Queen Angel experiences

[ben jammin]

I'm curious to hear what experience folks have had with Queen Angels. I'm not worried about reef-safety as I have a FOWLR. Tank is 260 gallons. Other angels are a 6" french and a 5" emperor, both of which are pretty mellow. I also have several tangs, a couple butterflies, fairy wrasses and other miscellaneous fish. There's really no aggression in my tank currently - everyone is healthy and gets along. I have a large acclimation box for adding new fish (24" x 10" x 10") so I generally let them spend a few days in there before adding to the general population.

I have heard that queens can be a nightmare, but a lot of the threads I've seen on here suggest they are middle the road, so I think it might be okay, but I'm interested in what people think who have them with other angels, especially when adding to established but mellow specimens.

 

[anbosu]

I wouldn't do it in your current aquarium.

 

[Dmorty217]

I see you having problems in the future between the emperor and queen. If the tank was bigger I would say go for it. Where did you get the large acclimation box from?

 

[snorvich]

I see you having problems in the future between the emperor and queen. If the tank was bigger I would say go for it. Where did you get the large acclimation box from?

And the French.

 

[jjk_reef00]

Your tank is too small for the 3, in 8 months your french will make your tank look tiny.

 

[ben jammin]

Dmorty, I made the box myself. I wanted to add a purple tang to my existing group of yellow, powder blue, hippo and tomini tangs. I felt it would work if I used an acclimation box for a few days, but there are so few on the market and I've never seen one bigger than the large Elite Aquatics box, which I have, but is still nowhere near large enough to humanely keep a 4" or larger fish in for more than a day or two, let alone an active swimmer like a tang. I'm not one of those types that's very good with power tools but at least I've got a decent drill. I bought a large sheet of acrylic at Lowe's and had them cut it for me into the sizes I needed for each side. Then I just used regular drill bits to drill a bunch of holes in each side and zip tied the sides together. (I didn't seal it with silicone cause I figured the extra flow from the unsealed edges would only help.). I didn't worry about creating perfect symmetry or making it perfectly neat since I was concerned with function over form and I was in a hurry. Anyway, it worked like a charm. The purple spent about 3 or 4 days in there quite happily before I released him, and after a couple days of mild sorting out my tangs all get along fine.

Here's a quick pic of the box. I cracked one end when I first started drilling but that only makes for more flow. [emoji39]. Like I said, not pretty but it works.

 

[ben jammin]

Thanks to all for the feedback. Sounds like it may not be a good idea. Too bad as I feel like my fish population is missing that one final pop of bright, light colors that would really round things out. I have tried a regal in the past (when I had fewer boisterous fish than I do now) but couldn't get it to eat. Trying another would surely be bad for the regal so I don't want to attempt it. I was hoping a queen could hold it's own but maybe it is too much.

Not to belabor the issue or hijack my own thread, but I am curious about the growth rate issue. My french was a juvi about 2"-3" when I added him 17 months ago. He grew to his current size of about 5"-6" within 6 months but hasn't grown much since. Got my emperor at 5" a little over 7 months ago and it hasn't grown much since either. In fact, none of my fish seem to grow very quickly, if at all anymore, despite pretty liberal feeding twice a day. I've got a transitional red coris wrasse that was 2.5" when I got him 13 months ago, and is still less than 3" and transitional phase today. Besides not growing though, all my fish are healthy and all get along just fine. I know that in some circumstances fish can secrete hormones that inhibit their growth in response to the environment, and I think that must be happening in my tank. I'm not concerned by it, but I think it's an interesting phenomena. Anyone else have another idea as to what may be happening?

 

[jjk_reef00]

What types of food are you feeding?
Try feeding 3 - 5 times a day, autofeeder with pellets can help.
Also raw shrimp, scallops etc are a great way to help fish put on weight and grow.
There are a ton of yellow fish you can keep.
Raccoon butterfly, yellow longnose BF also would probably work depending on how the angels react to them.

