Angelfish & Butterflies

[BantyRooster97]

I asked the question originally in the Reef section. Let me ask here & see if anyone has a suggestion...

So I'm thinking of setting up a large new tank, 180g +, and adding angels & possibly some butterflies. Are there any corals I can keep with them?

Thinking Emp, blueface, majestic, scribbled or false personifier as far as angels go.

I have reef tanks already set up (5 of them) so this tank will be more for these fish. I'm just curious if I can add anything... nems, zoas, sps, shrooms, euphylia... anything that is alive.

thx

 

[lapin]

I have hammers, shrooms, torches, nems, bubbles, montis, toadstools and a soft brain coral and my emperor does pick at them but not to the point they suffer much damage> The brain has retracted and does not expand like it did before the addition of the emperor

 

[dedragon]

Most larger angels will either nip at corals or completely eat corals. Mostly what i have seen is small muchrooms, zoas, acans/meaty corals, and even sps. Way too much risk involved for them imo.
If its a reef i suggest genicanthus instead, my personal favorite is a watanabei angelfish trio

 

[BantyRooster97]

Most larger angels will either nip at corals or completely eat corals. Mostly what i have seen is small muchrooms, zoas, acans/meaty corals, and even sps. Way too much risk involved for them imo.
If its a reef i suggest genicanthus instead, my personal favorite is a watanabei angelfish trio

Not looking to make it a reef, just trying to figure out if I can have anything in it besides fish. I could do nems, if they won't eat them, that would be fine. I figured meaty / acans etc would be out. Never know with zoas, but I have a ton I could throw some in and see what happens. Didn't know angels would eat shrooms. I have some very large hairy shrooms & some other green shrooms I'd be willing to test out.

Like I mentioned, I have reef tanks & all kinds of cheap corals I can use as testers.

 

[dedragon]

Cool, was just making sure. Didnt want you to lose a bunch of corals in the process. My favorite fish is probably a blueface angelfish, hopefully one day. I would probably do all acros or hard corals because once sps are settled in i actually find them to be super hardy as far as being fragged constantly, so i think they could do fine. Really it does become a toss up with these large angels

 

[dennis romano]

I had a blue face that was a model citizen as a juvenile. As soon as he transitioned to adult coloration, he went rogue. He started with an elegance and ate almost one LPS a day until removed. As for butterflies, nothing was safe. I tried a rafflesi in a tank with mushrooms, zoas, rock flower nems, and other nems. Everything was on the menu.

 

[BantyRooster97]

Thx... Butterflies may be out. LOL

 

[dedragon]

I do have a copperband butterflyfish and it is a model citizen, ate all my aiptasia but has left every type of coral alone. I have acro, monti, elegance, hammers, frogspawn, zoas, acans, anemones, leathers, etc.
Some people have had problems with copperbands and acans i have heard but they are more reef safe than others, still have potential to eat coral though

 

[dedragon]

my biggest problem is my blue hippo tang that likes to nip acros, fish are weird sometimes

 

[Lowsingle]

How about attempting some leather corals? They are cheap, grow like weeds and they are practically given away in my aquarium society. Seems like they could have a good chance.....

Darren

 

[E.J.]

Some of the more noxious soft corals, like leathers and palythoa, might be ignored by some traditionally not reef safe angels and butterflies. Regal angels, Genicanthus angels (plankton eaters so quite reef safe), yellow longnose and pyramid butterflies, copperbands, Heniochus diphreutes are generally good choices for a reef tank. Disclaimer, I've never kept any of these myself. This is based on my reading.

 

[BantyRooster97]

Some of the more noxious soft corals, like leathers and palythoa, might be ignored by some traditionally not reef safe angels and butterflies. Regal angels, Genicanthus angels (plankton eaters so quite reef safe), yellow longnose and pyramid butterflies, copperbands, Heniochus diphreutes are generally good choices for a reef tank. Disclaimer, I've never kept any of these myself. This is based on my reading.

Yeah, I have had pyramid & regal angels, not looking for reef safe fish.

Might try the leathers though, I have never kept those.

This is really a tank geared towards the angels, not the reef/coral. I just think a fowlr tank is kind of boring unless it is all predators.