What Angels do you have in your reef? Besides beauties/flames

[CincyReefer07]

Just curious… what angelfish some of you keep in your reef tanks and what issues you’ve had or if you’ve had issues with them and if you did, did you do something to fix the issues or end up rehoming the angel?

I have a 310 gallon mixed reef, mostly small-ish frags right now. I thought I had my fish stocking list planned out, but the more I go over it, the more I think I might want something different or unique in it, and thinking maybe an angel or pair of angels might change that.

Currently in tank:
Gem tang
2-Yellow Tangs
2-Two-Banded Clowns
5-Bangaii Cardinals
1-Black Cap Basslet

In QT right now:
1-Magnificent Foxface

Plan on “possibly adding”:
1 - White Tail Bristletooth Tang
1 - Whitecheek Tang
1 - Blue Hippo Tang
1 - Naso Tang
1 - Blenny (Midas, Starry, or Tail Spot)
1 - Copperband or Pyramid Butterflyfish
1 - Bella Goby
2 - Blue Throat Triggers (male/female)
8-10 - Dispar or princess or bartletts Anthias (1 male)
1 - Rhomboid Wrasse
1 - another wrasse of some type

 

[davidcalgary29]

The only corallivores I have in my tanks are the spotband and copperband butterflyfishes, and a matted filefish. I gave up on keeping SPS in their tanks -- the spotband and filefish were particularly vicious -- but they leave LPS and softies alone. I have tibicen, multicolor, navarchus, and a Lamarck's angelfish, and none of them bother coral. I suppose that centropyge angels can pick at individual polyps as they graze around the tank, but mine have never really been interested in coral. I do keep them well-fed, though.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Just curious… what angelfish some of you keep in your reef tanks and what issues you’ve had or if you’ve had issues with them and if you did, did you do something to fix the issues or end up rehoming the angel?

I have a 310 gallon mixed reef, mostly small-ish frags right now. I thought I had my fish stocking list planned out, but the more I go over it, the more I think I might want something different or unique in it, and thinking maybe an angel or pair of angels might change that.

Currently in tank:
Gem tang
2-Yellow Tangs
2-Two-Banded Clowns
5-Bangaii Cardinals
1-Black Cap Basslet

In QT right now:
1-Magnificent Foxface

Plan on “possibly adding”:
1 - White Tail Bristletooth Tang
1 - Whitecheek Tang
1 - Blue Hippo Tang
1 - Naso Tang
1 - Blenny (Midas, Starry, or Tail Spot)
1 - Copperband or Pyramid Butterflyfish
1 - Bella Goby
2 - Blue Throat Triggers (male/female)
8-10 - Dispar or princess or bartletts Anthias (1 male)
1 - Rhomboid Wrasse
1 - another wrasse of some type

Potters

 

[CincyReefer07]

Potters

Is the potters one that’s hard or almost impossible to find due to the current Hawaii ban?

 

[hsosa]

I have a large lemon peel angel doesn't mess with corals and a bi color angel in qt rt now

 

[vetteguy53081]

Is the potters one that’s hard or almost impossible to find due to the current Hawaii ban?

Yes- I have this one 3+ years

 

[ChadmRoman]

I have or I guess will have once I add corals a regal and wantanbei (pair, female dies in transit) angels. I already had in a 200g a yellow, white tail, and blue tangs, fox face, 3 leapards, clowns, 3 fairy wrasses, blenny, and a few others I can’t think of at this moment.
I will eventually start adding SpS in the next cpl months once I get a little more established ecosystem.

 

[i cant think]

I have a regal among my 5-6 other Corallivores in a reef and none of them bother coral unless the coral is already doing badly and essentially dying. As you can see blurred in the back of this photo I have a bleaching acropora and all my fish dine on him but they only started it when he was beginning to bleach

 

[gators94]

Has anyone had luck with keeping an emperor in a reef tank?

 

[Tcook]

Watanabe and bellus. These are older pics. They are now sporting streamers.

 

[CincyReefer07]

Watanabe and bellus. These are older pics. They are now sporting streamers.

Those are two I’ve definitely considered adding to my list… do you have them in a m/f pairing or just one of each type? Ever have any issues with them with any other tank inhabitants?

 

[OrionN]

 

[CincyReefer07]

Beautiful angels… have you ever had any issues with nipping at corals from any of them? Or issues with other tank inhabitants?

 

[demonclownfish]

I've had a majestic angel in my "reef" for about 2 years now. I've learnt to not even bother with zoanthids/meaty LPS anymore. I feed nori/frozen large angel preparations/Thera pellets/PE flakes/Mysis/Basically everything. It won't satiate the interest that coral flesh peaks. Most all soft corals and SPS are safe however.

 

[Tcook]

Those are two I’ve definitely considered adding to my list… do you have them in a m/f pairing or just one of each type? Ever have any issues with them with any other tank inhabitants?

