Genicanthus melanospilos or Blackspot angelfish acclimation.

[Kmst80]

So I had the opportunity to get hold of a genicanthus melanospilos pair, not very common to find in Australia.
I did all my research, got a 200g tank with plenty of rock.
I watched them for a prolonged time and they were swimming fine and colours were great too. Took them home and acclimated them for 6 hours in a bucket with airline. Finally I added them to the tank. Of course the purple tang made sure they knew who's king of the house, foxy the foxface just didn't know what to think of them.
However they swam around for quite a while and then after a couple of hours found a cave to hide in. Ok, let them get used to the tank I thought. I reduced the lights to 50% to not blind them.
After 4 days of hiding the female started to come out a bit and is steadily getting more interested of swimming around. It's been 7 days now and the male hasn't moved much, he's just hovering in the cave. Very timid fish they are, I hope he will eventually get used to the tank and come out. Hope this observation will help someone who is interested in getting a swallowtail angel.

 

[i cant think]

So I had the opportunity to get hold of a genicanthus melanospilos pair, not very common to find in Australia.
I did all my research, got a 200g tank with plenty of rock.
I watched them for a prolonged time and they were swimming fine and colours were great too. Took them home and acclimated them for 6 hours in a bucket with airline. Finally I added them to the tank. Of course the purple tang made sure they knew who's king of the house, foxy the foxface just didn't know what to think of them.
However they swam around for quite a while and then after a couple of hours found a cave to hide in. Ok, let them get used to the tank I thought. I reduced the lights to 50% to not blind them.
After 4 days of hiding the female started to come out a bit and is steadily getting more interested of swimming around. It's been 7 days now and the male hasn't moved much, he's just hovering in the cave. Very timid fish they are, I hope he will eventually get used to the tank and come out. Hope this observation will help someone who is interested in getting a swallowtail angel.

I’ve had this species before (or a hybrid of),

I don’t remember ever acclimating it, I did 30 minutes floating and then into the tank and he was out and about everywhere.

I personally think drip acclimation on fish is useless unless the Salinity is low in the bag. And dimming the lights also doesn’t seem to help much - I’d personally just make sure you have enough dark caves and hiding holes instead of changing how bright the lights are.

 

[Kmst80]

I’ve had this species before (or a hybrid of),

I don’t remember ever acclimating it, I did 30 minutes floating and then into the tank and he was out and about everywhere.

I personally think drip acclimation on fish is useless unless the Salinity is low in the bag. And dimming the lights also doesn’t seem to help much - I’d personally just make sure you have enough dark caves and hiding holes instead of changing how bright the lights are.

As you mentioned the salinity was low from the LFS hence the prolonged acclimation. If Salinity and Temp were the same i would just drop them in too.
I just dimmed the lights for them this time, they came from a hardly lid tank at the Lfs and the Species is known to live in depths with way less light than our reeftanks have.
Btw yours is a female, males are apparently known to be more difficult to get used to aquariums.

 

[i cant think]

As you mentioned the salinity was low from the LFS hence the prolonged acclimation. If Salinity and Temp were the same i would just drop them in too.
I just dimmed the lights for them this time, they came from a hardly lid tank at the Lfs and the Species is known to live in depths with way less light than our reeftanks have.
Btw yours is a female, males are apparently known to be more difficult to get used to aquariums.

Mine was actually male and is male in that photo. Here’s a (bad) photo when he first went into the tank;

He was out and around straight away, the tang had something to say about it but he ignored him. Unfortunately I lost this fish a year ago - I now own 3 angels;
Majestic, Regal and Flame Back.

 

[JamaI]

 

[JamaI]

Just added a small female would I be able to add another female if I find one?

 

[Kmst80]

Just added a small female would I be able to add another female if I find one?

She's a beauty.
If your tank is big enough you can easily add another female. What might happen is that the dominant female might turn into a male. I heard of ppl keeping them like 1 male and multiple females. Best of luck.

BTW. My female came out after 2 weeks and the male took nearly 4 weeks to show up in the open. Now they give the purple tang a run for the money.

 

[Kmst80]

My female

And the male

 

[i cant think]

Just added a small female would I be able to add another female if I find one?

It depends on the tank size

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

My female

And the male

Beautiful!!! Love swallowtail tails. Fav reef safe angel species. Good luck w them

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

This was my male from the lfs baco in 20. The female didn’t mKe transport and i tried to source another but it transitioned back to female and was a bummer. Will try again if a new build happens. But the pair is a must.

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

crazy how systems change but this was earlier stage, the swallowtail is there.

 

[Kmst80]

crazy how systems change but this was earlier stage, the swallowtail is there.

Thing is, if you add another female this one might turn back into male.
That clam is wicket, love it.

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

sry double

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

Thing is, if you add another female this one might turn back into male.
That clam is wicket, love it.

Yes but the availablity was t there at the time. Yes ty. She got big and then went to the the big bowl of linguine vongole in the sky. No eating was involved. lol