Coral beauty reef safety longterm

[Shilpan Patel]

Hey guys I have a 105gallon softie tank. Any tips for being successful with keeping a coral beauty that doesn’t nip corals? I saw a really nice one in the store and I’m considering buying it.

Also, if it’s safe with corals, can they change their minds in future and suddenly start eating corals?
The other angel I liked was the flame angel, but I hear it’s the same sort of story as the coral beauty.

Thank you, anyone had any experience with these?

 

[Diesel]

Angels are always with caution.
I have a few angels (not a CB) and yes sometimes they do nip but never ever killed a coral.

 

[Shilpan Patel]

Thank you

 

[Diesel]

Your welcome.

 

[eatbreakfast]

Agreed. They are hit-and-miss.

 

[theKoolAidMan]

Out of the dwarf angels, the Coral Beauties are generally considered the lest likely to cause aggression of coral nipping issues. However they still can. I would personally give anyone a 70-80% chance that they'll be ok with a coral beauty and somewhere around 50-50 with a Flame angel. This is the second tank I've keep a coral beauty in. First was a standard 30 gallon, now a Reefer 450 which is a 92 gallon 5 foot long tank. In both they have been absolute model citizens. He has never touched a coral of any kind (I have various LPS and softie frags). He and my brand new Tomini tang are best buds and graze on algae together.

 

[Corey Baker]

I have close in size tank SP and have had two Coral Beauties and both eventually started nipping at something. One became very fond of a skully in the tank and beat it up pretty bad. The other CB was in the tank 6-8months not bothering anything then one day just started nipping the SPS in the tank... both got one way tickets to the LFS.

 

[Jesterrace]

Hey guys I have a 105gallon softie tank. Any tips for being successful with keeping a coral beauty that doesn’t nip corals? I saw a really nice one in the store and I’m considering buying it.

Also, if it’s safe with corals, can they change their minds in future and suddenly start eating corals?
The other angel I liked was the flame angel, but I hear it’s the same sort of story as the coral beauty.

Thank you, anyone had any experience with these?

As mentioned it really does depend on the individual fish. As a guy who has owned both a Coral Beauty and a Flame Angel, I can tell you I am much happier with my Coral Beauty in terms of attitude towards it's tank mates and Coral nipping proclivities. I think the Coral Beauty is one of the best chances of success with dwarf angels, but that is just my personal opinion. There are a couple of things that IMHO will increase your chances of success:

1) Make sure the tank is well established with algae growing as it will give it something to nibble on
2) Make sure to feed seaweed/nori daily
3) Give it a solid mixed diet (ie Frozen LRS Reef Frenzy 1-2 times a day)

I can't comment on softies as all I have are a couple of Euphyllia Frags (Hammer and Frogspawn), but other than the occasional test nip, my Coral Beauty has left them alone (unlike the Flame Angel that took multiple nips). Here is my Coral Beauty in action:

 

[Shilpan Patel]

Thank you everyone for your feedback!

 

[MPS]

I have a coral beauty and a flame angel in my 110gal. The CB stays away from the corals but the flame has been seen picking what looks like food bits off of the LPS during feeding. I don’t “think” it’s going after the coral.

 

[Grsfish]

I’ve had mine for about a year and have never seen it touch the corals. He is always on the move picking at the rocks though

 

[Sherry Hubbard]

I have a flame angel and have never witnessed him picking at any corals.

 

[Jesterrace]

I have a flame angel and have never witnessed him picking at any corals.

Out of curiosity, how is it with it's tank mates? Mine was a Coral Nipper and an Aggressive Butthead to boot.

 

[Jet915]

Dont do it, I had one and all my corals either closed (zoas) or shrunk (toadstools/duncan). Once I removed it, my corals opened again.

 

[User1]

Years ago I had a flame angel - he or she loved Elegance corals. So rehomed it was. Now I have a Coral Beauty and it is doing well in my mixed reef. Couple years old now and don't really notice much going on with it. While it was in the 40 breeder I noticed some hammer corals irritated. Watched that area of the tank and low and behold it was said Coral Beauty. It wasn't so much has nipping but rather it forcing its way between coral heads to make a place to call home. Now in the 210 gallon tank / upgrade it moved with no issues.

Those are the only two small angels I've owned and has you can see one, the flame, not mixed reef friendly and the coral beauty, friendly.

 

[Sherry Hubbard]

Out of curiosity, how is it with it's tank mates? Mine was a Coral Nipper and an Aggressive Butthead to boot.

Pretty good. The flame angel was in a tank with a yellow tang and i bought them together. They sleep together and are constantly swimming around each others.