Multi-Barred Angel

[E.intheC]

I have to admit. These angelfish fascinate me. In the quest for the 'perfect' centerpiece/show fish of my 90 gallon, I stumbled upon them yesterday.

There's not too much info out there regarding these beauties. I do know they can be very shy and tough to get eating. In addition, they seem to do much better if kept in pairs, along with a mature tank with sponges and algae to pick at, and finally, peaceful tankmates.

Does anyone else have experience with them?

 

[E.intheC]

Oh, the tank is a 90 gallon peaceful FOWLR with lots of caves for hiding and rock for grazing.

 

[reefsic]

I agree...definitely one of my all time fav fishies! I've attempted 3 at separate times, in the past and failed all three times. Proper QT and acclimation...even got to a phase where they were swimming and eating, then one day they just end up floating!

Up to this day, I still cant figure out the cause of death. Very beautiful and striking fish, but at the same time...very fragile and delicate.

I would QT him first to make sure he's disease/parasite free and takes in food. In a FOWLR, he'll have to compete for food, and that may be detrimental.

GL!

 

[treylane]

I've had one just shy of a year at this point, and killed two (each at about a week) before I got this one. Basically the first two were EXTREMELY shy, much more so than I had anticipated - I had seen multibar angels behave much like any other small reef grazing fish in hobbyist aquariums but was unprepared for the challenge of dealing with stressed, recently shipped specimens. They didn't want to leave the cover of the rockwork at all, and would only pick a little mysis off the bottom of the tank. Some combination of stress / mishandling / malnutrition did them in.

I vowed to give up after two equally miserable attempts. This was (imo) the most beautiful aquarium fish and I couldn't stand to kill another one.

Most of a year later, I was at my favorite fish-buying store (a shout-out for Blue Ocean Aquatics in milpitas!) and there was a multibar swimming around in a frag display tank with a ton of bartlett's and bicolor anthias, inspecting all the rocks for food, didn't run away from the front of the tank when I approached, and when offered frozen bloodworms, it ATE! I figured even I couldn't screw this one up, bought a stack of frozen bloodworms, took him home, and dropped him directly in the display. He was eating frozen brine shrimp within a week, and mysis within two. These days he'll swim past mysis to get to NLS pellets or GP pellets.

I don't know whether bolder specimens are caught in different depths or regions, or whether it's a handling thing, but they seem to exist in batches rather than freak individuals, as the LFS had sold several others the week I bought mine.

Unless you're well-prepared for a long qt and training phase in a quiet tank, finding one that's bold is a must. And even then, most of the "success" stories with this fish seem to end after 6-12 months.

 

[E.intheC]

reefsic, that's a beauty you had there. Sorry to hear about the loss.

Treylane, thanks for sharing your experience as well. I've heard that these fish come in seasonally. It's interesting.

As for my tank.... Just throwing out random thoughts, but I wonder if they'll do better off as the first fish in the tank, IE bypassing the QT. That way they'll have access to all the hiding places they'll need and ample live rock to pick at. The tank would have to be pre cycled already.

However, I've also got a QT tank sitting in my basement that I can load up with PVC and other objects to create hiding places. Our basement sees very little traffic, and is super quiet so I'm confident in that location.

Lately though, in general, I've become more interested in recreating (to the best of my ability) as natural habitat as possible, IE: keeping fish that are sociable in pairs/trios/etc.
On a larger note, for example, let's say you have a fish that lives in the kelp forest. Instead of placing that fish in a standard live rock only tank, IMO, it'd be best to have real kelp (or some form of similar macro algae/plant) to make the fish feel more at home. Similarly, if a fish swims in strong current, have adequate flow. There are plenty of examples here.

When typing, this seems extremely obvious. I'll admit that. However, it's something I think a lot of people either a.) don't consider, or b.) don't emphasize the importance.

 

[prodman]

I have had mine for five months. It adapted well as it was out of an established reef. it is not shy in my tank at all. It used to taste the corals but not so much anymore.

 

[treylane]

Well, these fish are deeper-water and usually stay very close to caves and crevices, so lots of live rock and dimmer light will likely be very useful during acclimation.

As for pairs - some types of fish are particularly suited to living in groups and fail to thrive without them, but Centropyge aren't really on that list. They've got spawning behaviors if you get them to that point, but otherwise they just swim together a bit and squabble a bit, so it's more about the preference of the aquarist. You probably DO want a few other small, non-aggressive fish in the tank before adding a super shy fish - most fish seem to eat better at first when there's slight competition, and having the other fish wandering the tank signals that it's safe to come out of hiding.

The LFS owner in my case had treated the angel for a few days (fw dip and then copper, I believe) prior to dropping it in a display, that may (?) have helped.

 

[E.intheC]

Well, these fish are deeper-water and usually stay very close to caves and crevices, so lots of live rock and dimmer light will likely be very useful during acclimation.

As for pairs - some types of fish are particularly suited to living in groups and fail to thrive without them, but Centropyge aren't really on that list.

