How many flamebacks?

[cubsFAN]

I'm upgrading my tank from a 40 gallon to a 75 gallon this week. My current livestock are 1 occ. clown, 1 mandarin, 2 bangaii cardinals, 1 african flameback angel. I'm wanting to get a mate or a harem for the current african flameback that i've had for the past 1.5years. I plan to also add a mate for the clown. What does everyone think would be a good # to add? Should I just go for one? Thanks.

 

[velvetelvis]

I'd add a smaller ocellaris clown for your current one's mate, since it's probably a female by this point.

As far as the flamebacks go, I'm not sure. I know the cherub angels, which are closely related, are very aggressive and supposedly hard to pair up (mostly b/c it's hard to sex them). You might want to ask over in the breeders' forum and see if anyone has any experience with them.

 

[Beaun]

The larger ones are males, depending on how large yours is I would add the biggest one you can find. Unless you have a large one, then get a small one. You need to make sure you don't end up with two males.

 

[cubsFAN]

Thanks guys.

velvetelvis: My flameback is very passive. He had the tank to himself for a year and a half. I have heard that they can be aggressive, but after all that time alone, he welcomed the other fish with minimal harassment which stopped after a couple days. The clown is still a juvenile and was locally bred. Just looking for the right mate now and wanted people to know what I had planned as far as final stocking list.

Beaun: I think the fish might be full grown. He is about 3inches and I've had him about 1.5yrs in which time he has grown, but does not seem to be growing anymore. I was planning to add a much smaller fish or a 2-3 smallerl fish. Now I'm leaning towards just getting a mate for the current fish. It does not sound like many have tried a harem and my tank isn't very big. I'm worried the flamebacks might go into chromis mode and start picking each other off.

 

[ocellaris123]

I have a flameback who is currently paired with an argi angel in a 60 reef. The flameback is male while the argi is female and they show spawning behaviors when the lights are about to go off. The flameback is a terror to other fish however and picks on any newcomers introduced to the tank. If you were to try this I would get the smallest one you can find, and perhaps introduce the newcomer to a specimen container to see how the current flameback (male) would react.

 

[cubsFAN]

Thanks ocellaris123. Good to here your success. I was thinking about quarantining the new fish and then adding at the same time when I got the new fish. What do you think about adding more than one fish? Too risky? Do you think it would make the fish more or less aggressive? I've still got more research to do. Plenty of time to make a decision.