Thoughts on Flame Angel chasing Coral Beauty.

[edsbeaker]

I need some advice.

I added a flame angel and a coral beauty at the same time to my tank 9 days ago. The flame is chasing the coral beauty. He doesn’t attack, just chases him to the back corner of the tank whenever he sees that the coral beauty leaves that spot to graze in other areas of the tank.

My question is can I give it a few weeks to see if it settles down before I remove the flame angel or will this likely be too stressful on the coral beauty?

How likely would it be that if I remove the flame angel for a week or two and then put him back in with the coral beauty that he won’t be as territorial?

 

[blaxsun]

Hard to say. What's the size of your tank? I have 3 dwarf angels in mine and the key to them all getting along is that they each have their own "lair". I also feed heavily and deliver seaweed in multiple portions so they can each have their own.

You could try the mirror "trick" (hanging a mirror one on side of the tank); that may or may not work.

My midnight chased the coral beauty around for a few days and then they bonded and became fast friends.

 

[edsbeaker]

The tank is 75 gallons, but it’s a 3 X 2’ foot print.
Every one of my last 5 tanks has had a coral beauty and flame angel with no issues until this one, so I’ve never had to deal with this.

Is the purpose of the mirror to distract the flame angel from chasing the coral beauty because he thinks he is seeing another flame angel? I will give it a try

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

My Flameback chased my Midnight, for an awhile in my 120, then got tired of this, and pretty much stopped. Sometimes I see them swimming together. I had a Single Clam Shell, they like to fight over. Now I have three. Wouldn’t you know, the decided to share, the first one.

 

[Cody Seer]

I’ve actually been running into the same problem. I quarantined for 30 days with Hybrid TTM. The flame angel and coral beauty were together in a 10 gallon the whole time, and the coral beauty slightly picked on the flame.

I put them in a 100 G DT (at the same time since they’d been together) and now the flame angel won’t let the coral beauty leave the top corner of the tank… really confusing.

 

[Sleepingtiger]

My experience. My emperor and blueface as established residents. When adding the asfur, they went after the asfur pretty hard as he was forced to the upper rear of tank. After a day, the aggression died down. By the forth day, there was little chasing but the asfur was still limited to the upper half of the tank.
The asfur came down with some sickness so I had to catch him and move him to a quarantine tank for a few days. Now after 2 weeks, the asfur are buddy buddy with both the emperor and bluface. He is able to swim anywhere he wants with little aggression. He even swims next to the emperor in the same cave.

There are a few fish that I wont recommend doing this to are tangs and especially the powder blue tang. He went after the asfur with a vengeance. I had to tear apart the tank to fish out the powder blue or else he would of killed the asfur for sure.

 

[Cody Seer]

My experience. My emperor and blueface as established residents. When adding the asfur, they went after the asfur pretty hard as he was forced to the upper rear of tank. After a day, the aggression died down. By the forth day, there was little chasing but the asfur was still limited to the upper half of the tank.
The asfur came down with some sickness so I had to catch him and move him to a quarantine tank for a few days. Now after 2 weeks, the asfur are buddy buddy with both the emperor and bluface. He is able to swim anywhere he wants with little aggression. He even swims next to the emperor in the same cave.

There are a few fish that I wont recommend doing this to are tangs and especially the powder blue tang. He went after the asfur with a vengeance. I had to tear apart the tank to fish out the powder blue or else he would have killed the asfur for sure.

Thanks for sharing your experience! I’m thinking about getting the coral beauty and putting him in an acclimation box for a week as he does have a little fin damage from the flame angel nipping. The Hippo tang in the tank can be a little territorial but it’s that way to all the other fish, so I think the real problem is just the flame angel. No way I can catch the flame angel though without tearing down the tank haha!

 

[BeanAnimal]

The acclimation box may help. They also may settle in on their own, or never. Everyone will have a method or example but those are just anecdotal and the only thing you can really count on is the fish coming to some form of agreement about territory.

Some fish will bash each other to shreds for a period of time and then become friends. Other fish will be friends and then turn on each other for some reason. The only thing you can do is play referee and disrupt the behavior when it happens and/or decide when to call the TKO and remove one of the fish if things don't improve.

If there is no physical damage and it is not escalating then you have more time to observe and see if things settle. Be careful of one of them landing on the floor though.

If there is physical contact and damage (fin tears, bites, bruises, etc.) and the behavior has NOT improved, then you need to use the acclimation box and try again or permanently separate the fish. Sometimes adding a neutral fish of wholly different body type can also be distracting enough to stop the violence.

 

[Cody Seer]

The acclimation box may help. They also may settle in on their own, or never. Everyone will have a method or example but those are just anecdotal and the only thing you can really count on is the fish coming to some form of agreement about territory.

Some fish will bash each other to shreds for a period of time and then become friends. Other fish will be friends and then turn on each other for some reason. The only thing you can do is play referee and disrupt the behavior when it happens and/or decide when to call the TKO and remove one of the fish if things don't improve.

If there is no physical damage and it is not escalating then you have more time to observe and see if things settle. Be careful of one of them landing on the floor though.

If there is physical contact and damage (fin tears, bites, bruises, etc.) and the behavior has NOT improved, then you need to use the acclimation box and try again or permanently separate the fish. Sometimes adding a neutral fish of wholly different body type can also be distracting enough to stop the violence.

Still observing - coral beauty is still restrained to the top of the tank but no additional damage and it’s still eating. I released my bicolor blenny into the 100G DT from the acclimation box and the flame put it in its place, but now they seem fine.

So it’s just the Coral beauty that the flame won’t let down into the tank. It swims at the top of the tank all day until lights out.

Thinking about catching the flame instead for a few days - but has proven challenging. I don’t want to tear up my scape to get him, any tips? I’ve sat a net in there so they are getting comfortable with it, but the flame is skiddish.

 

[BeanAnimal]

As long as no damage is being done, then it should be safe to let them sort it out. You will just have to judge if it is getting any better or not.

 

[Cody Seer]

As long as no damage is being done, then it should be safe to let them sort it out. You will just have to judge if it is getting any better or not.

Over the past week there was no improvement - Coral beauty still confined to the top corner.

So I had ordered a mirror and placed it by the tank and no the flame angel can’t stop focusing on the mirror lol. Coral beauty has been exploring the tank for the first time. Hopefully it lasts!

 

[michealprater]

Best thing I ever did for catching fish was put a glass jug in with food in it and wait. They go in and cant get out. Catch wrong fish, just pour him out. You have to feed exclusively from it for a couple days.
www.amazon.com/Luminarc-Quadro-2-Liter-Glass-Pitcher/dp/B0013Z9NY0/ref=sr_1_33?keywords=glass%2Bdrink%2Bjug&qid=1699030676&sr=8-33&th=1