Tips for Rock Beauty Angelfish

[Mjpisanti]

Hello all! I've been in the aquarium hobby with my father for several years now, and he's been doing it himself for a little over forty years now. In the past, like when i was a baby, my father kept a very successful completely overcrowded 65g tank with a beautiful rock beauty angel, a Cortez, and several other fish that shouldn't have been in there by pure dumb luck i guess. All the fish got along wonderfully and lived for years until a house move where the fish sadly did not make it because of moving complications. Once we got back into the hobby, now that I'm older and have found an appreciation of it myself, we have tried to keep a rock beauty again since it is his favorite fish. We have a larger tank now, and will actually be upgrading to a 125 or 150 in some time. We were not able to successfully keep the Rock beauty this time around no matter what we did. Our tank has been established over two years with tons of live rock, healthy growth on the rocks, cope-pods in the tank, and peaceful tank mates. We have a skimmer and UV light, which my father did not have the first go around years ago with the successful rock beauty. I was just wondering before we upgrade the tank and seek to try a rock beauty again in the future if anyone has tips for successfully keeping one healthy and happy?

 

[Reefing Madness]

With that one, its all in the diet. What are yoiu planning on feeding it? If I'm not mistaken, that one is a sponge eater.

 

[Mjpisanti]

Yes it is we feed mega marine angel along with mysis and brine

 

[Reefing Madness]

Right on, should be fine there.

 

[specialk]

One of my favorite fish as well. I was always told that they are one of the harder fishes to keep as it is tough to get them to eat. For me, I was able to keep one successfully for a long time. Before I bought the one that I kept, I had seen several more that were not eating at the LFS. The one I piulled the trigger on WAS eating at the LFS. It turned out to go right in my tank after 2 weeks in QT and eating like crazy straight from the pet store. Pretty simple concept for when buying a fish from your LFS, but if they are alreadyeating there... you should be well on your way to a happy fish. Just my experience and 2 cents.

 

[Mjpisanti]

The funny thing Isi went through several rock beauties that wouldn't survive tried one flag Finn instead and I've had it for 6 months now

 

[stunreefer]

Start by finding a good source for the fish, quality over price point is crucial. As with many angels they come in riddled with flukes and/or internal parasites. Put them in an established QT with plenty of hiding places (large PVC fittings work great), get them eating well and treat with Praziquantel (Prazipro is great). Conditioning them by themselves (no tankmates) will keep stress low and should get them nice and fat within a couple months. Feed clams, mysis and other high protein foods. If they don't accept prepared foods right off the bat keep a good supply of live brine on hand and enrich with Selcon and Phyto.