I was surprised to read this as well, but take a look at the following article (good food for thought, if nothing else):

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_6/volume_6_2/multifasciata.htm

 

[Toddrtrex]

I have a venustus dwarf angel (( in some people's opinion the 3rd member of the genus that they should be in )); it is fairly cryptic at first, but now is fairly settled in -- after about a year. Does like to hang out near any caves/overhangs. Mine came from DD and was eating prepared foods within minutes of being released. It does pick at the rocks all day long. The key (( as with any fish )), IMO, is to start off with a healthy one.

 

[PiXieCath]

I own one for a bit more than 2 years and he's definitly my favorite fishes! Mine came for a renowned retailer (Quality Marine) and was eating few hours after beiing acclimated (I know because I acclimated it at the store I work).

It's definitly not a fish for a brand new set up or people who are reefing for few times. When I aquired it, I've my 125gal with plenty of LR (wich I have for more than 5-6 years). A mature tank seems to be the way to go for this little beauty to thrive.

At the beginning, he just eat P.E. mysis...now, he eat flakes, pellets, etc and thrive in my ''new'' 60gal cube (containing old LR from all my previous set up).

Be sure to find one who eat at the store. And a mature tanks is the key to succes.;-)

Btw, how old is your set up?

Here is my baby (the pics is old...he's now pretty larger than that)

 

[inselaffe]

I had mine for about a year when i moved it on to a friend where its still doing fine. The funny thing i found with it that it would only eat flake food that was floating on the surface as soon as it sunk it wouldn't eat it. After about 4 months it decided it would eat frozen and pretty much all types. He was out all the time as well and got quite bossy and chased my mystery wrasse quite a bit.

 

[E.intheC]

It's definitly not a fish for a brand new set up or people who are reefing for few times. When I aquired it, I've my 125gal with plenty of LR (wich I have for more than 5-6 years). A mature tank seems to be the way to go for this little beauty to thrive.

At the beginning, he just eat P.E. mysis...now, he eat flakes, pellets, etc and thrive in my ''new'' 60gal cube (containing old LR from all my previous set up).

Be sure to find one who eat at the store. And a mature tanks is the key to succes.;-)

Btw, how old is your set up?

PiXiCath, thank you for sharing your insight and experience. When you say that a mature tank is the key to success, can you expand on this idea? Are you talking about established live rock that has abundant micro algae and sponges, or more along the lines of stable parameters? (or both).

Great pic of a beautiful fish, by the way.

 

[denash24]

I currently have 3 in my tank they've only been in there for about 1 month and appear to be doing really well, they are not shy and will often swim in the front they eat live blood worms, cyclops, small pellets and mysis. In my opinion QT puts a lot more stress on these fish as they will often not eat until in a reef environment and they will most likely start by eating critters off of the L/R and transition into eating food thats offered to the rest of the fish. My previous multibar was with me for approx. 6 months and was doing great and had gotten noticeably bigger unfortunately a month or so ago my multibar got really bloated from the stomach area and soon died. Anyway definitely my favorite fish with very interesting personalities, the one on my avatar is one of the 3 currently in my tank and possibly the male as he is very bold.

 

[PiXieCath]

PiXiCath, thank you for sharing your insight and experience. When you say that a mature tank is the key to success, can you expand on this idea? Are you talking about established live rock that has abundant micro algae and sponges, or more along the lines of stable parameters? (or both).

Great pic of a beautiful fish, by the way.

I talk more about established LR in order that if he don't eat frozen or prepared food, he'll get a chance to not starving to death. But good params are a win-win too.;-) And thanks for the kind words, I really love my multi, he is my baby!;-)

Keep us update if you got one.;-)

 

[ataller]

I had mine for about a year when i moved it on to a friend where its still doing fine. The funny thing i found with it that it would only eat flake food that was floating on the surface as soon as it sunk it wouldn't eat it. After about 4 months it decided it would eat frozen and pretty much all types. He was out all the time as well and got quite bossy and chased my mystery wrasse quite a bit.

Mine also would only eat from the surface, in fact only from the back left corner. This is still his favorite place to eat but he will eat from the water column now.

He was the first fish in the tank after my onyx percs which was invalueble. He essentially went 4 months eating nothing but what he could graze off the live rock. He was too shy to eat prepared foods. I noticed that he like to pick along the top of the tank. So I started to turn the return off and put pellets where he would graze. He ate a few my accident and it went from there.

 

[artur]

In liveaquaria website they say that this fish will nip at sps and lps, is this true?

 

[Toddrtrex]

In liveaquaria website they say that this fish will nip at sps and lps, is this true?

I can only speak for my venustus dwarf angel -- very similar fish -- and it does nip at SPS, though not too bad. However, it does/did love LPS, so I no longer keep LPS with it.

 

[artur]

In liveaquaria website they say that this fish will nip at sps and lps, is this true?

 

[iceh]

Any experience with these fish and clams/sps?

 

[PiXieCath]

Mine was nipping clams so I decide to ride away of the clams. Don't know about sps, I don't own it but my multi is a model citizen with LPS.;o)