dwarf angels: opinions?

I have kept a coral beauty in my mixed reef for the last 7 years. I love its colors. He can be aggressive towards other fish with a similar shape and size. It is the oldest and hardiest fish I have. He will nip occasionally (especially when not fed regularly.)

 

Crap!
None of you are making this decision any easier! Haha! u all make very compelling points.
So.....
I personally like the look of the flame angel, but with everyone saying they don't last, I don't think that's the way to go. I'm sad about this....
Second for me would be the potter's angel, but I can't seem to find any compelling info, plus I keep my tank pretty warm. Gonna have to do further research....
and the coral beauty seems to be winning so far....

 

I kept a flame for a couple years until I let my tanks fitler plug up and stop causing a mini crash that killed all my coral and the angel. Theyre sensative fish and will be the first to perish in suboptimal conditions. I wouldnt shy away from keeping a flame, theyre great little buggers!

 

Over the years I've had both a Flame & a Coral Beauty. I ended up selling the CB for the Flame. The Flame was one of my favorite fish that lasted almost two years until he perished in the greater tank crash of 2014. He started in my mixed reef 75gal and he was fine with the corals I had (mostly softies though) and got along with my Firefish, chromis I had in there at the time. Go with the Flame!

 

I'd go with the flame as well. Just feed a varied diet and keep up with proper husbandry. Making sure you find a healthy specimen that's eating is preferred. I've kept a flame and a coral beauty without issues besides coral nipping

 

I currently have a CB, and Flame.

Nice fish.
Easy to keep, mine don't mess with my corals either.

Ooh look, my avatar is my F.A.

 

Alot of you are saying something about have both, a flame and a coral beauty. Are u keeping both in the same tank? I didn't think u were supposed to do this? How large is the tank?

 

Its hard to find good up to date information regarding this and most of what you do find comes from old posts where someone asks about it, person b said they did it successfully, and then 20 people saying that idiots likeperson b encourage newbies try it without posting any information about how long they were successful with it and when the fish mature itll be disaster but do not psot any actual factual information themselves.

Many dwarf angels in the wild form harems or pairs much like anthias. Like the anthias, these harems are often hard to replicate in captivity as in the wild there is unlimited space and a large supply of food. Aggression usually comes from a lack of one of these things so going this in small or bare tanks does not work. Also male dominance also plays a role and unlike anthias, angels are usually very difficult to sex. This is why it is suggested that you find completely difference angels and buy them small and introduce them at the same time to minimize these risk. Fish that grow up together often play well together as they mature. Buying babies and allowing them to develop a natural pair is possible in larger tanks as well and has been accomplished as has breeding. You can find extremely large tanks with a mixture of multiple pairs of large and small angels all together (usually 300+ gallon).

As with any fish different species within the family do behave differently and are known to be more or less aggressive and more or less likely to nip certain types of corals. Do your research and the least aggressive is always suggested to be added first and t he largest and the most aggressive last and the smallest. People that do it seem to believe a 4ft tank is all that is needed with good aquascaping. Anything smaller then 4ft I wouldnt risk it. Make sure there is plenty of live rock to allow for the fish to all forage and break line of sight when needed. I have found quite a few success stories of a coral beauty and a flame angel mixed together in a reef as both are more of the reef safe angels that tend to be the msot like to leave corals alone and also be less aggressive than some of the other dwarves out there for sale.

 

Coral beauty is a great fish but my new favorite is a Flameback angel. Flamebacks are very cool

 

Yes, Why not? Was a 125, now a 180g.