Flagfin angel care. Anyone with experience with this fish?

[Aust95]

My wife and I bought a flagfin angel about 2 inches long. We want to give the best feeding to ensure greater survival. Currently she lives in a 55 gallon quarantine tank in hyposalinity and will remain there for a few weeks. There is no live rock in the tank but only base rock that has a small amount of algae.

I wanted to see if any reefers have experience with this beautiful fish. How long have they been able to keep it and what kind of feeding provided. I've read that they like sponge so I bought a frozen food that contains it among many other ingredients. The fish has eaten like a pig since the first day, but I want to be sure I give it the correct diet. It takes dried Formula one pellets and a frozen foods well yet is not eager for nori. Any suggestions on care?

 

[ACBlinky]

I bought one that had been returned to a LFS. He was thin when I got him, but once home he started eating well fairly quickly. I fed everything from LFS frozen foods to homemade blender mush, nori and other seaweeds, pellets soaked in vitamins and frozen 'angel formula' frozen foods that contain urchin and sponge. He took all with gusto once he became accustomed to his tank, became nice and fat, and did very well for us for about eight months. One day he died with no sign of illness, injury or stress - it broke my heart, he was a favourite. These are beautiful fish full of personality, but unfortunately my experience isn't extraordinary. For some reason (I'm guessing it's diet related), many flagfins seem to expire with no outward sign of disease.

You might want to talk to RC member LargeAngels -- he's got a beautiful of flagfins that have been with him for quite a long time now. I'm not sure what his feeding regimen is, but it seems to work very well for these fish.

I think with a 120g and a small flagfin that's eating well, you've got a better chance than many. I wish you all the best, I hope he's with you for years to come

 

[Aust95]

Thanks for your experience. In the 2 weeks I've had him, he's already grown and he's developing some shadow around his lips, the beginning of the purple lip coloration we see in adult flagfins.

I've managed to condition the fish to expect when food is coming by tapping gently on the glass five times and then dropping food into the tank. He follows my finger as I point to the food as it slowly sinks. Everytime he looks to where I point to locate the food. I feel confident about his eating, but it's what I can feed I'm concerned about. I'll see what LargeAngels suggests.

It sounds like you made a great effort in feeding your fish. Did you keep him with live rock?

 

[ACBlinky]

Yes, we had him in a mature reef stuffed with LR. He grazed on rock, nibbled some of the corals (fine with me, I loved him much more than my Xenia), and adored both algae and meaty foods. He initially showed some blue colour around his lips, but lost it later on -- I'm wondering if that was a sign of stress? He was tiny, but I know now that the 65g tank we had at the time was much too small for him even at 2-3".

 

[LargeAngels]

What seemed to work for me was to first keep them in QT, dimly lit with lots of hiding places. Allow them to recover from all their shipping stress. After that it was trying everything I could think of to see what they went after. Some went after only brine, some only pellets, others mysis and one after everything. Whatever they were eating I would just feed heavily of that. I've found that most angels just love Spectrum pellets. Now they all eat everything and mostly get flake (Formula 1, Prime Reef and Veggie) Spectrum pellets ( which I sometimes add VitaChem and allow it to soak into the pellets) mysis and Nori is the staple of their diet. Good water quality and flow is important. These guys have been pretty hardy for me and have done extremely well.

Two of them came in with flukes so I treated all of them with Prazipro and also Cupramine.

I need to get a new picture as this one is old, but this is the only one I got all five in. The smaller ones have grown a lot since then.

 

[Aust95]

LargeAngels, impressive collection! I bet some people aspire to a stock of angels like that. After reading whatever came up on google, there limited general info on Flagfins. Basically, they are one of the more demanding, delicate angels, but your experience defies that having multiple healthy ones. You're doing something right I wonder what is the key(s) to longevity. ACBlinky, gave a variety of foods and maintained live rock yet lasted only 8 months. Why wouldn't 65gal be enough for a 2-3 inch fish? I doubt that was a issue but I'm just guessing. I figured the recommendation for a large tank is based on potential growth of up to 10 inches in this fish.

How acclimation figures into long-term survival still is something I have to sort out in my mind--how suboptimal initial conditions could lead to limited life span such as weeks, months, versus years.

ACBlinky, sorry to hear 'bout the loss. I've become somewhat attached to my Flagfin as well. Ever thought of trying one again?

