Thought's on best way to mix Centropyge species

[Nick_Northern]

Hi all,

Hoping to get some opinions on the best way to go about mixing my coral beauty and flame angel. I have both a coral beauty and flame angel, both captive bred which are currently in seperate QT's.

I've had the coral beauty for 7 months and its currently around 2.5" whereas the flame is new and around 1".

I removed the beauty from the DT around 3 weeks ago and have since had a complete re-arrange of the rockwork so in effect the display is currently neutral territory.

I've had a couple of thoughts on how to go about introducing them to one another and would be interested to get other peoples thoughts, especially from people with experience mixing dwarf angels. My options as I see them are:

1. Mix both fish in QT to see how they react to one another, if all goes well then release them both into the DT after a month or so.
   
3. Skip mixing in QT and just add both to DT at same time and let them argue and establish territories. (i'm concious that how they react to one another in a relatively barren QT may not be indicative of their behaviour once in a reef tank anyway)
   
5. Add flame first as it is the smaller fish, then add coral beauty once flame has established itself (1 week later?) on the assumption that if it does kick off the established flame would likely be the aggressor and the beauty is large enough to take the abuse until they work it out.

The display tank is a soft coral reef of 90g (48"x18"x24") with around 100lb rock. Depending on who you ask tank size is borderline for mixing dwarf species however both are captive bred so SHOULD be less territorial/aggressive.

My main concern is the size difference as the coral beauty is a much more substantial fish than the flame. As you can imagine once either fish is in my reef it will be almost impossible to remove them if all hell breaks and will necessitate a complete tank overhaul so i'd rather take whatever precautionary steps I can to avoid this.

Thanks in advance

Nick

 

[norfolkgarden]

100 lb of rock is the key.
They should both have enough hiding places to be happy.
Add the flame first for at least 2 or 3 weeks.
Then add the coral beauty.
We have mixed them in a 75 gallon with no problem with sufficient rock to hang out in and hide from each other in.
They will both spend the entire day swimming around the entire tank and getting annoyed with each other every time they get within 6 inches.
Usually the less dominant will simply back off or swerve to avoid the other.


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[Nick_Northern]

100 lb of rock is the key.
They should both have enough hiding places to be happy.
Add the flame first for at least 2 or 3 weeks.
Then add the coral beauty.
We have mixed them in a 75 gallon with no problem with sufficient rock to hang out in and hide from each other in.
They will both spend the entire day swimming around the entire tank and getting annoyed with each other every time they get within 6 inches.
Usually the less dominant will simply back off or swerve to avoid the other.


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Thanks, that sounds like a good plan. have you ever tried mixing one so small before (1") by any chance? I'm sure with 3-4 weeks on its own in the dt it will pack on a bit of size anyway so hopefully won't be any problems


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[ca1ore]

1" is a tiny flame. Any way for you to get them into the same Qtm but with a clear divider separating them.

 

[Nick_Northern]

1" is a tiny flame. Any way for you to get them into the same Qtm but with a clear divider separating them.

Hmm thats a good call, might see what i can put together. I think of I were to put the flame in the display it will fill out fairly quickly, obviously won't catch up the beauty but given a month maybe it might be a bit more substantial. I saw one from the same batch in an lfs display tank which was noticeabley larger than mine, guess the extra feeding and live rock to graze bulk them up a bit quicker

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[cwschoon]

I am dripping in a Coral Beauty to my 120 mixed reef now. It has a ton of rock and I hope all will be well with my Flame Angel. The Beauty is larger.