Adding a French Angel

ROBONE20

ROBONE20

Member
I'm thinking about adding a 6" French Angel to an established 240 gallon which include the following:

Majestic Angel (4")
Purple Tang (3.5")
Male Lyretail Anthias x 1 (3")
Female Lyretail Anthias x 3 (2")
Midas Blenny (2")
Mystery Wrasse (3")
Blue Tang (1.5")
Clown (1.5")

Do you think my Majestic and Purple would give it a hard time? Would this be too many fish in a 240 gallon (taking to account their full sizes). Thanks in advance.
 
French Angels are one of my all-time favorites. Great looks and great personality. That being said, they really do grow large, and will probably eventually outgrow a 240. I also have a 240 and want to get a French, but they really do grow large.

Otherwise, I suspect that the tang may try to harrass the angel at first, but it will leave it alone pretty fast, especially since the French is way bigger. I doubt the Majestic will try to bother it much if at all.
 
Yeah I'm hoping the Purple Tang doesn't harass the French, but he is a little booger. I'll try egg crating one side of the display tank for a few weeks before I release it to the general population (after QT of course).
 
Yes 240 is too small for a french long term, imo french angels are one of the most docile big angels and purple tangs can be terrors so be careful if you decided to try it, just make sure the french is bigger than the pt
 
So what do you guys think in terms of minimum tank size for a French Angel? Unfortunately I don't think I have the capacity to upgrade to something larger than a 240 gallon. Even in a tank that is 8x2x2 with this current stock list, you guys would still be hesitant, huh. I guess I gotta leave it at the fish store.
 
Well it's not mine which is why I linked instead of posting it up. It's labeled as french by the photographer, you disagree? How can you tell?
 
An adult French angelfish has gold edges on its scales, a gold ring around the eye and the gill spine is also gold.

Adult French Angelfish (also not my photo): http://www.wallcoo.net/animal/2008_.../French Angelfish Pair Rocas Atoll Brazil.jpg

Having seen full size French and Gray angelfish diving, I just do not feel they are suitable home aquarium fish. If I were to suggest a minimum tank size, perhaps 20' x 10' x 6' would be somewhat comfortable for these fish. They get very, very large and can cover a lot of ground quickly. They also seem to have very large territories - it's unusual to be able to see more than one pair in perhaps a 50' x 50' area.

Although they do not usually reach a full 24" in captivity, a fully grown French or Gray angel would touch all four panels of your 8' x 2' x 2' aquarium if it turned sideways.

I would agree with WuHT that 14-16 inches is a more average size in captivity, but that still is far too large a fish for a two foot wide aquarium in my opinion. Also, the fact that most individuals seem to end up severely stunted in captivity...I can't think of a better argument to leave them in the ocean (or to the public aquariums) than that.
 
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some of the advice here is questionable because the species being identified is not even certain.

1) Grey angels and french angels have different tails (grey's tails end straight while french's are rounded).

2)Adult frenches and greys should be easily differentiated in terms of colour (greys grow larger in the wild)

3) That picture has an issue of perspective, where the diver is quite a bit behind the angel (which may not be noticeable).

4) Yes i've seen large french angels in huge display tanks but its still no way as large as some of the pictures of wild french angels (seen people measure their french angel as about 15" with a tape measure)

5) Just telling the OP "no you can't have it" without at least confirming what you believe to be the minimal size (to at least show your basis of reasonability) seems unfair to me. You at least hear the oft-repeated tank sizes for tangs so whats up with this ?


my suggestion : give your thread a shot over in the fish-only subforum
 
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I'll definitely give it a shot over in the FO forum. On another note, it seems like the threads I read including this post, we state our opinions based on the fish size in the wild - which I'm guilty of too. But I'm thinking to myself, of course these fish will be super huge in the wild, they have unlimited space and access to natural foods that allow them to get big. We also do the same when it comes to Tangs just like WuHt pointed out. I wonder why one doesn't argue that a Damsel be kept in a small tank, since they can get as big as 14" in the wild. Same difference???? But is this flat out cruel? I guess the question I should ask is...Has anyone raised a French Angel at a juvenile or Sub-Adult size in a home aquarium (240 gallon - to keep it in perspective) and had them grow up to be 16" or larger? If so, how long did it take to get this large and do you still have it?
 
How many of the commonly kept damsels actually get 14"? That is a bit extreme, and not helping your cause -- IMO.

But, it is your tank, and if you want to keep a French in there, go ahead -- but, IMO, it is a poor choice -- but feel free to listen to the one person that agreed with you.
 
Hey Toddrtrex, I agreed with you too...BTW. I did mention that I'm guilty of thinking this way also. I know Damsels don't get that big in captivity, and my statement maybe a little bold, but I thought out loud...to open discussion not to ruffle feathers.

It ain't about whether I listened to the one person that agreed with me. I was simply making a statement for discussion. That's all. I listen to all statements made on any post I put up here and generate my own opinion. Right, wrong or indifferent...they're still opinions/recommendations. The one statement you made got me thinking that I should keep this fish in the wild. And I agree.
 
The best thing about French Angels: Whenever a fight breaks out, they quickly swim away and hide. BTW, I guess I agree with most of the Tang Police's agenda; but I would have no problem keeping a FA in a 240.
 
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Toddrtrex said:
How many of the commonly kept damsels actually get 14"? That is a bit extreme, and not helping your cause -- IMO.

But, it is your tank, and if you want to keep a French in there, go ahead -- but, IMO, it is a poor choice -- but feel free to listen to the one person that agreed with you.
Click to expand...

way to single me out lol.

I'm pretty sure i specifically chose my words as vaguely as possible so that I do not influence his decision.
 
i have a french angel in my 225 without knowing what a full-grown adult looked like at the time of purchase. i later saw an adult in a 1,200g display at an aquarium and i realized i made a mistake... however, lady (that's the name i gave her) is my favorite fish and i'm determined to keep it... in a few years when it grows up, i will build a 375 or 450g tank for it...
 
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