 

[Patrick12]

I had a flagfin for 3 years. Her name was Beulla and she ate any and everything. I lost her to a tumor she developed which eventually prevented her from swimming, eating and I had to euthanize her. Great fish. They do appear to be very demandng in all the literature. I am inclined to believe what is published, as I do not think it was done so on a whim. That said, I have kept several fish that are reported to do poorly in captivity. I have a cleaner wrasse that eats everything...even nori...and is one of the fattest and happiest fish in the tank. I also have a emperor angel in a reef tank and no problems. Take the literature to heart as to what you should MOST LIKELY expect, but don't write it in stone and make sure you have a backup plan if you take a chance and it doesn't work out. The nutritional requirements of large angels is not something to skirt. I would make sure you vitamin soak all your foods to give the fish the best chance.

 

[Aust95]

I plan to try one of the vitamin soaks for the Formula one pellets that the fish likes.

On a side note, how did you euthanize your fish humanely?

 

[mile sq. reefer]

This is a pick of mine when I set up the new tank almost four years ago. I had him for over six months before he jumped out of my tank. I now keep it covered with eggcrate. absolutely beautiful and ate like a champ. Frozen, pellet, nori, and grazed on the rock. He is pictured with my old Polymnus clowns. I would get another but went from FOWLR to SPS/LPS dominant reef.

[/IMG]

 

[Aust95]

Mile sq. reefer, beautiful fish! The striking coloration of the mouth, which my wife calls the "lipstick", and the dark line above the eyes, the "eyebrows", are what made us most desire the fish.

 

[ACBlinky]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12377981#post12377981 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Aust95
ACBlinky, sorry to hear 'bout the loss. I've become somewhat attached to my Flagfin as well. Ever thought of trying one again?

Thanks, I still miss him As for trying another, not until we upgrade to something around 220g (which I hope will be within the next few years). I recently sold several fish onto other hobbyists, after learning the hard way that big fish need big tanks, preferably from day one. Now we've got small to medium sized fish (1-3") with one 'showpiece' fish (4" yellow tang), and it's a much happier, more active reef. The only reason we have a tang is that she's a rescue and we're very attached to her. I wanted to sell her on but ended up keeping her because she's incredibly special to me; she was nearly dead when we took her in, and after nursing her through multiple illnesses and getting her to her current fat, happy state, it's just too hard to say goodbye. I'd love a flagfin some day, but not until we have a mature tank at least 6' long so it has loads of room to swim and several hundred pounds of rock to graze.

 

[jda]

I have had mine for 2 years. If you get a good one and get it eating, then it should be a good fish for many years. They had a bad rep when I got mine for never eating, but the wholesaler told the LFS that it would eat toliet paper if you put it in there - and it would have. Mine ate everything from day one.

A lot of them do decently well and then die after a few weeks. That sounds like a candidate for cyanide collection, but I don't know. Mine was from a net caught

I would also treat for flukes. I would treat nearly all large angels for flukes.

I love that it is neither agressive or a wuss. I also like that I could keep this fish in my 210G tank for it's entire life - I would be shocked it it got larger than 6 or 7 inches. Mine hasn't grow an inch in 2 years. It is currently 4.5 to 5 inches.

Mine eat 75% NLS pellets and nori. Then, they get some mysis, flake and some other meat. I don't feed any angel-specific food.

 

[Aust95]

What is NLS pellet?

 

[jda]

New Life Spectrum

 

[Aust95]

Seems like several angelfish keepers like this food. I'll look it up. Not sure if LFS stocks it. I'm uncertain in how different various frozen 'cube' type foods are in their makeup; it seems most are 80% the same with some adding more vegetable or algae matter. I considered buying a 1/2 dozen different kinds of foods for variety, but in general they all looked similar and I wasn't sure itf it would beworth the cost.

Also, no flukes were apparent on my Flagfin, but it's a moot point since she'll be in hyposalinity for a few weeks.

 

[LargeAngels]

Actually, Hypo doesn't do anything for flukes, or velvet. It is only good for ich. Flukes are not visible unless they crawl onto the eyes. FW dips remove the flukes, but doesn't kill the eggs. Prazipro kills flukes.

 

[Aust95]

Do you recommend treatment against flukes in nonsymptomatic angelfish? Or treatment when flukes are seen?

 

[jda]

I would treat all large angels for flukes. Prazipro in QT is really easy to do. I have seen them show up weeks or months after they are captive.

 

[Aust95]

jda, sounds good. I'll look into it.

 

[LargeAngels]

I've seen them so often in the past years that I treat ALL fish for flukes.