Dwarf Angels: Once a nipper, always a nipper?

[tqpolo]

I have a Potters Angel for about 2 weeks now and he's been nipping on my acans and some sps since day one. I read all of copps's comments on you can keep any angels in your reef if you do it correctly. Basically keep your corals healthy and your angel well fed. My water parameters are perfect. My corals are healthy. The Potters eats well. I feed live blackworms, cytopeeze, PE mysis, brine, and various other frozen 4-5 times a day. The angel is well fed but he still nip. Will he still nipping one day? I'm contemplating of should I ride this out.

 

[Alex T.]

You've selected one of the notorious nippers. Keeping any angelfish in a reef tank is always a risk. Sometimes you get a winner and sometimes you lose. One of the first corals they'll go after are fleshy LPS corals and maybe some zooanthids as well.

I have an Emperor and Coral Beauty in my SPS reef. SPS are probably the safest corals around angels, but nothing's ever definite. I'd say that you may have to make a decision between the Potter's Angel or your corals. I doubt sincerely that it will subside.

 

[Jmason95]

I'm in the same boat with my newly acquired Coral Beauty, she's nipping at my Sps. Wondering if I should just let her be in hopes that it will stop or dissipate but I have a feeling it won't.

 

[Toddrtrex]

Any of the Potter's I had over the years didn't nip at all.

I wouldn't worry too much about the nipping during the first month it is in your care -- it just could be getting used to the tank, and prepared foods.

Feeding often and having a good amount of live rock from them (( any dwarf angel )) to graze upon during the day goes a long way to limiting/stopping any nipping.

 

[Sheol]

Acans are probably *TOO* tempting, SPS coral issues aside. You will have to decide which interest you more, your Potter's or your Acans.
Is it possible your SPS corals were under some sort of stress?\
Is this a new fish? If not, what is its history..
This issue always raises lots of questions.

Matthew

 

[tqpolo]

Acans are probably *TOO* tempting, SPS coral issues aside. You will have to decide which interest you more, your Potter's or your Acans.
Is it possible your SPS corals were under some sort of stress?\
Is this a new fish? If not, what is its history..
This issue always raises lots of questions.

Matthew

Yes, he's only been in my tank for 2 weeks. All my corals were fine before him. My Po4 is 0.015 based on the Hanna Phosphorus checker and 0 No3 on Salifert. My Cal/Alk/Mag are always spot on bc I have a doser.

 

[NYCBOB]

my flame nipped for the first 6 months. after that, its very good now.

 

[AquaticFins]

It is an interesting question.

I would be tempted to say that yes, an angel that has decided coral is edible will always pick at coral. The problem has never stopped for me until I either remove the corals the angel likes or the angelfish. Often, when I removed a particular coral that was being picked on, the angelfish moved right on to another (previously untouched) coral in the aquarium. Sometimes, if I removed all the corals or clams that were being picked on, the angel would be a model citizen for weeks or months before starting to pick again...but they nearly always continued to pick.

I don't personally believe the answer is as simple as the angelfish being underfed. Some simply seem to prefer the coral mucus, even while healthy and eating a varied diet that satisfies other angelfish in the aquarium.

For me, the fish needs to find another home when the nipping gets to the point of obvious damage to the coral.

With that said, I would still advocate removing the fish even if it hasn't caused much damage yet - many LPS corals seem to have something of a "tipping point." One day they seem reasonably fine, the next they are sliding downwards at a rapid and sometimes irreversible pace. Personally, it's not worth the risk to me.

 

[Thatnewguy]

I had my flame angel for about 2 years and it only nips on new aquired corals, after it finds out its not food it just stops and goes on its way..

 

[gofor100]

I generally agree with those that say that "once nipper, always a nipper"... since once an animal finds a food source that apparently satisfies their nutritional needs in a way, they will continue to view it as a food source in the future. The only way I can see one probably getting a "nipper" to stop, is to either: 1) Satisfy their nutritional needs going forward or 2) Remove it from the environment, get it eating all prepared foods that would satisfy its nutritional needs, and the place it back into the old environment... even this would probably be hit and miss and depend on how long you removed it and whether it ends up accepting the new foods going forward.

Having said that, I also think that a majority of the angelfish that Copps has in his tank were quarantined and acclimated to prepared foods (including a variety of frozen angel food and vegetable matter) before being placed in his system... making sure they were getting a varied diet BEFORE they even entered the system. This, I would assume, guards against the angel looking at the corals to satisfy their nutritional requirements while being acclimated to accepting foods that actually do satisfy their nutritional requirements.

It's not always how much you feed them, but WHAT you feed them that is important. The one thing I didn't see on your list of foodstuffs was some type of algae/vegetable matter (which may be in there, but you just didn't mention it). Since you have a dwarf angel (which is primarily found in areas with algae growth and is a large part of their diet), this could be a part of your problem.

Hope this helps... good luck!

Chad

 

[JustinM]

I just brought home a cherub angel. She is so far doing great, 2 weeks later and no nipping. Crossing my fingers. Do some fish just not nip? I have also read that as juveniles they tend to eat more algae and what not and that as they mature they develop their hunger for big, fleshy LPS polyps.

 

[Angel*Fish]

Acans are probably *TOO* tempting,

I agree. You might try removing that coral and see how it goes with the others. Large polyped fleshy corals like open brains are the type of corals otherwise well behaved angels may be drawn to.


I assume you have plenty of rock to graze on? Angels are going to graze all day - if you have one of those tanks packed with corals, all that leaves for the fish is the glass.

 

[JustinM]

I would say I have about 65 to 70#'s of LR and besides when I feed, she is grazing all day. Corals are still frags to small pieces.

A side note, I like your pic Angel*Fish, 2 flames and a clam in the background. A little ironic for this thread.

 

[Angel*Fish]

:lol: The only fish that was interested in the clams was the Herald's angel, but it wasn't enough to cause a problem. Fwiw, I fed that tank very heavily (lost it to hurricane ike). My dedication was to the angels -- I had a Singapore, 2 flames, 2 argi's and a Herald's angel. If they munched on the coral or clam, it was moved. But I had pretty much no probs as I had no sps to worry about, except plating types, and avoided large polyped fleshy corals after trying a brain. When I put that brain in, the Herald's went crazy over it. Not surprising as they are the least reefsafe.

I don't know how much rock that is, but if you post a pic, I can tell you if you might want to add more or stack it differently to make your angel happy.

 

[houser]

2 potters here. Nip all day. Here and there but not destructive. I don't mind - but more SPS than LPS so perhaps I don't get it as bad as some?