Putting an Angler into a reef?

[ZoaFan08]

I just got a ******* angler and wanted to put him in my display tank. They say they are reef safe but I am curious if anyone has done this? My fish include:

2 marron clowns (female is BIG male is small)
1 Royal Gamma (I think he'll be food)
1 Yellow tang
1 blue tang
1 sailfin tang
1 diamond goby
1 barb anthias
1 mystery wrass
1 exquisite wrass
2 bar gobys (not too small)
2 cleaner shrimp
2 fire shrimp
1 harlequin shrimp

Will the angler eat my shrimp? The angler is small and my shrimp are a good size.

Any thoughts? I was going to just keep him in my frag tank but he is so amazing looking I really want him in my display.

 

[Gimili the Great]

i would be more worried about the angler becoming bigger and eating fish

 

[ZoaFan08]

The angler is a dwarf so it should not get too big. Besides the only fish I am worried about him eating is my royal gamma, everything else is too big except the maroon clown but he stays up top in an anemone.

 

[Sikryd]

It will sit on your coral/rocks and eat smaller fish it will eventually entice with its "fishing pole".

 

[MikeD88]

Dude, of he gets hungry enough.... he will eat anything that is equal in size to him. I completely advise against it. My LFS wouldn't even sell me one unless I had a dedicated tank for it. They should be your only fish, or the rest will become diner sooner or later

 

[bbdreaux]

if you do just be prepared that is a complete preditory fish and I have had several over a several years and they usually will even go after fish larger if intised or hungry enough. they are also difficult due to they usually need to be spot fed in the reef to get enough substance to be healthy.

 

[ZoaFan08]

The only thing is size even close to him is my royal gamma, everything else is 2-3x bigger than him.

As far as him sitting on my corals I am not that concerned about that, my blenny does that all day.

 

[ZoaFan08]

if you do just be prepared that is a complete preditory fish and I have had several over a several years and they usually will even go after fish larger if intised or hungry enough. they are also difficult due to they usually need to be spot fed in the reef to get enough substance to be healthy.

How often do you feed them? The guy I bought him from said he feeds him 1 or 2 times a week with silversides or ghost shrimp. Can I feed him krill? Squid?

 

[MikeD88]

Consider the gamma lunch eventualy, and like bbdreaux said... it'll even go after thing bigger than it

 

[oceanparadise1]

You say that your fish are to big, a buddie of mine had a small angler at his shop, one day he turned around and it had a orange shoulder tang almost all the way down, he caught it just in time and when he scooped the angler it droped the tang...tang was easy 6-8 inches about 4 times bigger then the angler

 

[ZoaFan08]

YOu say he your fish are to big, a buddie of mine had a small angler at his shop, one day he turned around and it had a orange shoulder tang almost all the way down, he caught it just in time and when he scooped the angler it droped the tang...tang was easy 6-8 inches about 4 times bigger then the angler

Wow, I knew they would eat things their size but 4x their size?

 

[Sikryd]

A buddy in my local club had one and it munched all his fish - including a foxface I think (almost positive)

 

[bbdreaux]

you should feed 3 to 4 times a week. the reason I have found for this is they seem to loose interest and start preying on a live source of food more agressively if not fed enough. I have had one stop eating for 2 weeks from not feeding more than 2xs a wk. It was like he forgot the food I was putting in front of his face was good, but he eventully turned around and I fed him 4xs a wk and he stayed intered. i had him for about a yr and half then gave him to a friend for his 24 nano.

 

[ZoaFan08]

What did you feed yours?

 

[bbdreaux]

have always fed silversides, and pieces of squid you can pick up at a asian market.

 

[GrouperGenius]

A great fish for a species ONLY tank. Reef safe in the fact that they will not bother your corals, but they will try to eat anything remotely able to fit in their face.

Maybe not the answer you want...

 

[ZoaFan08]

A great fish for a species ONLY tank. Reef safe in the fact that they will not bother your corals, but they will try to eat anything remotely able to fit in their face.

Maybe not the answer you want...

The plan all along was to put him in my 24x24x12 frag tank all alone but he is such an awesome looking angler I wanted to see if he could go in my display.

I have never seen an angler with his colorings before.

 

[oceanparadise1]

Got any pictures?

 

[ZoaFan08]

Got any pictures?

I wil take some give me a few minutes.

 

[ZoaFan08]

All I have is a crappy point and shoot, its a vibrant orange with bright yellow. As soon as I saw the fish I kept going back multiple times during the day to look at it again and at the end I just had to have it.