Meredithi (Personifer) Angels

[triggerfish1976]

Does anybody have any recent experiences with these fish?
I know they have an uneven track record in captivity but I have always understood them to be fairly hardy at least for Cahtenopolous Angels. I have seem them from time to time on most of the online livestock lists so I imagine someone is buying them but there are next to no recent first hand accounts of people keeping one.
I am planning on getting a pair, one larger speciman and one smaller speciman. I am not going to get a show male since I generally try and avoid large adults and was hoping that one of them would eventually adopt male colors.

 

[ralphie16]

Where did you hear/read that the male colors are different? Did you see it in person?

 

[triggerfish1976]

Sorry I shouldn't spread hobby marketing jargon. The retail side of the industry labels any large Meredithi with full face colors as males but it is my understanding that the females also obtain these same colors so we could feasibly get a large female. I have read that the males do get bigger and have a more narrower body shape when they reach max. size.

 

[Hormigaquatica]

I actually have yet to see a meridithi do well in captivity. Im sure some have- but Ive handled about a half dozen of them over the past 5 years, all of which gave me a really hard time about feeding. The only ones that even attempted to feed were the smaller individuals, but even then all but one ended up getting sick and never recovered.
Its a shame, I love that whole Chaetodotoplus complex, but most seem to be fairly delicate.

 

[jda]

The LFH here has a 5" male personifier for several months now. I swear that it would eat toilet paper.

I have been considering for a while... More worried about tank size (210) than price or compatibility.

 

[triggerfish1976]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9350099#post9350099 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Hormigaquatica
I actually have yet to see a meridithi do well in captivity. Im sure some have- but Ive handled about a half dozen of them over the past 5 years, all of which gave me a really hard time about feeding. The only ones that even attempted to feed were the smaller individuals, but even then all but one ended up getting sick and never recovered.
Its a shame, I love that whole Chaetodotoplus complex, but most seem to be fairly delicate.

What did you try feeding it? I have always been good at getting finicky amgels to eat. I generally offer them fresh clams to get them started until they decide to eat prepared foods. I have about 800lbs of LR for them to pick on as well but I generally don't see the LR as a long term source.

 

[Hormigaquatica]

The animals I was working with were fresh imports. I do think live rock would make a big difference- get them settled in with a natural grazing behavior, then wean them on to unfamiliar foods.
I have a standard arsenol of foods for new angels- frozen mysis, live brine, nori, caulerpa, live mussels, live clams, and live sponge. Ive even offered live coral to some species (though meridithi wasnt among those).

 

[triggerfish1976]

Live coral? Wow, thats commitment. I have plenty of live coral in the tank already so I guess I am offering it inadvertently.

 

[Hormigaquatica]

Yeah.. kind of a lest ditch effort thing, but Ive sacrificed Galaxea, Favia, and Trachyphyllias in the past. I dont generally recommend it... lol

 

[jda]

I have only seen 2 in tanks in my life. Both were quite bold after they got their legs. I am not talking about passer/maculosus bold, but they were not wusses either. This one at the LFS is no different.

Neither ate coral.

What is a good price for an eating male (looking) one?

 

[LargeAngels]

My experience has also been "less than satisfactory" with these angles. I stopped trying since they never really ate for me. Tried from Juveniles to an full blown male adult. The full male adult was given to me by Randy at Marine Center as he couldn't get it to eat for the first two weeks. I tried for a week and then gave it to a friend of mine who put it in one of his 2,000 gallon rock/coral tanks. Still didn't eat.

The smaller ones ate a little of this and a little of that but not enough to sustain them. Reef tanks and FO tanks. I tried everything under the sun but no real luck. I have a lot of angels and to me this one has been one of the harder to keep.

 

[triggerfish1976]

Well I bit the bullet and ended up getting a pair (one large and one med.). I hope to pick them up today. Hopefully they will be healthy specimans and I can get them to eat. I will keep all of you posted.

 

[Rare Angels]

I had one individual about 6 years ago. I bought the fish from an online vendor, can't remember which one.

The fish was about 3-4 inches long and I had no problems with it the entire time I owned it. It was in a tank with a Passer, Emperor, queen, and blue ring angels. I had the fish for 4 years and ended up selling it to a LFS when I had to take the tank down.

It sounds like you guys have had trouble with the but from my experience I would try them again some day.

Just my .02

Dave

 

[triggerfish1976]

Maybe recent collection practices are not as good as they use to be. Good to see at least one successful experience.

 

[mattliu]

trigger you knew you were going to get these regardless, if anything unsuccesful attempts just peak your interest. i wish you would try that orange trunkfish. was steve weast sucessful with it ?

 

[ralphie16]

DP

 

[ralphie16]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9356877#post9356877 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by triggerfish1976
Maybe recent collection practices are not as good as they use to be.

This has occurred for a number of different species.

 

[triggerfish1976]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9356932#post9356932 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mattliu
trigger you knew you were going to get these regardless, if anything unsuccesful attempts just peak your interest. i wish you would try that orange trunkfish. was steve weast sucessful with it ?

What can I say, I like a good challenge.
I spoke to Steve about 3 months ago regarding his tank and asked him how his cold water system was doing. Everything was thriving. He posted some pics on another website of that tank and it is a really interesting endeavor that he has going on.
I would never think of trying one because of their temperature requirements. I have heard of a couple of people who have kept them at higher temps (76-78) but I would not want to risk it dying in my tank and poisoning the tank.

 

[invincible569]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9356173#post9356173 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by triggerfish1976
Well I bit the bullet and ended up getting a pair (one large and one med.). I hope to pick them up today. Hopefully they will be healthy specimans and I can get them to eat. I will keep all of you posted.

How are they each doing now?

 

[triggerfish1976]

The smaller one is doing great and is eating like a pig. The bigger fish ocassionally picks at my frozen food mixture but is not getting enough food because it's stomach is starting to get pinched. I fed some fresh clams on half shells in the tank last night and he picked at a couple so I am going to keep that up in hopes that he wll start eating other foods with more gusto. They both are very active and spend most of the the day swimming around the tank picking at the rocks. Neither one has touched a single coral in the tank and I have a mixture of just about every type of coral.
They tend to stay in close proximity to each other as they swim around the tank and they have an overhang that they will both go into whenever they get sick of swimming around.