Reef tank angel keepers- what's your secret?

[cdw79]

I've considered a dwarf angel for years, and am now moving to a 180 gal mixed reef. Planning my stocking list and flirting with the idea of a dwarf angelfish, but the risk is intimidating. For those who have found success, what have you done that has helped? Or, what options would be the "most" reef safe, and what does that look like in practice?



PS I think I saw a forum post years back that said if you add angels before coral, which sounded bizarre but I'm admittedly fascinated as to whether there is any truth in that

 

[albano]

Since starting salt water fish keeping in 1973. I’ve almost always had a flame angel and a coral beauty together in various size tanks. Never a problem that I can recall.
The main ‘secret’ to my success was adding the fish to my tank and feeding them every day. Other than that, it’s basically up to them!

 

[cdw79]

Does heavy feeding make a big difference?

I feel like I've read accounts of flames, for example, being great for years, all of a sudden trying a bite of trachy or acan, then becoming little terrors. But I'm not sure if that's overblown

 

[littlefoxx]

Does heavy feeding make a big difference?

I feel like I've read accounts of flames, for example, being great for years, all of a sudden trying a bite of trachy or acan, then becoming little terrors. But I'm not sure if that's overblown

I have a wild caught adult regal in my tank. She doesnt touch my corals! But I do feed her and the other fish well and give her a clam on the half shell every other day and she picks at that. Never had any dwarf angels touch a coral. If you have a 170 I say try the regal! Challenging to get to eat and needs lots of research before hand but they are beautiful and very rewarding to watch swim around if you decide your tank is good for them and youre up for the challenge they bring. Ive got GSP, goni, leather, zoas, chalices and leathers in with her now and she doesnt touch them, only goes for the clam. Here is my girl Annabelle

 

[00W]

I've had a coral beauty for 5,6,7 I don't know how many years now.
Never touched a coral of any kind but beaten up a bunch of other fish along the way.
I feed heavy but he never seems to eat much. He grazes all day. He's fat and always looking for a fight.
Honestly each one has their own thing going on and no matter which one you choose, you take a good chance.
Mine just seems completely uninterested in coral.
He's the only dwarf I've ever kept with coral so I can't speak for any of the others and I've had a few.

 

[i cant think]

I have a Majestic, Regal and Coral Beauty in my tank. None of them harm coral that I know of but I put coral in the tank based around them. I know generally what won’t work and what will.
Here’s what I know likely won’t work;
Trachys
Scolys
Wellso
Acans
Zoas

And what I know does work;
Torches
Hammers
Frogspawn
Mushrooms
Leathers
Duncans
Chilli

So I stick to these guys, if a coral looks expensive I’ll try and find a similar in texture & looks piece that I like but isn’t so expensive and try it in my tank. If it doesn’t work then I know the other piece wouldn’t but if it does I know I can risk the money and likely have it work out. Although currently I can’t really have many LPS as my starfish population was out of control and just ate the other LPS (luckily they avoided my prized Hammer coral).

Another trick (aside from just constantly feeding) is supposedly if you get them all juvenile they likely won’t go for coral. I don’t know how true this is as I’ve got and have had mature CBs that are as reef safe as the juveniles.
Another thing is if you don’t want the risk, Genicanthus angels are generally 97% reef safe with the odd one or two specimens that have been seen nipping on coral. I’ve had a Melanospilos (although it looked as though it was a hybrid) and she was up and swimming in the current whereas my current three are mainly swimming in and around the rocks.

 

[blaxsun]

I have 3 dwarf angels; 2 are model citizens and 1 is a complete a**hat when it comes to acans and blastos.

 

[UtahReefer]

I have always wanted several angels in the systems that I have had over the years. These were all SPS systems and every time I wanted to pull the trigger I chickened out because of the possible threat to my corals. In my present system I do have an angel, a juvenile Lemark. The Genicanthus Angels are plankton feeders and generally will not pick on corals. My has been a model citizen, only picking at the rock and loves the Nori along with the tangs.

