Multiple dwarf angels in one tank?

[i cant think]

Yup, my experience with HLLE are mainly with the larger angelfish (e.g. Blue Lip, Koran, etc.) and tang (e.g. Hippo).. not with the small fishes.

Can understand.. in fact i am struggling with a similar issue myself (with ich and velvet that killed many of my fishes).. only managed move a few to my QT and only 3 survived (1 coral beauty, 1 purple elegance goby & 1 electric blue damsel).

Now, i still have 2 more fish in the tank -- a purple elegance and tiger goby which i am not able to catch (no matter how I try).. and i am not ready to take down the rock work of my 5ft tank... so i am stuck with these 2 guys in the tank still before i could go fellow... any suggestions on what to do in my case? Thanks.

Night time, wait for lights off and then feed them. This is how I usually get fish that don’t sleep in the sand (It’s nightmare fuel trying to get sand sleeping wrasses out of a tank I can tell you that now).

 

[Laith]

I haven't had the time to read through the whole thread but wanted to give my experience.

I have a Potters, Coral Beauty and a Bicolor in my tank, (as well as a Majestic, but that's not a dwarf angelfish).

At the beginning I had fighting between the Potters and Coral Beauty (the Coral Beauty was established in the tank when I introduced the other two dwarfs).

But now, two years after setting up the tank, things between them have calmed down. The Coral Beauty and Potter's sometimes chase each other but it seems harmless compared to the war I had between them previously.

The Bicolor has never been an issue.

And, by the way, none of my Angelfish have ever nibbled at any of my coral, at least as far as I can tell.

I think the size of your tank has a big influence on how any territorial fish behave in a tank. They have quite a bit of room in my tank to ignore each other.

 

[ssunthar]

Night time, wait for lights off and then feed them. This is how I usually get fish that don’t sleep in the sand (It’s nightmare fuel trying to get sand sleeping wrasses out of a tank I can tell you that now).

 

[Zionas]

I wonder if captive bred specimens of finicky and difficult wild species will give trouble.

I would love a pair or trio of CB Venusta or Multibars but the wild ones are a pain so I wonder whether these biologically wired traits carry over to CB specimens.

 

[reefsamurai]

I was concerned with the potters and coral beauty being similar colours but nope they all got on really well. They all had plenty of habitat based scape to play with though. I had loads of rock. I'll post a photo shortly. This was a photo taken a few weeks before I added an Emperor angel that had velvet and killed every fish in this tank except the clowns the regal tang who is still with me to this day. Huge lesson learned that day...the values of quarantine are endless!

I understand your pain. I haven't updated because I have no good news to report. The rusty passed and the whitetail is now MIA. I have since realized I do not have ICH. I have velvet and I'm trying some reef safe methods as we really don't have room for a hospital tank big enough for these guys. The trigger alone is the size of a small football.

We are trying to figure a way to do some sort of extra tank or something to move all the fish into that is treatable so the main display can go fallow for a few months. I read the report from the Texas U study that found velvet still free swimming after 72 days.

 

[i cant think]

I understand your pain. I haven't updated because I have no good news to report. The rusty passed and the whitetail is now MIA. I have since realized I do not have ICH. I have velvet and I'm trying some reef safe methods as we really don't have room for a hospital tank big enough for these guys. The trigger alone is the size of a small football.

We are trying to figure a way to do some sort of extra tank or something to move all the fish into that is treatable so the main display can go fallow for a few months. I read the report from the Texas U study that found velvet still free swimming after 72 days.

I hope you can get your angels and fish past this!! You caught it early so there’s time to think IMO but don’t leave it too late, maybe an hour or two of plan and the next few days action.

 

[reefsamurai]

Fast update, we are going to try something drastic today. We are going to attempt the peroxide dip method and help relieve the gills of the fish we can see are still alive. Wish us luck. I'm most likely going to be dismantling rockwork to do this so maybe I can confirm any other Mia fish.

