coral beauty

thinking about getting a coral beauty for my 55g reef tank! ive heard good and bad things. what do yall think?

 

What is in the tank already?

 

corals. i here they will eat corals

 

youve heard correct, its a crap shoot. You may get a nice one, or one that munches on all your coral, inverts, and possibly other fish. hard to tell..

 

Not only does this particular fish sometimes nip corals/clams but it is also necesssary to include some live sponge in its diet. Have you ever tried to catch an Angelfish in a reef tank? Remove all your rocks for starters.

 

Learn summin new every day...

 

Yup,

I love Coral Beauties, and it's a crap shoot. Some people say if you feed them more they will leave corals and clams alone. That never worked for me personally.

They can be a little harder to acclimate and reluctant to eat initially and yes marine sponges are important part of their diet and is often over looked.

There are now specific marine Angel foods that incorporate marine sponges.

 

I actually kept one alive for 10 years using this diet. They just don't seem to get as much nutrition from frozen sponge.Luckily my friend at the LFS would always grab me a few pieces once a month. Rock Beauty's are the same. People never have much luck long term with these particular angels and we have come to the conclusion its definitely the live sponge they need.

 

I've have one now for 2 years in my Neo Nano. Tank has a lot of SPS now. It's been a model citizen overall. Very early on I saw it nip Montipora - once - I moved that piece out of the swimming area and did not have a problem after that. I saw it nipping a clam mantle but that was when the clam was distressed after removing my sand. Not sure what to make of that.

Nothing since. I do not really feed it much. It gets some mysis and some very occasional formula. Otherwise it just eats algae.

I love that fish.

matt

 

I have a coral beauty in my 55, he is relatively nice to my inverts... You will from time to time see him stalk my camel shrimp but no harm comes to either. They are finicky eaters so +1 to everyone who said sponges, if I don't feed him them he eats off my live rock. But overall he is a great fish and he is beautiful I hope he is reef safe, it's always a 50/50