 

[ben jammin]

Mornings I feed a mix of several different kinds and sizes of pellets including NLS Thera +, Hikari Marine A, Marine S and Seaweed Extreme, and freeze dried brine, all in at least two different sizes as I have a mix of larger and smaller fish between 2" and 7" in size, some with large mouths and some with small mouths

Evenings I feed frozen food - a mix of PE Mysis and either LRS Fish Frenzy, Mega Marine, Mega Marine Algae, or Mega Marine Angel. Every other day I also hand feed my 6" harlequin tusk with some Rod's Food predator formula chunks, cause he's kind of slow and clumsy but likes/needs bigger pieces.

Occasionally I add nori sheets or New Era grazer rings. The nori sheets last all of 5 seconds before they are completely devoured by everyone in the tank. Even the tusk eats them. You'd think it was a piranha tank watching them attach the nori.

I am not really bothered that my fish aren't growing fast - I rather like it as it avoids them outgrowing the tank or developing conflicts - so I don't really want to feed any more frequently. It will just cause nitrates to accumulate even more rapidly, which leads to excessive algae growth.

It's not that I'm looking for a yellow fish - you're right that there are plenty of those to choose from. I look for particular color combinations, and I love the lighter blues and yellows of both the Queen and Regal. Most other blue/yellow fish are much darker shades of both, such as emperors and majestics. Plus, I'm avid scuba diver and have always loved Queen Angels so it would be cool to have one. My other favorite fish from diving are yellowtail damsels (aka jewel damselfish, Microspathodon chrysyrus - not the tiny Chrysiptera parasema that go by that name in the aquarium trade). DD has had several of these recently in the 5" range, but the thought of adding a 5" damsel to my tank and the havoc it might wreak scares the crap out of me.

 

[Dmorty217]

Thanks for the info on the box, you answered a lot of my questions including ones I didn't ask. My next question was going to revolve around Elite and you nailed it thanks again.

 

[ben jammin]

Sure thing Dmorty. As much assistance as you provide to me and others on this forum, I hope I was able to contribute something helpful to you. One more thing about the my box and the Elite - I actually used the suction cup keyholes on the Elite box as a template for drilling similar holes on the side of my box, and I use the Elite suction cups to hold my box in place. Only drawback is then I can't use both boxes at the same time, but that's rarely an issue anyway.

 

[Dmorty217]

Sure thing Dmorty. As much assistance as you provide to me and others on this forum, I hope I was able to contribute something helpful to you. One more thing about the my box and the Elite - I actually used the suction cup keyholes on the Elite box as a template for drilling similar holes on the side of my box, and I use the Elite suction cups to hold my box in place. Only drawback is then I can't use both boxes at the same time, but that's rarely an issue anyway.

I was thinking about getting plastic or rubber coated magnets to use. I have the reef gently acclimation box but found the suction cups on the outside box were great but if you try to use the inside box for a socialization box they were not great to say the least.

 

[ben jammin]

I've seen that box and always wondered if it was worth it. I gather you like it for acclimation purposes?

Re: the magnets, if you have trouble finding those you could probably just use a couple of small algae magnets.

 

[Dmorty217]

I've seen that box and always wondered if it was worth it. I gather you like it for acclimation purposes?

Re: the magnets, if you have trouble finding those you could probably just use a couple of small algae magnets.

No for the money I think the reef gently is overpriced and has minimal uses at best. For acclimating is the only real use that surpasses other systems since the water is constantly being filtered out as it comes in to aid with the ammonia that's often encountered when O2 hits the open bag

 

[ben jammin]

That was what I always kinda thought. Seems like a clever contraption but pretty pricey, and while it seems to make acclimating easy as can be, I never had any difficulty with the process to were I felt I needed to pay for a better solution.

 

[Dmorty217]

That was what I always kinda thought. Seems like a clever contraption but pretty pricey, and while it seems to make acclimating easy as can be, I never had any difficulty with the process to were I felt I needed to pay for a better solution.

Yeah not the smartest 100$+ I have spent in this hobby to say the least. My acclimation process consists of floating for 20 mins and dripping for another 20 or so then in the QT. Longer than that and you add unneeded stress to a already stressed fish