 

[reefsamurai]

That was a giant ordeal and proved to me that I have way more rockwork in the display that is necessary. I have emptied excess rockwork to the sump and still feel like I have too much rock in the main display. I caught all remaining fish I can confirm alive. I found ZERO bodies from the following;
Male Bella Goby
Lemonpeel hybrid
Flame Angel
Rusty Angel
Bicolor Angel
Whitetail Angel

I was unable to catch but confirmed sighting of the cherub angel and Atlantic blue tang. The Atlantic looks terrible but is still fast AF and the cherub looks good and has lots of fight left. The eibli looks unphased as does the giant rabbitfish but they got the dip along with the sailfin and my heartbreaks, the pink tail trigger. I could have scooped him up with my hand. I have turned off the skimmer and dosed rally as it claims to help and is reef safe. We shall see on that front. I bought a small hospital tank for this deal but pulling rocks out was an undertaking that I do not look forward too as I have tons of blue white and orange sponge growth. I've heard exposure to open air will kill sponge but I have no first hand experience with this.

We looked at each other tonight and agreed we will never ever add anything to this tank without dips and quarantine. The heartache and financial hits are not worth it.

 

[reefsamurai]

Sunday, not funday update. We lost the pink tail overnight. I had a feeling this was the case and if I had found the peroxide dip method sooner I feel like I could have saved it. So far that is the only current casualty from last night. Some of the corals look ticked off, most likely due to the rally I put in the system but I believe they will live. Everyone else is present and accounted for. Even the Atlantic blue that didn't get dipped looks better than yesterday. I will be continuing with the Dr. Tim's as that has appeared to help everyone. I feel like we can get past this but I WILL need to eventually get some sort of temp tank to house the remaining fish in so the DT can go fallow and the rest can be treated and rid the system of the deadly disease. I will never be able to add in more angels until it's disease free.

 

[reefsamurai]

This is the new rock structure and then much went into the sump... We had to clear out half the cheato to fit the rocks. We can't loose piglet or the sailfin. Those two have been with us almost from the beginning 3 years ago.

 

[i cant think]

This is the new rock structure and then much went into the sump... We had to clear out half the cheato to fit the rocks. We can't loose piglet or the sailfin. Those two have been with us almost from the beginning 3 years ago.

Fingers crossed! Your tank is so nice, hopefully you find some of the MIA angels through this too.

 

[reefsamurai]

Fingers crossed! Your tank is so nice, hopefully you find some of the MIA angels through this too.

Honestly I would be surprised if I find any angel other than the whitetail. That one is tiny and can hide anywhere. The others were so brightly colored and I moved all but three rocks last night. When I pulled the pink tail(a 6"+ fish) they already had his eyes gone and his body was covered in a decaying slime. The only other one I could see as a surprise would be the bicolor since it was tiny tiny.

We are going to start to insulate the garage so we can eventually regulate the temps down there more easily and get started on the 4x8 sooner rather than later. I'll make a separate build thread on that when it comes time but the plan will be to move all the rock and sand to that tank and let it go fallow for months. I don't know what I want to do with these guys as now we have a quarter the amount of fish. I don't want to medicate the 220 as we would like to use that as a separate display eventually or a spare removal tank.

 

[Bill Urbanski]

Interuptus. Gold flake. Emperor. Chrysurus joculator. No issues in a 260

 

[reefsamurai]

The hits keep coming, wife informed me at lunch that we lost the sailfin. That fish has been with us along with the rabbitfish. We bought them together and they have been buddies. We are now down to the rabbit, cherub, eibli and Atlantic blue surgeon...

 

[i cant think]

The hits keep coming, wife informed me at lunch that we lost the sailfin. That fish has been with us along with the rabbitfish. We bought them together and they have been buddies. We are now down to the rabbit, cherub, eibli and Atlantic blue surgeon...

I’m so sorry for that loss… I know how it feels (It’s not the same fish but I lost my first ever clownfish about 7-8 years after owning it due to an ammonia spike). I hope the last 4 make it though, I think the rabbit will die to the tick slime coating whereas the tangs have a thin slime coat.

 

[reefsamurai]

I’m so sorry for that loss… I know how it feels (It’s not the same fish but I lost my first ever clownfish about 7-8 years after owning it due to an ammonia spike). I hope the last 4 make it though, I think the rabbit will die to the tick slime coating whereas the tangs have a thin slime coat.

