Flame angel in 75 gallon reef tank

N

n_sarno

Guest
Hey everyone..
I know this has been asked TIME and TIME again.. but how many people on here have had sucess w/ adding a flame angel to their reef tank? I REALLY want to add one.. so please anyone who had no problems post.. and anyone who had problems post.. and let me know what yours went after.. I have a large mix of corals in my tank.. no SPS though.. just clams softies and LPS..
 
beavis4040

beavis4040

Member
i have a coral Beauty and haven't had any problems. i have just recently added corals but all seems good so far. It's a hit or miss with them
 
matt819

matt819

Member
When I got my flame...we were feeding him flake in the store and he was eating it reallly good, so I decided to go for it. He even munched on some when he was in the bag. I have just a few nicer large corals in my 55, hammer coral, colt coral, shrooms, xenia and some other polyps, and the flame hasn't touched any of them. It's been great from the start, been in my tank about a month now.
 
seannmelly

seannmelly

Active Member
In the reef tank at work, they added a flame, and he was fine for 6 months, and then started nipping everything including clams and he was removed.
 
murph

murph

Active Member
Its probably a 50/50 shot as to if he will be reef safe through his entire lifetime. I have had no problems with dwarf angels and there is even people who keep non dwarf angels in reefs with no problems. The reports I have gotten is that its actually at the juvenile stage that angels are more apt to try corals and clams as a food source.
Once the fish has become accustom to the hobbyist as his food source and a variety and proper amount of food is provided the angels ignore corals.
Now the bad news IMO. Its also a 50/50 shot as to whether you will purchase a healthy specimen when it comes to angels and especially the flame angel. In-proper capture and handling before the fish arrives at the LFS often dooms these fish to an early death that seems unexplainable to the hobbyist.
Cyanide as a capture method, rough handling in general and or various holding tanks with various amounts of copper in them are extremely hard on these fish. Depending on your livestock source I would venture to guess the mortality rate of more delicate specimens after introduction to the hobbyist tank is close to 50 percent. The mortality rate prior to the fish making it to the retail level is well over 50 percent.
The industry itself bares a large responsibility here. The way to cure this is to hit em in the pocket book, so my end advice if this is to be a reef tank is to keep the bio load low to begin with and stick with tank raised specimens. I have a 75 gallon tank right now that needs stocked and and I will be practicing what I am preaching.
 
rabbit

rabbit

New Member
I had a Flame angel in with my coral and he left the corals alone, but he ended up dying for no apparent reason....
 
drea

drea

Active Member
my same problem... not sure if i want to take a chance like that.. i don't like returing fish
 
firedog

firedog

Member
There was another thread about flame angels on here recently. They are sometimes collected with cyanide, which can create long term problems. It maybe doing fine for a long time then all of a sudden drop dead.
Back to the topic, I will add that I have a flame angel in my reef tank, which was a 75 but it is now a 115 (I used Miracle Gro). If I recall properly the flame came from the Marshall Islands. My flame is doing well, and he is nice and fat. The only problem is he is missing a fin (I didn't notice that it was gone when I bought him) so he swims around with this nub for a pectoral fin. I have had him for 5 months now and there appears to be no growth in terms of the fin.
I will also note that the flame angel was one of the first fish added, despite some advice that states they should only be added to mature tanks. I took a chance and I won. The tank was cycled BTW. Took about five days.
More to the original question , my flame eats angel some algae and whatever foods I feed. He does not eat or nip at any of my corals, anemones, or my clam. For five months now he has been a model citizen. Every now and then he swims by to give me a wink and a thumbs up.
Nick does this mean you kept your crocea clam?
 
namas05

namas05

Member
I currently have a pygmy angel in mytank and he is no problem.
I have had a flame angel in reef tanks before and had no problems with them.
Great looking fish one of my fav's. :cheer: :cheer:

I say go for it. Give him a good varity of foods and he shouldn't need to nip at corals.
 
N

n_sarno

Guest
I sold the clam I had up for sale.. and ended up getting MH shortly after.. so I bought 2 more! lol
 
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