What size tank for two dwarf angelfish?

[heathlindner25]

My 3 angels are still doing fine in the 65

 

[oseymour]

I have 2 in my 75 gallon. I got the idea from a guy here on Reefcentral that has a bunch in a 90.

I got them very small and quarantined them together. So they got used to each other. My tank also has a lot of caves and I feed very heavily. Right now I'm doing Zeovit but I always have a way to handle excess nutrients.

If you are going to try this you cannot be a stingy feeder and there must be a lot of hiding places.

Now I want to get rid of them because I want a clam and they keep picking on clams whenever I add one.

 

[OrionN]

I'm hoping to be lucky enough to find a bonded pair, Like the pair of Lemonpeels I saw at a LFS earlier this year, Too bad the tank wasn't ready then.

Three flame Angels was a total fail.
On a personal level I would like to be able to enjoy as many different beautiful colorful varieties as possible within reason in a single tank.

That was how we went from attempting three Flame angels to a flame, a coral beauty and then removing an Atlantic pygmy.
The Atlantic pygmy had little dog syndrome bad.
.....

I'm considering this two dwarf experiment on a 75 gal. Anyone currently doing it? Thread Resurrection!

I couldn't get a CB and Flame to get along in a 150G with over 250 lbs. of rocks. Made me very wary of ever trying to mix dwarf Angels again.

Other than davefromdc, it is very likely that you guys added two male pygmy angels together in a small aquarium.

Some Centropyge are aggressive while other in the same genus are not. According to Scott Michael all the member of the argi (C. argi, C. acanthrops, C. aurantonotus, C. resplendens) complex tend to be belligerent. According to him, in addition to the above, the more aggressive pygmy angels are Flame (C. loriculus), Lemonpeel (C. flavissimus), Halfblack (C. vrolikii), Potter (C. potteri) and Multicolor (C. multicolor)

With that said, all pygmy angelfishes studied formed haremic social group with one male and anywhere from 3-9 females in the wild. In order to have success in keeping a harem, we need a reasonably large aquarium, 70+ gallons, with a lot of hiding space. Male will defend his territory with the females. It is essential to have one male only in your aquarium.

All studied Centropyge angels studied are protogynous hermaphrodites (all males result from change sex from females). Some species are clearly dimorphic while others are not. In species that are not dimorphic, it is a guessing game to sex them, however male are larger than female. By selecting smaller, immature specimens, we can reasonably select non male fish.

I have not keep all the pygmy angle mentioned above so I don't claim to have these experiences, but I keep plenty of them. I do have medium to larger size aquarium most of the time. In my 65+ gallons, I always have at least two specimen of pygmy angel of the same species. One time when I keep multiple species of pygmy angels was in my 450 tank about 15 years ago. 1 male Flameback, 1 female and three female Cherub angels. These five fishes spawned through out the year, every few days. Currently I have three Flame in my 320. One male and two females. They too spawned regularly.



davefromdc,
Try and set up your aquarium as above and you will be reward with natural behavior of these very interesting fish.

 

[Half Vaped]

Thanks, Minh, that's good to know.

I'm sure I had more than enough space for them and I feed heavily, so it could be that they were both males. They were both less than full grown, but definitively not juveniles.

The Flame went in the tank about a week before the CB. The CB was a little bigger than the Flame, yet the Flame was bent on not letting the CB swim in its territory.

Maybe I'll try again one day with the more peaceful dwarfs and get the smallest ones I can.

 

[OrionN]

Flame angels are dimorphic. Look for the different in shape of the end dosal and anal fins. male with some what pointy of these two fins. Female with rounded fins

 

[jdl242]

I recently added a Red Stripe Dwarf Angel to my 55 Gl. He's a great addition as far as activity goes but it is very nippy on my corals. I was thinking about adding another dwarf angel, not sure which type, but after reading this thread, sounds like I should hold off on that unless I get a bigger tank.