Adding more coral beautys?

N

Nick_Northern

New member
Hi all,

I'm thinking about adding another coral beauty (or 2) to my tank and was hoping for some advice on how to go about it and whether its a good idea or not.

So I have a Biota tank bred coral beauty which has been in my 90g reef for around 2 months now, was tiny when I got it and its still small at around 1.5". The wholesaler still has some left from the same batch and have recently reduced the price which got me thinking about adding another, problem is it would be a very similar size to my established fish so i'm not sure it would be a good idea as all the advice I have seen says to add a different size individual and to add them all at once.

I'd be grateful for anyones opinion on whether this would work or not. Re-arranging my tank is not really an option but I do have a breeder box I could put the newcomer in to let them hash it out safely for a few weeks before letting loose. I'd also be open to adding another 2 if this would help diffuse aggression but I'm a bit dubious about the long-term viability of a harem in my 90. I am sticking to captive bred so buying a larger, wild caught specimen is not an option either.

I was planning to set up a tank bred flame angel harem a while ago but the import/export side of things didnt work out, when the coral beautys became available I could only realy afford one and also wanted to test how reef safe they were but I am still keen to try a pair or even a trio if that would work better.

Flame thread here if anyones interested - http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2599790

Got some great advice in this previous thread and it was mentioned that males can be aggressive with other fish when mating, is there any danger of one battering my mandarin??

Thanks

Nick

Current Tank: 75/90g (UK/US) reef - 20g sump/fuge - 100lb 'life' rock
Livestock: 2 x ocellaris clown / 2 x banggai (soon to be 1 when I can catch it!) / 1 x coral beauty / 1 x mandarin
Softies (gorgs/leathers/zoas/xenia etc) / tux urchin x 2 / strawberry conch x 2 / sea hare / elysia slug
 
I've had 3-4 in my system at a time without issue. You should be fine honestly with 2 in a 75. Especially being captive bred juvies. Currently I have a potters, a coral beauty, a flame, a bicolor, and a Lemonpeel in my 380 along with a koran and an asfur
 
fishfreak2009 said:
I've had 3-4 in my system at a time without issue. You should be fine honestly with 2 in a 75. Especially being captive bred juvies. Currently I have a potters, a coral beauty, a flame, a bicolor, and a Lemonpeel in my 380 along with a koran and an asfur
Click to expand...

Thanks, do you think there may be any issue's adding a new one with my existing fish?
 
Nick_Northern said:
Thanks, do you think there may be any issue's adding a new one with my existing fish?
Click to expand...

Honestly they should set up a pecking order pretty quickly. Worst case scenario rearrange the rockwork. Use an acclimation box if you're really worried, but again 2 juvenile fish in a 75 should have no issues. Try to pick one of the smaller ones if you are able to do so.
 
Apparently the wholesaler does have some of varying sizes so i'll try to get one, or maybe even two smaller ones, use an acclimation box and see how it goes!
 
Angels like Flame and Coral Beauty do not mixed with Mandarin well. The angel will not bother or attack the mandarin, however angels are such good hunters that Mandarin will starve. It happened to me with a thriving 65 gal reef. One fat mandarin start to loose weight and have to be move to another tank when I added a Flame to this tank.
 
OrionN said:
Angels like Flame and Coral Beauty do not mixed with Mandarin well. The angel will not bother or attack the mandarin, however angels are such good hunters that Mandarin will starve. It happened to me with a thriving 65 gal reef. One fat mandarin start to loose weight and have to be move to another tank when I added a Flame to this tank.
Click to expand...

Wow thats useful to know, I hadn't even considered that as a factor, I know the angels are omnivorous and constantly pick at everything but didn't consider the impact this would have on my pod population until now! My one coral beauty and mandarin are doing okay so far but they are both small and I do supplement the tank with pods regularly. I also have a feeder for him but there are so many pods in the tank he doesn't bother with it at the moment.

IF the mandarin wasn't an issue, I know you keep a flame harem so I was wondering if you added these all at once, or have ever added one or more in with the established fish?
I can't really do much tank re-arrangement so not sure if the established fish would accept newcomers but would add either 1 or 2 smaller individuals.

Thanks

Nick
 
Pair CB or Flame angels is easy. Once you have one in the tank I would add smaller ones into it. In a 90 gal, keeping a harem of 3 would be great. No problem. The dominate one would turn male. It is easy to sex Flame angels. More difficult to sex CB. In any case if you add juveniles, the dominant one would turn male. The others would stay females. Easier if you add one large and the rest smaller so there will not be much fight for dominant
 
OrionN said:
Pair CB or Flame angels is easy. Once you have one in the tank I would add smaller ones into it. In a 90 gal, keeping a harem of 3 would be great. No problem. The dominate one would turn male. It is easy to sex Flame angels. More difficult to sex CB. In any case if you add juveniles, the dominant one would turn male. The others would stay females. Easier if you add one large and the rest smaller so there will not be much fight for dominant
Click to expand...

Awesome thanks, I am extremely tempted to try adding another 2, I'll have to figure out something with the mandarin first either get itn using the feeder consistently or pass it on to someone else.
 
In six months I have not had a problem with any of the soft corals I keep it with leathers, zoas, xenia, gorgs, gsp etc

Sent from my F5121 using Tapatalk
 
also as a bit of an update I bought a captive bred flame angel which is currently fattening up in QT before i introduce to tbe coral beauty

Sent from my F5121 using Tapatalk
 
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