Flame Angel - bad rap for a reef tank???

[singold]

The Flame Angel-bad rap for a reef tank?. You know, I feel it is my duty as a hobbyist, to discuss this fish. My wife initially wanted this fish, because of its beautiful coloration. Many reef tank hobbyists ask if it is a reef-safe fish. And before I got one, I researched the very same thing-since I have corals. You know, I have watched this fish intensively over the last couple years & have researched it to form a correlation. I have never seen this fish damage any corals at all. As a matter of fact, I'd say it is actually condusive to coral growth. This fish will nip occasionally, but I believe it is in the context of cleaning the coral of algae, or whatever. I have watched its behavior closely over the years.

Long story short, I think this is a great reef aquarium habitant, & would even go out on a limb to say it is reef coral beneficial as an occupant in the tank.

I would ask any hobbyist to disagree, by stating first hand that they have observed one of these fish (Flame Angel) as being destructive to any reef set-up - eating a coral, or destroying a coral from successful growth or propogation.

I just wanted to put this out there, for whomever in doubt. IMO, this is a wonderful fish as an inhabitant in a home saltwater aquaria.

 

[palmer373]

wow thanks for the info. im putting one in my 75 FOWLR for sure i think but im gonna have a few corals just laying around to see if he actually does "eat" the corals cuase i wanna put one in my 33 reef im setting up since he would be perfect size. do you know anything about the other dwarf angels? i really like the colors of the flame but i dont like repeating stocking lists, i was thinking of a bicolor or coral beauty, any info on those 2? thanks

 

[wickedfish]

+1 brother, mine nips like he's cleaning and has never done any damage to sps, he or she is good fish not my favorite but no probs as of 8 months. His alter ego the emperor is a different story he nips harder and multiple times but to his or her credit I have not seen damage maybe to a candycane but could have been my other guys.

 

[sslak]

Do your SPS corals still extend polyps during the lights-on period?

I know a lot of people have trouble with the fish nipping, not that it actually destroys the coral but makes them less attractive to look at because they no longer extend polyps. This is a problem especially with birdsnests and hydnophora, acros, etc.

 

[Toddrtrex]

Mine leaves SPS, Zoas and my clam alone. But, loved some open brain -- to the point were it killed it.

 

[zachfishman]

Mine used to nip at my frogspawn colony, but only minimally and not enough to cause detriment.

 

[falconut]

I'd have to say it's still hit or miss with the Flame Angel. My friend has had his for over ten years with no problems, but I had mine for 3 with problems. Mine didn't appear to bother corals immediately. But, he nipped my Xenia shortly after being introduced. He wasn't cleaning it either. He would swim by and nip the tips until it got so bad that the Xenia wouldn't open up and just melted away. He did this to a Poclopora too. I covered it with a clear cup with drilled holes. I had it covered for a week, the minute I uncovered it he was right over to it nipping it, not the rocks around it. I added some xenia years later and he started again, so I had to remove it. Then I got some green zoas and he nipped them so badly that they lost the green color it the centers. Now, this explains why I lost all my green zoas years ago. Once I removed the Flame Angel, the corals started to recover. My Xenia is now pulsing away, the green zoas have started coloring back up and I even noted that some lame looking brown palys started growing the lashes back. So, my experience with him was anything but reef safe. All I'm saying is to remember that it's still an angel.

 

[ritter6788]

Mine leaves SPS, Zoas and my clam alone. But, loved some open brain -- to the point were it killed it.

Same here, I pulled the flame out before any real damage though. My trachy would never open until I got the flame out.

 

[palmer373]

so the count looks like:
2-Reef safe
1-NOT reef safe (all corals are a target)
1-NOT safe with SPS
2-NOT safe with LPS

im following this thread cuase i wanna get a flame for a reef maybe.

 

[Deleted member 82742]

I had a Flame that killed several of my corals. It took a likeing to a Redeye Favia, Orange Digitada, and another Favia. After it killed those I waited until it died to add more coral. Mark me down as NOT Reef safe..

 

[nikon187]

mine killed a bunch of acans before i found him a new home

 

[palmer373]

2-Reef safe
2-NOT reef safe (all corals are a target)
1-NOT safe with SPS
3-NOT safe with LPS

im starting to think it depends on the fish. im just curious but ive heard that feeding can effect it eating corals. how much does everyone feed their tank that has a flame?

 

[zooty]

Check this thread
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1661153&page=5

Summary here
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=17313426&postcount=109

Flame angel is 80% safe

 

[zachfishman]

Flame angel is 80% safe

With nearly 100% chance that the 20% of corals it goes for will be the ones you like most /most expensive.:rollface:

 

[MikeandNicole]

I have had a couple over the years with mixed results. I had one that never nipped at anything (zoas and sps) and I have my current one that went after SPS polyps. The corals were fine but there was no polyp extension during the daylight hours. He left the zoas and acans in the tank alone though, so go figure. It really depends on the fish and also a fish could change its appetite as it matures, so for a while it could bother nothing and then mow through an acan colony.

 

[oct2274]

I gave a flame angel a chance in my reef tank and it was great for a few months, maybe more. Then one day all of a sudden my corals started having pieces of flesh missing from them and others weren't as open as usual. I watched for a couple of days and caught my flame making meals out of various corals.

This angel was quarantined with a coral beauty for 6 weeks before putting them in the tank. I knew that both could possibly start making meals out of the coral and that most people can't keep these angels together at all because they want to kill each other. They were perfectly fine together in the aquarium, but like I said, I did quarantine them for 6 weeks and they could see each other through the divider the entire time and started ignoring each other. The coral beauty never touched a coral and stayed in the tank till I had to sell it.

I had probably 130-140lbs of rock in that tank and it took me 2-3 weeks to get that fish out of the tank. All the while it was feasting on my prized corals.

It's like many fish, some people have good luck with fish and others don't.

 

[mfinn]

I've had a couple flames over the years in my soft coral tanks and have found them to be great additions.
While they do nip here and there, they don't seem go back to the same place over and over. In a soft coral tank I haven't seen any harm with this sampling.

 

[mikev_us]

My flame angel would nip at things very occassionally. Never tried a clam. My attempts at keeping sps were failures from my end. They only trouble my flame ever got into was jumping out of the tank when he wanted attention. Seriously, it would only jump when I was in the room.

 

[RealReef7]

I think I've owned about 10 flame angels in my life and probably 4 never touched corals. My last one that died of an ich outbreak loved sps coral. You truly cannot find another angelfish in the sea that has that "bloody red" to it.