Are Flame Angels Reef destroyers or can they work?

I've always really wanted one but I would love to keep bubble corals, frogspawn, clams, zoas, etc. and I don't want it gobbling then up! Will it really come in and destroy my coral community or will it be ok if it is well feed?

Anyone with experience would really be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

Plain and simple.....It is a toss-up!

 

It depends, none of mine have been destroyers - i noticed the occasional nip but never 'grazing'. However i noticed they tended to nip more, the longer away from feeding time. - No matter, there is always the risk.

 

Yup, any Angel fish is a 50/50 chance.


luna

 

as stated above, its a chance you take. ive got a coral beauty and flame angel . neither of mine coral nipped or gone after my clams mantle. could be theyre well fed and theres lots for them to graze of my rocks and glass. but i do know others have had troubles with the dwarfs. good luck either way.

guy

 

I agree with the 50/50 chance. I happened to get lucky. Our Flame has never caused an issue but I've seen several at my LFS that have been brought in for being naughty.

 

I just took my flameback angel into the lfs in SLO because he started nipping my crocea clam and sps. That was a long ordeal to remove everything from the tank and then have to put it all back in. It took about 5 hours total and then still had to drive to SLO to drop him off.

 

How often were you feeding it spirulina flakes? We noticed our flame angel would "test" our open brain so we began feeding it once a day instead of every other day and it stopped messing around completely. Wonder if that would be the case for a flameback as well

BTW, hello neighbor! Isn't Andreas awesome over at Tropics?

 

It took me 3 months to catch a Key Hole Angel that was nipping at just about everything. I used a fish trap.


luna

 

I fed him at least 3 times a day. That little thing could eat, it was never satisfied. Once it developed a taste for sps and clam it would pick on those all day long. Yeah, Andreas is a good guy, not the kind to tell you anything to make a buck. When I bought the angel from him he warned me that they could get nippy with clams and sps.