Dwarf angelfish

Baldyreef · 2026-08-15T16:42:31-0400

I’ve always wanted to keep dwarf angelfish in a reef tank but never quite got around to it, now I’m deciding to finally do at but I was wondering what do you guys think is the least likely dwarf angel to munch on coral

Reef Jedi · 2026-08-15T16:44:19-0400

I had a potters angel for years and never had an issue. Every experience is different. I’ve also had good luck with coral beauty’s.

Baldyreef · 2026-08-15T16:51:34-0400

Any experience with cherubs or flamebacks?

me & my baby · 2026-08-15T17:50:13-0400

There is no 100% it’s lot of a roll of the dice . I have had coral
Beauties, flame and cherubs all do fine and I have had the same fish taste a polyp and they got the taste . You can read countless threads with good and bad with all the fish . Wantanaba and Lamark are
More rare to go after corals

Seansea · 2026-08-15T18:06:06-0400

U can see my bicolor cruisin around in there. He nips at corals but doesnt maul them.

Baldyreef · 2026-08-15T22:22:27-0400

Thanks for the help guys so far I’m thinking of getting a flame back

Zionas · 2026-08-16T01:08:45-0400

Many have kept the likes of Flames, Coral Beauties, African Flamebacks, Cherubs and a few others in reefs. These are the most commonly suggested ones at least. There’s a few others that people have kept successfully and with ones like Lemonpeels, Bicolors it’s more “luck of the draw”, or so they say, but the thing to remember with corals and dwarves is that it’s anecdotal and none are 100% “reef safe”, which is itself a more nuanced term that tends to be simplified.

I say based off of consensus, you can go for one of the four (Flame, Coral Beauty, Flameback or Cherub). Flames are available captive-bred but are “patchy” in availability, Coral Beauties are consistently available captive-bred, Flamebacks and Cherubs I think are available captive-bred time-to-time from somewhere that Biota acts as a distributor for. Not too sure about the Cherubs but they definitely sell Flamebacks through Biota.

Lemonpeels are available captive-bred through Bali Aquarich (via Biota and some other sites) and Proaquatix, Bali Aquarich also does Bicolors sometimes that are distributed through Biota. I’ve seen CB Bicolors in Canada before at Candy Corals.

Good luck. I think no tank’s complete with an Angel, or two, or several.

I wish we regularly had captive-bred Multicolor and Joculator Angels (for those who can afford them, $$) but this complex (the C. multicolor complex) seems to have the longest pelagic larval duration for the genus, upwards of 100 days.

Dwarf Angels mess with us when we see that the ones with the shortest larval periods are also some of the hardest to get eating and condition for spawning. This includes the Multi-Bar, Purple-Masked and Colin’s. While not as many have had captive-bred C. colini, many have struggled even with the captive-bred Multi-Bars and Purple-Masked (P. venusta) although I think a big part of that is how small Bali Aquarich is willing to sell them for a profit. At those barely 1” or sub-1” sizes they simply don’t do well and can’t be treated as a “normal” fish by any means.

The common ones like the Coral Beauty and Flame (and the C. bispinosa complex) have surprisingly long pelagic larval durations (80-85 days), at least the Flame does.

Flamebacks and the “pygmy” Angels are more in-between, from what I gathered. I believe they could be considered their own genus Xiphypops, which has been suggested before as an upgrade from sub-genus status.

How big’s your tank? If it’s something like a 24” long and front-to-back cube (60 Cube, basically), I’d go with an African Flameback, Cherub, or Pacific Pygmy (C. flavicauda / fisheri). Maybe there’s a few that also get smaller, putting a Coral Beauty or Flame in 24” swimming space is debatable and perhaps not ideal.

If your tank’s at least 36” in length, then you can also go for a Coral Beauty or Flame. Lemonpeel and Bicolor are some of the larger ones although I’ve seen some discrepancies over sizes based off of different sources, but I feel they need at least a 36”, maybe a 48” (4ft) if we’re being conservative.

