Pygmy angels. Yes or no?

[aleggett321]

Do you consider a coral beauty or flame angel reef safe?
I have mostly soft corals. Frogspawn, and leathers. Toadstool and cabbage, Kenya tree coral. Flowerpot, an open brain coral, a couple of Zoa colonies. A couple of montys and one other small SPS.
What do you think? Would you chance it?

 

[johnike]

I just posted recently about my Dwarf Angel attempt in my 240.
I had an Eibli, Flame, Coral Beauty, and a BiColor.

The BiColor killed them all, and I caught him just the other day and banished it to sumpland impending the next LFS trip.

I've seen multiple Dwarf tanks, but it's a bad roll of the dice.

Here's how I caught the BiColor...

 

[aleggett321]

Is that a waterbed? They still have those?

 

[Chaotic Reefer4u]

Whattup big john, very nice tank!

 

[johnike]

Thanks CR, check my pics in the Lounge thread, the tanks never looked better.
allegett, I work in a plastic fab shop and whipped that up to drain the tank.

 

[serpent]

Wow, that is an awesome way to drain a tank.

Pygmy's are a roll of the dice. I have tried twice with a coral beauty and a flame. The coral beauty was a failure, but the flame was a model citizen. I have also heard the more red the flame is, the better. That could just be a wives tail though.

 

[johnike]

Thanks serpent, necessity, the mother of invention.

 

[NYCBOB]

i would say 90% reef safe.

 

[Saltydrip]

The orangeish and the more red flame angel come from to different regions. I forget where but my LFS said the really red ones tend to be more docile and less prone to nipping corals. They are also about $15 more expensive. At both my LFS.

 

[sponger0]

I would never consider any angel reef safe. They can be ok but on the same token they can have a good meal on corals. I personally wouldnt try it. Its just the luck of the dice.

 

[ReefPharmer]

i have a potters angel in the system for about a year. He's been great and doesnt nip anything EXCEPT FOR OTHER small angels i try to add into the tank. This is a 180 gallon so I figured its large enough to be ok after I have the fish in the acclimation box for a few days... NOPE potters wont let them in. After 2 failed attempts, no more flame angels for me

 

[dave sullivan]

I had a flame for years in my 1078 gallon reef and no problems. If you have a big enough tank there is less problems to corals because if the flame decides to pick a little here or there then there is little problems. Also, depends how hungry they are. If you're not feeding much then they need to eat something. Have a great day!

 

[sponger0]

Also the size of the tank. The bigger the tank is the more algae to graze one.

 

[Peter Eichler]

Regardless of what anyone says in this thread, every Centropyge is a risk.

 

[cnguyenl]

Had a coral beauty before, never touch my corals

 

[t4zalews]

Expect them to nip and if they don't your lucky. They only nip to death corals that are already dying, they will not continuely nip to death healthy corals. I've seen mine nip at SPS and clam mantles but never do damage. Only repercussion is less polyp extension

 

[Palting]

I had a coral beauty for about 2 years. A model reef citizen, he only nipped at the algae, and ate flakes with gusto. I improved the tank, algae went away, I went for a one week vacation, and he went carpet surfing . I'll be getting another one.

I've read posts of the bad rep they get for reef, but I've never actually read a post where someone had a bad experience with them. Maybe it's just a minority, similar to gossip where only bad news gets passed and gets exaggerated?

 

[Bruno3047]

They are OK if you don't mind looking at your tank one day and finding your favorite coral(s) decimated. No matter how well-behaved an angel looks today, tomorrow he could turn into your worst nightmare.

But you already knew that, didn't you?

 

[watchguy123]

Every dwarf angel is stunning. Always wanted either a flame or potters but the idea of any of my chalices getting munched on or sps polyps retracted would be just awful. Like most of my fantacies, concerns outweigh desire

 

[Beandawg]

If you value your sanity, do not get a dwarf. I had a flame angel in my fowlr, and slowly added corals until it is now a mixed reef. The original flame angel was great, never saw it nip anything. I decided to add another flame angel and all hell broke loose. The new angel had a taste for my open brain, then started on leather polyps, then my gorgonians. The best part is that it taught my original flame to have the same expensive tastes. I have since removed the new flame, the original flame is proving to be almost impossible to remove. I will never own another angel.