Dwarf Angels experiences in Reef Tanks

Avengerx77

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Well, I need to up my fish count to help battle low nutrients. Looking specifically to dwarf angels, but dont have any experiences with them. Greatly appreciated if you can help with some info:

- How will they fare in a 60 gal tank about 2 months old?
- Will they pick badly into corals (mostly soft and LPS)
- If you have been able to keep them in your reefs what would you say it has helped you to reduce their need to go after corals?
- Any other advice? Already have a pair of clownfish and a royal. But would like to put more fish in the future, what about aggressiveness?

The one I am currently looking at is the Bicolor angel, but could also be the Coral Beauty.
 
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boacvh

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Well, I need to up my fish count to help battle low nutrients. Looking specifically to dwarf angels, but dont have any experiences with them. Greatly appreciated if you can help with some info:

- How will they fare in a 60 gal tank about 2 months old?
- Will they pick badly into corals (mostly soft and LPS)
- If you have been able to keep them in your reefs what would you say it has helped you to reduce their need to go after corals?
- Any other advice?

The one I am currently looking at is the Bicolor angel, but could also be the Coral Beauty.
Based on my own experience:
- How will they fare in a 60 gal tank about 2 months old? Mine is a 75g so not that different. 2 months old, I would let the tank mature a bit more personally but if its cycled you should have no issues. But more importantly, I would introduce it last. Mine was pretty territorial at first.
- Will they pick badly into corals (mostly soft and LPS). I never saw mine pick at anything. But I lost him recently and now I can grow some LPS I couldn't before, so I suspect he was picking anyway when no one was watching!. In any case, I believe it is something out of our control. Hit or miss.
- If you have been able to keep them in your reefs what would you say it has helped you to reduce their need to go after corals? I always thought keeping them well fed would mitigate the risk. But in the end I think it is completely out of our control. They either will pick or wont, regardless of what we do. I loved mine so I would have put up with any coral picking anyway.
- Any other advice?
Feed them Nori regularly. Mine loved it
Introduce as many other fish a you can before the angel. Someone gave me that advice. I have no idea if its pertinent or not but thought I'd pass it on

Mine was a flame angel FYI
 

Dolphins18

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I am always willing to try a dwarf angel in a new tank that does not have coral yet, but I would never add one to a tank stuffed full of coral, especially LPS.
The last one I tried had to be moved to a different tank. really enjoyed acans.
 

vetteguy53081

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When placed in a mature tank, ones like Flame, pygmy, coral beauty and eiblii will fare well
Coral beauty and eiblii MAY nip at zoa and coral although mine dont
 

Dolphins18

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When placed in a mature tank, ones like Flame, pygmy, coral beauty and eiblii will fare well
Coral beauty and eiblii MAY nip at zoa and coral although mine dont
Yea i have a coral beauty that is fine, had 2 flames in the past that were fine. Never seen one go at corals like this recent flameback though. Only Acans and trachys, didnt care for anything else. Went with the nems, not eating those
 

blaxsun

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This I can definitely weigh-in on... You're going to have problems with more than one dwarf angel in a 60-gallon tank, so pick your favorite. My suggestions would be a coral beauty, flameback or flame dwarf angel (I have a coral beauty and midnight, and the latter is a handful).

Both of mine have ignored all soft corals, but the midnight has completely slaughtered every single acan I've ever put in the tank - and he was picking at my brain coral the other day. So when they say "reef safe with caution", emphasis on caution. Soft, some SPS and most LPS will be fine - but it can be really hit and miss with individual dwarf angels. I've tried a wide variety of corals and right now any kind of brain and acan is a no-go. Any and all soft corals such as zoas, xenias, ricordea and polyps were never an issue. Torches, hammers, elegance, plates, cyphastrea and monticaps have all been fine as well.

I feed them SeaVeggies twice a day, pellets three times a day and frozen two times a day. They're fat and healthy, but even when fed the midnight will still go after acans - so some corals are unfortunately just a no-go.

They like caves for sleeping at night, and are some of the most adventurous "spelunkers" in my reef (no crevice is to small!) So definitely lots of caves, tunnels and places for them to explore and sleep at night.
 

reefsamurai

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Until recently I had 6+ in my 220. No coral issues except a trach that was already experiencing problems.

I'd like to point out that angels are disease MAGNETS and please learn from my experiences and do a proper QT. I just lost 13 fish except patient zero, a cherub angel and even that one was suffering till recently(looks like it's doing MUCH better).

I would observe the behaviors of your current fish and figure out their established territories to verify you have the room to add an angel. All of your current fish can be aggressive and in that small of a space, a new addition could require some space management or a rock scape rework.

I would say something boisterous like a cherub, flame or lemonpeel.
 

Andresnyc93

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Mines a model citizen on my 85 gal, I keep them heavily fed with frozen and pellets every other day, a nori sheet every day and baby brine freshly hatched shrimp on the days I don’t feed pellets. I also have plenty of sponges and pods in the tank and he’s never nipped at any of my LPS or anything else. I would say to add them last because they’re not very nice to new additions and you might get your new fish bullied so they have to be able to fend for themselves.

D2D4ABEF-30D8-4F15-A16F-E93779D0E37B.jpeg
 

Dave1993

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How much more aggressive are Lemonpeels than most other dwarfs?
Very lemonpeel is by far the worst when i add a new fish and i have a purple tang and powder blue the lemonpeel has started bullying my Liopropoma rubre for no reason what so ever i actually hate it but i can't catch it my goldflake freaks out whenever the lemonpeel goes near it
 

reefsamurai

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From my research and personal experience, the key to any angel, dwarf or otherwise is amount of tank mates. Either you are keeping a minimal grouping or you MUST have lots of fish. Think of them like African cichlids. A handful will eventually find the weak link but when everyone gets picked on equally, the stress levels are kept at a minimum. The reef itself has thousands of fish at a time so everyone can spread territorial aggression (that's what it boils down to, who has a piece of the pie) out amoungst the masses.
 
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