I added these separately and they don’t bother with any of the other fish. Watanabe will chase the bellus a little. More so now that I lost 6 anthias overnight and they dispersed things a bit.

 

[sczlars]

Yes, but not with Zoas/Palys, or nummy LPS. They seem to be mostly sps tanks. Look at Julian Sprung's tank, shown in the video where he also shows off his mangroves. (search youtube).

Has anyone had luck with keeping an emperor in a reef tank?

 

[Reefer911]

I have a couple of Watanabei Angels in QT now both are female but one is considerably bigger and they’re acting like a pair. Can’t wait to get them in their final home

 

[gcarcher59]

Has anyone had luck with keeping an emperor in a reef tank?

Go with the Japanese Swallowtail . I have a pair that don't mess with corals

 

[sczlars]

I have a C. nox. But its hell to photograph. I call it the inkblot.

 

[Zionas]

Do yourself a favor and get some angels. IMO they’re the most beautiful fish in the sea, body shapes, colors, and patterns considered. Coral Beauty and Flame are pretty and easy to find, Flame I would argue is the most beautiful out of all the dwarf angels when taking price and availability into consideration.

The Pygmy angels have a generally good reputation for reef safeness. Your Cherub, African Flameback (and the even more attractive Brazilian Flameback), Pacific Pygmy, and the now unobtainable Resplendent.

Some are very cryptic and / or deepwater, and IMO I wouldn’t put them in a tank with lots of big Tangs and active, more aggressive fish. Ones I’d put into this category are P. Multifasciata (Multi-Bar), P. Venusta (Purple Masked), C. Colini (Colin’s / Blue Backed), C. Aurantia (Golden). Their wild caught versions are notoriously hard to get feeding and acclimated, and Aurantia is well-known for being the target of cyanide collection due to its extremely cryptic habits. These are species I’d cringe to see in a tank full of big Tangs or Rabbitfish, I’d much prefer seeing them with smaller fish like Basslets, not too aggressive wrasses, Gobies, more peaceful Damsels and so on.

P. Boylei (Peopermint) and C. Narcosis (Narcosis) are all but unobtainable except for the very occasional specimen that makes its way into the tank of a dedicated collector with a specialized setup (both are very deepwater), or to Japan where people are more willing to pay a lot for fish than corals.

Potter’s is not the easiest dwarf Angel to get eating and acclimated, it’s pretty but Hawaii’s still….. in the middle of a big debate over whether to reopen wild fish collection, and if so, to what extent. It’s a mess.

Lemonpeel, Bicolor, Heraldi, Eibli and Half-Blacks don’t have the best reef safe reputation though some are doing fine in reefs and @OrionN has a harem of them. Really comes down to what you love more, the fish or the corals.

Onto larger angels, the Genicanthus genus are “medium” sized angels that are taxonomically fairly closely related to the Centropyge. In fact, some of the smaller species reach about the same size / don’t get much larger than the potential sizes of some of the largest Centropyge. They’re open water swimmers, plankton eaters, and generally have a decent to good reputation for not harming corals. You can mix species of Genicanthus angels, from what I’ve gathered usually there will be one male. Lamarck’s, Melanospilos, Bellus and Watanabei are attainable compared to the others. Haven’t seen Semifasciatus available in ages.

Majestic Angels are perhaps your best bet for size, temperament among the Pomacanthus genus. Gorgeous fish that grow quite slowly.

Regal Angels, not the easiest to get eating and adjusted, but are another one that grow slowly and many keep them successfully in reef tanks.

Chaetodontoplus angels contain one of my favorite Angel species, the Blue Lined. Poma Labs has captive bred ones for 300.00 each, well worth looking into. Wild Chaetodontoplus are a mixed bag in terms of success rates.

Apolemichthys, Bandits are some of my favorite but again, unavailable due to the situation in Hawaii. Karen Brittain might still be releasing CB ones every once in a while, but they’re very expensive. Your best bet would be a CB Goldflake from Biota when they’re available again. Do note that the breeder (Bali Aquarich) often mixes Goldflake / Flagfin hybrids in with the pedigree / “pure” Goldflakes, so it would be helpful to contact Biota or even post a pic here before you buy one. The hybrids look like an awkward compromise between the two species, pure Goldflakes are much prettier.

I haven’t mentioned Holacanthus, but I don’t know as much about them. The Passer, Queen, Blue Angels can get extremely aggressive as far as I know, while the French Angels (oops wait, they’re a Pomacanthus) get too big / too boisterous for everything but extremely large tanks.

In a 310, I would definitely take a look at everything except the Holacanthus. Pomacanthus the Majestic is your best choice, maybe an Emperor too (they get larger), and I would hesitate to add the shyer / more cryptic / deepwater Centropyge unless you want to set up a smaller system for them where they’re the main fish in the tank.

Good luck. I can’t imagine aquarium life without angels.