is your emperor playing nice with your sps and clams??

billyboy69

billyboy69

New member
in about a week im going to go pick up my new/used 180G it comes with a really nice looking emperor and a yellow tang...id really like to keep this guy if he can be good and not eat all the sps coral id like to add to the tank....any of you keeping this fish??
 
Congrats,

it will pick on your SPS, and clams. it will eat your LPS and zoas.

if you are going to start with frags, Id advice against large emperor [assuming its the one in ure pic], let your reef settle in, let the corals grow, then add angels, so they have hundreds of polyps to nip, so if they nip 5, it wont be noticable.

with frags, they just dont have enough energy to be picked on all day and still grow and encrust.

or section off the tank, and make part of it grow out for a while.
 
My regal angel was great initially and didn't nip anything when I added him to my tank. He eats Mysis, NLS Pellets, and some nori (not like my tangs). At first, he didn't touch anything. Then he started to eat my acans; I had to get rid of them. Then he took a few chunks out of the only chalice I have; I kept it, and the damage is almost repaired, and he leaves it alone. Then he decided to start in on my elegance that I had had for 6 years; I had to give it to another reefer before he killed it. This happened all gradually over time, maybe 12 - 14 months. He sometimes nips at my SPS, but I only see this rarely. If the emperor is like the regal, but only bigger, I'm guessing you can count on some nipping in some shape or form, maybe not immediately but definitely over time.
 
I've had one in my tank since the beginning. I got it as a 2" baby and is now about 6" in adult coloration. I've never seen it eat anything but the food (flakes, pellets, mysis, etc.) I give it. My tank has clams, and all tyoes of corals in it. I could just be lucky, but I think it has more to do with it starting out young and never developing a taste for coral in the wild.
 
billyboy69 said:
hope mine turns out to be like yours, anyone else ?
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I keep 5 large angels with my sps only tank. My Emperator and all the rest of my fish, tangs included would shred a clam as they have learned to eat them. Any soft coral. Any Algae, aiptasia, zoanthids, pretty much anything cept SPS gets eaten by the Angels. They also move frags and bite the ends off of SPS. I have large colonies and I keep my frags in the sumps so... they are worth it.
 
Which of the non-dwarf angels are least likely to harass SPS? I've never really consider one before but with larger tank I could see an Angel making a nice addition.

Edit: I did have a Regal but he decimated my SPS. I heard that was pretty usually but I guess so was a Regal that ate. I've thought about going that route again but am a little gun shy.

Double Edit: I also had a pair of Watanabei but they were more like big damsels then angels.
 
I have a friend with a large emporer in a 180 and it doesnt bother his 5 clams but has nipped SPS a little bit but not bad. But it has decimated LPS like trachys, lobos etc.

I am about to add a potters angel to my reef. I know for a fact that it has picked at acans since I have been holding it for 9 months in a frag tank, but I'm going to risk it in hopes that my heavier feeding will help discourage the nipping...probably not though.
 
MammothReefer said:
Which of the non-dwarf angels are least likely to harass SPS? I've never really consider one before but with larger tank I could see an Angel making a nice addition.

Edit: I did have a Regal but he decimated my SPS. I heard that was pretty usually but I guess so was a Regal that ate. I've thought about going that route again but am a little gun shy.

Double Edit: I also had a pair of Watanabei but they were more like big damsels then angels.
Click to expand...

Genicanthus melanospilos /swallowtail angel. ?

I have had great luck with Blue line as well.

but its up to the individual fish ...
 
Lets take bets on how long this will work! :)

2e6unyvy.jpg
 
Yea it's me and my girls tank, we got it as an inch long baby. It does nip a the feather dusters and coco worms but they come right back out. There are about 8 of them so it keeps him busy, hasn't made a habit of it yet. Having it in there makes keeping that tank so much more fun, I will put it in my sps system once it starts eating the corals.
 
interesting, just keep an eye .... when they start eating zoas, they go through a bunch fairly fast ... but you may have gotten lucky and are dealing with one with less appetite for corals !
 
I tried the Imperator and it would nip at anything fleshy. I don't know anyone that has had long term success with keeping an Imperator and LPS or Clams. One day it will want a delicatessens meal! I wish it wasn't this way and I would love to have angels but I just can't find one that doesn't get hungry. Some dwarf angels do ok in a reef tank but just not the full sized angels. Sorry...
 
Yea I don't think it will start eating zoas til after it exibits a real taste for the feather and coco worms. I also don't think I will devour many zoas for about a year because each zoa/paly is a out the size of its head. Definatly worth a colony just to keep it in the tank though. We love angels almost as much as copps.
 
Piper27 said:
Yea I don't think it will start eating zoas til after it exibits a real taste for the feather and coco worms. I also don't think I will devour many zoas for about a year because each zoa/paly is a out the size of its head. Definatly worth a colony just to keep it in the tank though. We love angels almost as much as copps.
Click to expand...


Nice, never tried an imperator with zoos but my last one (juvenile imperator) did fine in a mixed reef with chalices, fleshy lps like hammers and torches, and sps.

My other angels (navarcus,3 regals, flame, golden) all did fine as well as a moorish, though the moorish likes to nip red planet (and really only red planet)

I fed a lot FWIW.
 
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