Emperor angel question

LesPoissons · Nov 1, 2020

Hey all,
I’ve had my emperor angel for 2 1/2 years. Got him as a 3- 3 1/2 inch Juvenile. He’s maybe 5 inches or so now. Is this as large as he will get?

Jay Hemdal · Nov 1, 2020

Very nice looking fish! They do of course grow larger than that in captivity. Fishbase lists their maximum size at 40 cm. I ran a survey years ago that indicated that many fish reach about 80% of the maximum Fishbase length when in captivity - so about 12.5 " in this case. Not 100%, for sure, but a good ballpark.

Jay

LesPoissons · Nov 1, 2020

Thank you

I read about 12” too. I am just wondering when/how long until they are “full grown.”

vetteguy53081 · Nov 1, 2020

they generally reach up to 9 -11" in captivity which is largest ive also seen.
A lot depends on tank size, diet, age and health of fish as to its attainable size.

rmay6850 · Nov 1, 2020

Here is a picture of my old 220, the Emperor in the picture was right at 16”

rmay6850 · Nov 1, 2020

The top streamer gave him another inch

LesPoissons · Nov 1, 2020

That’s beautiful! How old was he? This is my 220 so far. Just redid all the rock work and adding more to build it higher. Work in progress.

but he’s got space to grow.

rmay6850 · Nov 1, 2020

I had him for several years, he was probably 7-8 inches when I got him. He went into a 2400 gallon tank when I took mine down, heard he lived another 5 years and close to 20”
back then I could get sponges on a regular basis and all my angels thrived on them and left the other corals alone. I don’t think I could pull a team together like that these days and feel comfortable they wouldn’t mow through my corals