Andy O said:
...and no, the subject line is not an advertisment for a pay per view fight between the two!
That's good. I believe a very large system is required to keep two together. The odds of a conflict arising in a four foot tank are extremely high, and I believe the odds of a conflict in even a six foot tank are also pretty good. Nonetheless, I know of two reef keepers who have kept both in a 120gal
Andy O said:
...Aside from the physical appearance of either one, what are your thoughts as to hardiness, survial rate, reef safeness, etc with regard to choosing one or the other. I am looking to house in a 36 gallon reef with 45#live rock, LPS, SPS, and Soft.
I have kept both succesfully *knocks on wood* Sadly, my Coral Beauty died from stress when I moved from my 55gal system to my 90gal system.
Conventional wisdom says that the coral beauty is hardier and more reef safe than the flame angel, but as with all dwarf angels in my experience, personalities and habits vary wildly. Therefore, it is possible to find flame angels that are hardier and coral beauties that are less reef safe.
Hardiness is an easy personality trait to select for. The only acceptable option for selecting with hardiness in mind (or, in my opinion, the only acceptable option for buying fish in general) is to find a trusted LFS, preferably a sponsor, and have them order one for you. For those of you reading, no matter how tempting it appears, never walk into a chain pet store and buy a dwarf angel out of their tanks. The next step would preclude that option regardless.
Once you find a trusted LFS, ask them to hold the fish for 3-4 weeks while it recovers from the stress of shipping. In that time, a fragile fish simply would not thrive (and the need for the LFS to replace it is incentive for them to not order one from a skethcy source). Moreover, you can have the opportunity to observe the fish before you bring him home. Is the fish easily spooked? Is the fish eating prepared food? Dwarf angels range in personality from rather outgoing to somewhat shy and retiring. Rarely do they enjoy open spaces, and never stray too far from the rockwork. Still, your swarf angel should be actively crusing around the rock at the LFS tank, and not be so easily startled that you think the fish is going to jump out of its skin. Those, in my opinion, are signs of bad personality traits. Captivity requires a certain degree of boldness in a dwarf angel.
Andy O said:
...I recently purchased a flame angel and within 24 hours of getting him home he died of ich in my quarantine tank. I don't know if this makes a difference but I have a royal gramma with ich in my display tank. He has had it for over 6 weeks now and seems to come and go and he shows no sign of struggling with the ich unlike the flame who went straight down hill in the QT.
The fact that the flame angel perished in under 24 hours is indicative of any number of disreputable handling practices on the part of the supply chain. It is also possible for you to have inadvertantly killed the fish that fast, but not via ick. Possibilities include:
- copper poisoning -- even if you did not use copper, your LFS or the supplier might have. In my experience, dwarf angels are very sensitive to copper, and can be killed by it within 24 hours.
- cyanide poisoning, which usually takes weeks to take its toll, so it is unlikely the cause.
- the quarentine tankw as not properly cycled, and the introduction of a high waste producing fish such as a dwarf angel created an ammonia spike, which in turn poisoned the fish
- Physical injury to the fish during the supply process
- Weakness of the individual specimen and an inability to cope
- Improper acclimation
- Or any combination thereof.
Was the fish eating at the LFS? That may shed some light on whether your handling, or the supply process was to blame.
As far as reef safety goes, again, it depends on the fish. Sometimes, a fish will go from not touching a coral to devouring it, and they never switch back. My whole philosophy is to decide which you appreciate more, your fish or your corals. For me, I enjoy my corals, but I definitely run a fish-centered reef tank. I keep a large angel and a dwarf angel together. Because I know they can turn from reef safe to reef unsafe at any day, I keep no coral in that tank that I wouldn't mind having to get rid of. Remember, with these marginally reef safe fish like dwarf angels, when they safe not reef safe, that means that the fish may target specific corals (or just one coral) in your system (always the most expensive, of course). Dwarf angels aren't parrotfish, and aren't patently reef unsafe. If you do have a problem, there will probably be one target or one type of targets. For example, the dwarf angel is most likely to bother LPS corals of the three types (bothering SPS and soft corals is rare), and even amongst LPS, it may only like one specific type (open brains, but not torches or frogspawns), and even then it may be a mild nuisance rather than an all out coral killer. Just be sure that once you add a dwarf angel, you're going to have a hard time getting him out of there, and that you should be prepared to remove the target coral.
Andy O said:
...I really like the flame angel but am I making a mistake trying it again. Some people have said, and I know it goes against saltwater 101, that it can be best to just put the flame angel into the display tank right away and that sometimes it can be the stress of the quarantine that does them in.
Yes, this is true. And if it isn't the stress, an ammonia cycle can kill them as well. As for the ick, I assert that that is a symptom, and not a disease. A royal gramma with ick means that the fish is not capable of dealing with the ick parasite itself, and therefore, conditions in the tank are not optimal. I would work on improving conditions in the tank so that the ick resolves itself before adding the dwarf angel.
Andy O said:
...Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I hope this helps.
Matt
