TRUTH about Coral Beauty/Flame Angel

[moviemanmania]

It's been almost two years that I've been keeping marine fish, mostly the basics: clown fish, fire fish, cardinals, etc. I since moved my focus to keeping dwarf seahorses and have been enjoying those tiny ponies with much success. I attempted a flame angel toward the very beginning of my hobby and was unsuccessful. I've had a few friends who've attempted coral beauties and flame angels and ultimately we're also unsuccessful.

In all honesty, have you been able to successfully keep a coral beauty or flame angel for the term of that animals life?

I'm inquiring because I have my heart set on having a coral beauty or flame angel. I'm dedicated and willing to diy a tank exclusively for that angelfish only. I want to be successful with this for the long run and don't want go through multiple fish to finally get it right. Thoughts?

 

[JaimeAdams]

I've had them in tanks at work for multiple years. They don't seem to be all that difficult. I'm sorry that you and your friends have had difficulty keeping them alive.

 

[4FordFamily]

The trouble with dwarf angels is they’re horrible fish for newer tanks with parameter fluctuations or low oxygen situations as they cannot handle even trace amounts of ammonia well, relative to other fish and don’t do well in low oxygen situations (which apply little to almost all of our reef tanks but it’s worth noting).

The issue recently with angels in general is they almost all seem to come with velvet. So if you’re not properly treating and quarantining your Fish before going in the display then you’re going to struggle badly. These fish cannot handle this parasite and initially even ich is likely to take them. They handle copper well, despite what yuh hear. IMO the trouble isn’t the copper in quarantine but the ammonia. Use Dr Tims bacteria or bio spira and do NOT mix ammonia detoxifiers (prime, amquel) with copper — as they’re more sensitive than most to this concoction, which is deadly poison for most fish. Don’t mix the two.

For what it’s worth, I’ve kept tons of Potters, Coral Beauty, Flameback, and Flame angels over the years. I’ve always had several tanks and no fewer than 3-5 dwarf angels at a time and quarantined a lot over the years for myself and others. At one point I had a trio of Potters angels I so loved, until a power outage while I was on vacation.

 

[Claus84]

If you are concerned about survivability you could always buy captive bred, I have both a captive bred coral beauty and flame angel and both are pretty bulletproof as long as they are in a suitably sized and mature tank