Bicolor Angelfish in Dry rock tank

[aap7146]

I've just recieved a 40 gallon breeder with 45 pounds of dry rock because a friend of mine will be moving away. I've always wanted to get a bicolor angelfish but I've heard that they can be pretty difficult to care for and need a lot of live rock. Could this setup work for a bicolor if I added him after a few months of the tank being set up? Are bicolor angels really as difficult as some people make
them sound?

 

[brett559]

I know they are bad with corals. Assuming you can get one that will eat good prepared foods (frozen mysis, NLS pellets, etc.), I imagine it would be fine.

 

[scooter31707]

They are not really difficult IMO. The hard part as mentioned above is trying to find one that is already eating. Will it be the only fish in the 40B? If not, it should be added last and by time you go through all the proper quarantine procedures, then the live rock should be good to go.

 

[ThRoewer]

I would get at least some pieces of good live rock, ideally with some coralline algae on it to seed the tank and to bring life to the wasteland of dead rocks you currently have.

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[aap7146]

Yea I thought about seeding it, that's probably what I'll do. The bicolor won't be the only fish I plan on keeping in that tank, maybe a pair of clowns and a wrasse of some sort. But I definitely will put the bicolor in last.

 

[randomfishguy85]

I had a bicolor angel in a dry rock tank and it did fine. The tank eventually crashed but thats beside the point. As long as its eating, i think it wont make a difference whether you have dry rock or live rock

 

[brett559]

I started my current tank with dry rock. I took a small piece of LR (that had virtually no holes for aiptasias to hide in!) and my rocks are now completely covered in purple coralline. I've heard even a snail with some coralline on its shell will do the trick.

 

[ThRoewer]

If it's just coralline algae you want then there is an even faster way: get as much coralline scrapings from another, disease free tank with good coralline growth as possible. Run these scrapings with some tank water through a blender and pour the mixture into the tank you want to seed.
I've done it this way a few times and it really kick-started the coralline growth. Only thing else required is to keep Alk. Ca and trace elements up.

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