We have gone at least 24 hrs without any more deaths. Current survivors are Piglet the rabbit fish, Happy the Atlantic Blue Surgeon, the eibli and the cherub angel. Nobody comes out though really nobody swims around. Everyone is plastered under the overhangs. There's the occasional dart out but for the most part they stay under wraps. All we can do is make a lesson learned and move forward.

I'll keep this thread randomly updated as we still have two living angels so we shall see how the future goes!

 

[reefsamurai]

We made it through Thanksgiving and we officially have one surviving member of the band. I don't know if it's patient zero or too tough to die but the Cherub angel is currently the last man standing. The rabbit fish was lost on Thanksgiving day itself along with I think the eibli(although that one just disappeared) and the Atlantic blue passed Friday night. The cherub does have tattered fins and may be fighting the disease quietly but still looks decent and unlike the others is eating very well.

I hope that those reading this thread can come to grips how deadly velvet is and how impossible it is to treat in a full blown reef tank. Even with us dipping these fish they all still died. You are playing with fire just buying fish and putting them directly in the display tank. I gambled for three plus years not doing QT because I have 25 years in the hobby so "I know what I'm doing". That is false. You ask why there isn't mass extinctions on the reef from velvet? It's simple really. It's the difference between farting in an elevator or farting on a motorcycle.

We have considered buying a trough from tractor supply just to house the live rock so we can drain the tank and remove the cherub so that the tank CAN go fallow.

 

[i cant think]

We made it through Thanksgiving and we officially have one surviving member of the band. I don't know if it's patient zero or too tough to die but the Cherub angel is currently the last man standing. The rabbit fish was lost on Thanksgiving day itself along with I think the eibli(although that one just disappeared) and the Atlantic blue passed Friday night. The cherub does have tattered fins and may be fighting the disease quietly but still looks decent and unlike the others is eating very well.

I hope that those reading this thread can come to grips how deadly velvet is and how impossible it is to treat in a full blown reef tank. Even with us dipping these fish they all still died. You are playing with fire just buying fish and putting them directly in the display tank. I gambled for three plus years not doing QT because I have 25 years in the hobby so "I know what I'm doing". That is false. You ask why there isn't mass extinctions on the reef from velvet? It's simple really. It's the difference between farting in an elevator or farting on a motorcycle.

We have considered buying a trough from tractor supply just to house the live rock so we can drain the tank and remove the cherub so that the tank CAN go fallow.

I’m so sorry for you, especially on how the rabbit died on thanksgiving… I hope the cherub survives! If the eibli just vanished then there’s still hope. I still don’t QT because of the fish I have being sensitive to copper (Tilefish, Wrasses, Tang, CBB ect…), if I didn’t want those fish then I would do QT but I leave my LFS to do it and then get them when theyre healthy and fat (If they’re already healthy, eating, 0 sign of illness then sure I will get it that week - I do not like to do this with the sensitive fish, as for wrasse I will do this with the flasher, fairies and Halichoeres).

 

[blaxsun]

I hope that those reading this thread can come to grips how deadly velvet is and how impossible it is to treat in a full blown reef tank. Even with us dipping these fish they all still died. You are playing with fire just buying fish and putting them directly in the display tank. I gambled for three plus years not doing QT because I have 25 years in the hobby so "I know what I'm doing". That is false. You ask why there isn't mass extinctions on the reef from velvet? It's simple really. It's the difference between farting in an elevator or farting on a motorcycle.

Sorry to hear of your losses and experience. I had a run-in with velvet back in July that trojan horsed its way into my system through a quarantined and copper-treated fish. There's a not too subtle irony in that this was my first batch of quarantined fish...

I think a person needs to find a system that best works for them. The trough is a good idea; we turned ours into a puppy paddling pool after using it for rock.

 

[dieselkeeper]

Sorry for your loss. In the past, I lost most of my fish to ich. Now I quarantine all my fish. I use to treat every single fish with copper. I lost more fish then ones that made it to the main tank. I now quarantine them just for observation for 4 to 6 weeks. I only treat if needed. Can't remember the last time I treated a fish. Quarantine also gets them eating without competition from other fish. I also ask to see the fish eat before purchase. If it doesn't eat, it stays there. Healthy eating fish can fight off diseases. This is the way I find what works for me.