 

[exnisstech]

I have a coral beauty with sps and one lobo. I haven't seen it touch anything. I also have a flame angel with sps and lps including some fleshy pieces like acanthophylia and a fox coral. I haven't seen it touch anything either. I don't do anything special. I do feed 3 times a day so maybe that helps. Fish were added after coral. Maybe I'm just lucky

 

[i cant think]

I have a Majestic, Regal and Coral Beauty in my tank. None of them harm coral that I know of but I put coral in the tank based around them. I know generally what won’t work and what will.
Here’s what I know likely won’t work;
Trachys
Scolys
Wellso
Acans
Zoas

And what I know does work;
Torches
Hammers
Frogspawn
Mushrooms
Leathers
Duncans
Chilli

So I stick to these guys, if a coral looks expensive I’ll try and find a similar in texture & looks piece that I like but isn’t so expensive and try it in my tank. If it doesn’t work then I know the other piece wouldn’t but if it does I know I can risk the money and likely have it work out. Although currently I can’t really have many LPS as my starfish population was out of control and just ate the other LPS (luckily they avoided my prized Hammer coral).

Another trick (aside from just constantly feeding) is supposedly if you get them all juvenile they likely won’t go for coral. I don’t know how true this is as I’ve got and have had mature CBs that are as reef safe as the juveniles.
Another thing is if you don’t want the risk, Genicanthus angels are generally 97% reef safe with the odd one or two specimens that have been seen nipping on coral. I’ve had a Melanospilos (although it looked as though it was a hybrid) and she was up and swimming in the current whereas my current three are mainly swimming in and around the rocks.

Here’s all 3;

 

[Tori]

I have, I think probably quite a few dwarf angels for one tank, and in my opinion the secret is just being okay with them nipping at coral. I did have one Lemonpeel that even went beyond even my comfort zone no one else has been that bad. You probably want to be okay with changing your coral stocking plans if needed. I can't have acans anymore but blastos are fine for some reason.

 

[i cant think]

Update on my display and these 3.

As you can see, I still have my corals. I have Hammers, Mushrooms, Leathers and Chilli Corals currently as I had the Starfish issue (as said above), however these still don’t touch coral. Do you have any updates? Did you go for an Angel?

 

[JayM]

I've got a Lemonpeel that was introduced a month before I had any corals. I've since added a zoa frag, a softball sized GSP colony, a tennis ball sized colony of some sort of clove polyp, and a small hammer. I initially thought he was eating the cloves, but after watching closely, he's just pecking at stuff on the rock that they're growing on. Gets along great with all of the other inhabitants, though he will occasionally chase my Flame Hawk for a second or two. He also appears to be in love with the recent Skunk Shrimp addition. Spends more time with it than any of the other fish.

I'd still really love to have a Flame or Coral Beauty, but 80 gallons may be a bit small, and considering I lucked out with a peaceful Lemonpeel that doesn't eat coral, I'm not sure I should roll the dice again.

 

[Reefer911]

I have a lemon peel that took a liking to my leptastrea…either that or pecking at pods on the coral. It will also nip a little at some zoas. There’s one zoa colony that it seems to leave alone. Since adding the lemon peel, it seems that my coral beauty has taken some lessons from her and looks more interested in certain corals. But I haven’t noticed the coral beauty outright eating any. I also have a torch and 2 gonis that are left alone.
I want a chalice of some sort but heard lemon peels will eat those too. I do have a few acros that the lemon peel will peck at but I’m not sure it’s enough to damage them (I’ve done more damage to corals trying to dial things in than the lemon peel has).

Also in the same tank are two watanabei angels who leave all corals alone. Hopefully they pair up and one turns to male

 

[michealprater]

I have kept dwarfs in tanks for years. Only nipping Ive ever seen was when they were working some algae in an area and it was incidental. From what I can tell they prefer the algae far more, as they are herbivores. Feed them lots, and sheets of nori can help as well. I would never hesitate to put dwarfs in a reef tank. I consider them reef safe. I have also experimented with larger angels as well. Lets just say I love my zoas far to much to do it again. At one time I did have a regal, emperor, blueface, majestic, bellus, flame, coral beauty, flameback and potters all together in a very large system. I was only able to keep SPS in that system, but it did work. Hope that helps, just my personal experience.