My first big problem took 10 months in to the hobby.

Well, it started a week or so ago. My big umbrella or toadstool leather wasn't looking right. It would be shriveled up and tentacles pulled in sometimes. This thing is big, it's about 10" tall and 12" wide and the foot is a good 4" in diameter at its max. So, I found the culprit. It was my most beautiful, favorite fish in my tank, my rusty angel. I have had him about 6 months with no problems until now. My rusty is the most beautiful specimen of this kind I have ever seen. Well, I tried keeping nori in the tank all the time and it helped but he was still after my coral. So, there was nothing else I could do. I had to get him out of there and banish him to my sump. So, I tried making a trap and all that stuff but I ended up having to destroy my whole reef to get him. My rock work had settled alot and had seen better days anyway so it wasn't the end of the world. So anyway I turned over one rock and there was a 4" long worm! YUCK! I guess its a bristle worm. Anyway, its common knowledge but be warned that dwarf angels are definitely a possible problem in a reef tank. Heres a pic of the worm:

 

sorry for your troubles with the fish. thats the biggest bristleworm ive ever seen...

 

Yeah that would be a bristle worm. I have one about the same size. They are harmless.

 

sorry to hear that, but dawf angels can go either way. They are always a chance of being nippers. And as you already know it may happen some time after being introduced. and that is a huge worm, well done

 

He's even less harmless after taking a vinegar bath!

 

You must mean more harmless now


yeah, keeping most angels in a reef tank is playing with fire. the only exception are genicanthus angels, which are planktivores. Bellus, watanabe, lamarck's angels are all of this genus.

Genicanthus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Can't have my CB angel in the new reef? I'll have to see how this goes...

 

I bet a live bristle worm of that size would make a nice Tarpon bait.

 

We've had both a coral beauty and a pygmy angel (current resident) in our reef, and have never had coral nipping problems. So having a dwarf angel is more like shooting off fireworks. The vast majority of normal people that shoot off fireworks have no harm done and get to enjoy a splendid light show, but there's always a small amount of people that get screwed up somehow from being injured by them. Most dwarf angels I've seen have not been coral nippers, but there's always a some that are.

And that is quite the monster bristle worm. I'd set up another tank just for that thing haha

 

I think the key words that jwin didn't use are "not yet" in regard to the coral nipping.

You can certainly end up getting a dwarf angel that won't nip at corals, but it's probably more 50/50 at absolute best odds of not getting a coral nipper. Also, there is the clam nipping thing too. many of the tanks that have corals and dwarf angels don't have clams. Who knows how many would still have clams if a clam was added to the tanks with dwarf angels?

If I was a fish, I would eat clams, tridacna clams are TASTY!