Edit: There’s also the Brazilian Flameback which is like the African Flameback but with a blue tail instead of the African Flameback’s white tail. Harder to come by.

Biota also has captive-bred Potter’s Angels (Hawaiian endemic) from time-to-time and I don’t know what people’s experiences have been with the CB ones compared to the wild ones that often have trouble getting them to eat, more expensive though and being part of the same complex as the Coral Beauty and Flame they should ideally have at least a 36” long setup.

Baldyreef · 2026-08-16T02:52:14-0400

Zionas said:
Many have kept the likes of Flames, Coral Beauties, African Flamebacks, Cherubs and a few others in reefs. These are the most commonly suggested ones at least. There’s a few others that people have kept successfully and with ones like Lemonpeels, Bicolors it’s more “luck of the draw”, or so they say, but the thing to remember with corals and dwarves is that it’s anecdotal and none are 100% “reef safe”, which is itself a more nuanced term that tends to be simplified.

I say based off of consensus, you can go for one of the four (Flame, Coral Beauty, Flameback or Cherub). Flames are available captive-bred but are “patchy” in availability, Coral Beauties are consistently available captive-bred, Flamebacks and Cherubs I think are available captive-bred time-to-time from somewhere that Biota acts as a distributor for. Not too sure about the Cherubs but they definitely sell Flamebacks through Biota.

Lemonpeels are available captive-bred through Bali Aquarich (via Biota and some other sites) and Proaquatix, Bali Aquarich also does Bicolors sometimes that are distributed through Biota. I’ve seen CB Bicolors in Canada before at Candy Corals.

Good luck. I think no tank’s complete with an Angel, or two, or several.

I wish we regularly had captive-bred Multicolor and Joculator Angels (for those who can afford them, $$) but this complex (the C. multicolor complex) seems to have the longest pelagic larval duration for the genus, upwards of 100 days.

Dwarf Angels mess with us when we see that the ones with the shortest larval periods are also some of the hardest to get eating and condition for spawning. This includes the Multi-Bar, Purple-Masked and Colin’s. While not as many have had captive-bred C. colini, many have struggled even with the captive-bred Multi-Bars and Purple-Masked (P. venusta) although I think a big part of that is how small Bali Aquarich is willing to sell them for a profit. At those barely 1” or sub-1” sizes they simply don’t do well and can’t be treated as a “normal” fish by any means.

The common ones like the Coral Beauty and Flame (and the C. bispinosa complex) have surprisingly long pelagic larval durations (80-85 days), at least the Flame does.

Flamebacks and the “pygmy” Angels are more in-between, from what I gathered. I believe they could be considered their own genus Xiphypops, which has been suggested before as an upgrade from sub-genus status.

How big’s your tank? If it’s something like a 24” long and front-to-back cube (60 Cube, basically), I’d go with an African Flameback, Cherub, or Pacific Pygmy (C. flavicauda / fisheri). Maybe there’s a few that also get smaller, putting a Coral Beauty or Flame in 24” swimming space is debatable and perhaps not ideal.

If your tank’s at least 36” in length, then you can also go for a Coral Beauty or Flame. Lemonpeel and Bicolor are some of the larger ones although I’ve seen some discrepancies over sizes based off of different sources, but I feel they need at least a 36”, maybe a 48” (4ft) if we’re being conservative.

Edit: There’s also the Brazilian Flameback which is like the African Flameback but with a blue tail instead of the African Flameback’s white tail. Harder to come by.

Biota also has captive-bred Potter’s Angels (Hawaiian endemic) from time-to-time and I don’t know what people’s experiences have been with the CB ones compared to the wild ones that often have trouble getting them to eat, more expensive though and being part of the same complex as the Coral Beauty and Flame they should ideally have at least a 36” long setup.

thanks for the info and for taking the time to type all of this for me!