Angelfish in reef tanks

[msmith619]

Looking for personal experience keeping angelfish with reef tanks.
I have a 75 gallon mixed reef with lots of soft corals, LPS, and a couple sps. In it, I have kept a well-fed, fat, happy queen angel who shows no desire to touch my corals.
Now I have a 125 mixed reef going up. It has dozens of zoas, several sps, a couple softies and a few lps. I am thinking of adding a Blue-faced angel and looking for personal experience keeping one in a reef tank. I have seen some threads on other sites suggesting they are reef safe but most fish store web sites say they are not.
Has anyone tried this, know someone who has, or have any personal or second-hand experience with this? I don't want to buy one and he wipes out all the corals.

[ballardjr2000]

from everything i have read angelfish species are reef caution. meaning they could or could not eat your corals. i have a coral beauty with no problems as well as a blue hippo tang no problems with them picking on my corals you would have to watch closely usally if they are full they don't really have a reason to pick on the corals.

[kkiel02]

I have a coral beauty also and it doesn't mess with my coral. I try and keep him fed good.

[Robb_in_Austin]

I had an Eibli angel. He started off on some zoas, which I tolerated somewhat. Then he went after my Trachyphyllia and back to RCA he went.

I'm thinking a nice Genicanthus when I get my 75 setup.

[BIGBIRD123]

Well, I purchased a Koran Angel from a lady that said it didn't eat coral...she had it for a couple of years...she just didn't have the ones it liked. The first night it ate about 1/2" of my Watermelon Chalice.

[RICKY81]

i have a Coral beauty, koran Angel, and a Flame Angel in a 210gal tank mixed reef (sps, lps, softies, and zoas/palys) and neigther one of them have pick on my corals, the only one that i have noticed is the Coral beauty will mainly pick on the Live Rock and eat from there, he hardly ever eats the food that i feed them..

[BIGBIRD123]

i have a Coral beauty, koran Angel, and a Flame Angel in a 210gal tank mixed reef (sps, lps, softies, and zoas/palys) and neigther one of them have pick on my corals, the only one that i have noticed is the Coral beauty will mainly pick on the Live Rock and eat from there, he hardly ever eats the food that i feed them..

You're lucky, the Flame and Coral Beauty are hit and miss but the Koran usually love LPS.

[Bill S]

If you have a Queen Angel in the tank, you really can't add another large angel, without the risk that a HUGE fight will break out.

My advice is to NOT put angels in your reef tank. They are so hit-and-miss, and GENERALLY, they will start up eating corals at some point.

I have a Lemon Peel that's not too bad - just like zoanthids. And, an Imperator that I've had since he/she was a tiny juvenile. It was great until about a year ago. Just plain terror on LPS and zoanthids. Leaves the pink chalace alone, ate a watermelon in just a few hours. I can't have most kinds of LPS - no brains, etc. Torch/hammer seem fine. SPS was fine.

My advice is that you stay away from them. Once that Queen finds out about corals, it WILL go wild. If you just have to have an angel, choose a dwarf.

[ballardjr2000]

i have a Coral beauty, koran Angel, and a Flame Angel in a 210gal tank mixed reef (sps, lps, softies, and zoas/palys) and neigther one of them have pick on my corals, the only one that i have noticed is the Coral beauty will mainly pick on the Live Rock and eat from there, he hardly ever eats the food that i feed them..

you could try zooplankton to feed feed it i got lucky i guess mine eats the zooplankton/brine shrimp and the flake i put in the tank but won't touch the alage i feed

[Mr Cob]

I have a coral beauty in a frag tank and so far so good.

[dustint21]

Check this out! Granted he has all SPS, but this tank is full of them and SPS! Looks SWEET!

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1208769&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

[Bill S]

Angels usually leave SPS alone...

[dustint21]

Yeah I know... I was just sharing the thread because of the many different types he keeps together. Sorry if it was off topic.

Dustin

[Bill S]

No, no Dustin. It's a very good point - if you are keeping just SPS, and maybe stinging LPS (like frogspawn, etc.), you've got a chance of getting away with it. "Coral Safe" isn't a universal term!

But angels tend to LOVE large, open LPS, and zoanthids. I swear, they get stoned on zoas.

[lt1z28]

I keep a bellus, flame, coral beauty, and yellow and black angel (centropyge heraldi). The yellow and black angel nips at my sps. The others don't bother my corals at all.