Flame Angels! to get or to skip...

[Rattooth]

My experience with angels in general and flame angel in particular , has been they are well behaved with corals, but not with clams. Currently I have a flame angel in one 185 gallon tank, and in a different tank of the same size a Multicolored Angel.
I have had several different flame angels over 40 years of keeping salt water aquariums. I have experienced upto 2 years of keeping clams and flame angel together with no problems. Then one day the flame will start to pick pick at the clam. More out of boredom I think. Just to make the clam flinch. I quit trying to keep together after that.
( I know other people will have disagreements with what I say next, but I no longer house, angels of the same genus together. Even managing this for a few years is not good enough, in my opinion , considering how well we keep fish now.
So no two dwarves in same tank, etc.
The 185 gallon mentioned above with flame angel also contains a Black Velvet Angel, and a Bandit Angel.
It’s office counterpoint contains the Multicolor Dwarf Angel and A Majestic Angel.)

 

[Whipples]

Oh man back from the dead! I actually have a 100g tank now and I never did get the flame or mandarin, went with a tomini tang and a copperband and have really enjoyed those two. Current inhabitants beyond those two are a royal gramma, snowflake ocellaris, and a banggai cardinalfish. The banggai is looking a little aged at this point based on his fins and coloration, and the second ocellaris jumped the tank before I could get a lid on it. Since starting this thread, I've changed strategy to looking at a group of carberryi and/or ingitus anthias too bring the color and activity I am looking for without the coral risk. Thanks everyone for the second round of input, a flame angel is still a gorgeous fish but I don't know if the risk is worth it now with my coral addiction in full swing

 

[MartinWaite]

Try a Six Line Wrasse! Cheap, small (little bio-load), easy to keep, and beneficial to reef tanks for pest control with LOTS of energy.

Six lined wrasses are more trouble than they are worth they get very aggressive with newcomers.
As for a flame angel I would go for one as long as you keep the tank well fed it shoulder bother anything I have nori in the tank 24/7 and my flame grazes away on that every day between my 5-6 feeds a day I give the tank.

 

[ReefBeta]

I think this talk sum it up pretty good: "Keeping Benthic Feeders with Coral: Angelfishes, Butterflyfishes, etc. | MACNA 2017". Basically it is not about coral-safe fish, it's about fish-safe coral. The coral you mentioned are in the group of less fish safe coral. So you gonna decide to focus on one. You can surely try, but remember the result will be more determined by luck than anything else, and be prepared which one to remove if the two don't mix.

 

[Shelby]

I've had two six Lines (in two different tanks) and they both took to frozen pretty quickly. Tough call on the pods, depending on your population. In the past, I've allowed pod populations to grow for many months (at least 6) before introducing pod eating fish, especially Dragonets who pretty much only eat pods (unless you get lucky and find one that has taken to frozen).

I had a dragonet, a six line wrasse and a healthy population of pods in my sump. I would switch out live rock from the sump to the display tank to keep my dragonet fed but the six line was so much faster at getting to them. I later read that it is hopeless to try to keep a dragonet with a six line for this very reason...

 

[robert teseo]

mine went from angel to holy terror

 

[MaiReef]

I have both a coral beauty and flame angel in my 100, both fine too beautiful not to have, they chase each other at times, but they get along great with no coral damage to speak of. The Coral Beauty does nip my Gold-Striped maroon clown from time to time though.

 

[David S]

I have both a coral beauty and flame angel in my 100, both fine too beautiful not to have, they chase each other at times, but they get along great with no coral damage to speak of. The Coral Beauty does nip my Gold-Striped maroon clown from time to time though.

FWIW
I have my Flame for over 5 years
now. Never bothered any inverts or corals (soft,LPS,SPS etc.).
Did like to hang out with my Yellow Tang. The Tang didn't reciprocate his affections though.

 

[solitude127]

I had a pair of flames mow down an SPS colony on me. I traded them to my LFS and got another 2 paired up and those 2 have been good citizens in my tank. My tank consists of mostly SPS but have favias, a Maxima clam, and lobos. I think keeping them well fed helps as well.

 

[Z3speed4me]

As for aggression, my flame chases the coral beauty regularly throughout the day - but at night, when the blues alone light the tank . . . he dances for her, swooping to meet her and rising to invite her. (She doesn't seem all that interested . . . )

My flameback HATED my flame, had to separate them quickly.

 

[David S]

I had a pair of flames mow down an SPS colony on me. I traded them to my LFS and got another 2 paired up and those 2 have been good citizens in my tank. My tank consists of mostly SPS but have favias, a Maxima clam, and lobos. I think keeping them well fed helps as well.

I agree

 

[dgrigor02]

I've had multiple dwarf angels for 15+ years. Even ones I got second hand from people who removed becuase of nipping.

Yes, I will find them nip at a coral here and there when searching for algae. Not enough to cause any one coral damage or stay closed up. I feed 3-5 times a day along with full sheets of nori once or twice a day so bellies stay full. I've had a pair of flame angels for the last 3-4 years. I love the behavior in pairs. As long as tank is large enough for a pair, I will never keep just a single again.

 

[David S]

I've had multiple dwarf angels for 15+ years. Even ones I got second hand from people who removed becuase of nipping.

Yes, I will find them nip at a coral here and there when searching for algae. Not enough to cause any one coral damage or stay closed up. I feed 3-5 times a day along with full sheets of nori once or twice a day so bellies stay full. I've had a pair of flame angels for the last 3-4 years. I love the behavior in pairs. As long as tank is large enough for a pair, I will never keep just a single again.

I wish I had room for another

 

[carlson]

The one I had killed a gorgonian by taking all the skin off of it. Luckily, I bought it for 40 and sold it for 60.

 

[Neptunes Aquariums]

Here is my Flame angel, I've had him for about 10 years and never seen him picking on any corals. This 120 gal is heavily stocked with LPS including many euphylia types. I have another flame angel in a tank at work along with a maxima clam and many LPS, and never a problem there either.[/QUO
I've also have Flame Angels without problems. Love the way the Bubble Coral seems to be hanging over the edge, nice looking tank.

 

[madcanary]

I’d love one, now if I can just get one through QT

 

[OrionN]

I had a dragonet, a six line wrasse and a healthy population of pods in my sump. I would switch out live rock from the sump to the display tank to keep my dragonet fed but the six line was so much faster at getting to them. I later read that it is hopeless to try to keep a dragonet with a six line for this very reason...

I had a Mandarin pair and a Sixline pair in my 420 for more than 1 year. All four fishes were healthy and fat and spawning. One day within a few second of each other the Sixline pair coordinated and attack my female Mandarin. They drove at her and peck her eyes out then leave her to died. She starved and I euthanized her after she turn to a skeleton of her former self. I was lucky enough to be able to catch the Sixline pair out by trapping. After this, I will never put Sixline in my tank if there is any possibility of keeping Mandarin in there (which is all of my tanks)

 

[madcanary]

Finally, I went to an LFS that had one looking healthy I just don’t flames ship well.
Any who. Happy healthy and always picking around live rock. No coral issues, yet but I feed heavy.
I even added a leopard wrasse and she’s eating frozen. So happy right now.
As far as six lines great at what they do but severely limit choices.
Since I don’t have one I was able to get a few bucket list fish I now have a yellow coris that takes care of pests and a few flashers.