There are lots of angels that I have successfully kept in a reef tank - Goldflakes, Imperator, Joculator, Venustus, Flame, Flameback, Colini, Regal and Golden.
Having kept angels in my reef tanks for over 3.5 decades there have been a few which created issues - Goldflakes that left hundreds of corals alone but would decimate acan populations when they reached like 50-60 heads. They let them grow out and then they munch them.
I have kept 3 imperators in my outdoor SPS frag tanks with no issues what so ever. Have an Imperator now that is 70% thru the transition to adult and when we tried to keep him in our 750g he immediately decimated Elegance corals - which I could have worked around - But when we added large colonies of zoas - He didn't destroy the zoas but he destroyed the colonies. The Imperator would tear clumps of zoas off the colony to get to the sponge underneath. This caused the zoas he ripped off to get spread all around the tank and now a year later it's nice for all these little colonies of zoas in all these places I couldn't reach to mount them.
I have had Regal angels for the past 10 years without any issues. The past ones have all been Yellow Belly Regals. 10 months ago I picked up a regular regal. This was the most outgoing and eager to eat of any Regal I have owned. But then I caught him slowly nibbling down my torch and hammer colonies. A garden of 30+ hammer colonies in 8 months he nibbled down to 6. He was recently caught (Saturday) and now has a new SPS only home.
Back to the original question as to what is my faorite non-reef safe fish -- Some of the exotic Butterflies are stunning.... I'm not a fan of the Semi-lavartus. But the Arabians and some of the less normally seen Butterflies are just amazing to see. Within the same family I have a Black and White heniochus that I rescued several years ago which I was keeping in my outdoor frag tank. And I have loved this fish. In Mar of 22 after Flatworm exit wiped out the fish population in our 560g tank I moved the heniochus inside to have some fish in a big empty tank. And I really loved having the heniochus cruising thru a great big (and tall 36" high) tank. But I just didn't want to risk trying to get him out of the new 750g so when we broke down the 560g in prep of the arriving 750 we moved the heniochus back out to the outdoor frag tank - where the fish is perfectly behaved with SPS frags and corals.
Here is the regal we removed on Saturday - Check out the fat gut on this baby. This was a thick Regal angel with a belly. A belly full of my hammers and torches - but a belly none the less.
Full tank shot from July 31
Dave B
