bandit angelfish
- Thread starter moonpod
- Start date
Sure. I had one several months ago, which adapted to my tank almost immediately and began eating within a week. It was doing great for about a month, until an ich outbreak killed all my fish 
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Also, a friend of mine regularly collects bandits and makes sure they are eating before shipment. His fish have always done very well, although granted I've never seen them held for more than a few weeks.
The main complaint with bandit angels is that they never eat in captivity and starve to death. This doesn't match my personal experience and is probably due to bad collection practices - bandit angels are deepwater fish, decompress poorly, and are often injured while being brought up. Also, they are often caught at much too large a size - anything over 5" long is too big and the fish will likely never learn to eat. Sadly, many Hawaiian collectors will still grab these fish at 7" and bigger, even though it's usually a death sentence.
If you can get a fish that's small enough and is eating in captivity, you'll probably be OK. Smaller fish usually are more expensive for this reason, but it's definitely worth it.
.Also, a friend of mine regularly collects bandits and makes sure they are eating before shipment. His fish have always done very well, although granted I've never seen them held for more than a few weeks.
The main complaint with bandit angels is that they never eat in captivity and starve to death. This doesn't match my personal experience and is probably due to bad collection practices - bandit angels are deepwater fish, decompress poorly, and are often injured while being brought up. Also, they are often caught at much too large a size - anything over 5" long is too big and the fish will likely never learn to eat. Sadly, many Hawaiian collectors will still grab these fish at 7" and bigger, even though it's usually a death sentence.
If you can get a fish that's small enough and is eating in captivity, you'll probably be OK. Smaller fish usually are more expensive for this reason, but it's definitely worth it.
On Kauai they're not uncommon in shallow water. I've also seen them in 30' or less at some less accessible spots on Oahu, but above 100' they're very rare. Most are collected between 130' and 200'. All of the bandits I've seen in shallow water have been too big to catch.
Brian at http://www.twilightaquatics.net/ is the collector I mentioned in my last post. He takes excellent care of his fish and won't sell you anything that's unhealthy or isn't eating. Otherwise, I'd be suspicious of buying one of these fish online. With their poor survival rate your odds are pretty bad unless you can see that it's eating or trust that the seller enough to take good care of it.
I don't know anybody who's kept a bandit angel for the long term, but since other sponge-eating angels have been kept succesfully I imagine it's quite possible once you're over the initial adjustment period.
Brian at http://www.twilightaquatics.net/ is the collector I mentioned in my last post. He takes excellent care of his fish and won't sell you anything that's unhealthy or isn't eating. Otherwise, I'd be suspicious of buying one of these fish online. With their poor survival rate your odds are pretty bad unless you can see that it's eating or trust that the seller enough to take good care of it.
I don't know anybody who's kept a bandit angel for the long term, but since other sponge-eating angels have been kept succesfully I imagine it's quite possible once you're over the initial adjustment period.
The ones at the aquarium in maui were on their last leg, err, fin. Other fish there looked great. No HLLE, big fat moorish idol in the tide pool area. I have personally seen several bandit angels in captivity wither and die, while eating. Would love to hear contrary info, long term. My personal experiences are from many years ago, so perhaps prepared foods have gotten better (I think Ocean Nutrition angel formula just came out about that time)?
Maui Ocean Center has the advantage of stocking Hawaiian livestock almost exclusively, so they can easily release and replace stuff that doesn't do well. The tigers in their shark tank never last for long and have to be swapped out every couple of months. (my girlfriend used to work there and has a few stories of failed exhibits...)
Every time I've been there, the bandit angels always looked fat and happy - almost overfed. But it's probably nothing to go by, given their track record with some other species. All of their bandits are kept in crowded tanks with various omnivorous fish, so it doesn't seem like they can be feeding them a specialized diet.
SDguy, what sort of timeframe are you talking about with the bandits you've tried to keep? It's hard to find anybody who's tried maintaining one long term - usually the "failures" don't eat to begin with.
Every time I've been there, the bandit angels always looked fat and happy - almost overfed. But it's probably nothing to go by, given their track record with some other species. All of their bandits are kept in crowded tanks with various omnivorous fish, so it doesn't seem like they can be feeding them a specialized diet.
SDguy, what sort of timeframe are you talking about with the bandits you've tried to keep? It's hard to find anybody who's tried maintaining one long term - usually the "failures" don't eat to begin with.
lawboy888
New member
bandit huh?...i love these guys but had such bad luck with them for several years..but now i have one in my 240 reef..doesnt really bother anything unless really hungry...eating nori, mysis, and spectrum pellets...just make sure it eats first before buying them...really hard to keep unless eating...but once acclimated they are beautiful 
....i got mine from a good guy in hawaii but Rarefish also have them sometime.
....i got mine from a good guy in hawaii but Rarefish also have them sometime.
I wasn't the one keeping them (I personally find them terribly unattractive
) They were in customer tanks way back when I worked at a LFS. But they were definitely eating when sold to them, as I recall...we fed formula 1 and 2, back when it came in sheets and fell apart into small cylindrical pieces, along with pellets of some sort. No mysis back then.So, I could not tell you exactly how long they survived, but definitely long enough to raise an eyebrow as to their deaths when it did happen.
Seafood Tank
New member
i head that angelfish must keep under 25c temperture, otherwise will reduse to feed.
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7173434#post7173434 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by lawboy888
mine has been in the reef for over 6 months..actually it is doing better now than before..before it ate only mysis..but now both nori and spectrum pellets...very picky..she only eats nori when it is shreded by other fish..not whole...very *****y
Do you have any pics of yours?
