not and go from there. Once you put it in it may stress both you and the display trying to catch and rehome.

Beautiful fish both juvenile and adult. Amazing journey to watch if you go captive route.

 

[Liv23]

I have a baby CB Regal angel. He doesn't touch corals but I don't have much corals since I started the tank 4 months ago (only zoas and caulastreas for now) and he's been in the tank for only a month. But I will allow him to eat whatever he wants. I love the fish. He's the reason I have this tank. I feed 5-6 times a day a little bit to keep him well fed. He likes to eat almost anything except pellets (frozen anything, newly hatched brine shrimps, AF liquid anything, pods and algae).

 

[OrionN]

My baby Regal. Developing some funky marking. I love her.

 

[areefer01]

My baby Regal. Developing some funky marking. I love her.

Biota? Following along with another hobbyist who has one from Biota and it is an amazing little fish. Very personable. They also have a Biota mandarine which is neat.

Thank you for sharing. Very pretty.

 

[LiquidSpace]

I would try it but I know they can’t be trusted around clams, so that’s a nonstarter for me.