Aggressive Flame Angel

tonytwist

tonytwist

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Feb 10, 2005
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I have a 4 month old 48 gallon reef tank. A week ago, I added a yellow striped maroon clown. Right away my flame angel went after it relentlessly. The maroon clown now has torn fins and is relegated to the top of the tank. Anytime it drifts down towards the bottom of the tank, it is attacked. I've added new live rock in an attempt to establish new territories but to no success. I'm worried that my clown will croak if the attacks continue and was thinking of removing the flame for a couple of days before re-introducing it back into the tank. Hopefully by then the clown would have had a chance to settle and establish it's own territory. Will this work or does someone out there have a better idea? :(
 
if i'm not mistaken, i've read a tip that u'll have more suscess if u dont keep fish of similar color/ and size...
i dont know any solutions seeing how i'm newbe when it comes to the world of saltwater, but hopefully someone else could help u...

how much live rock u got in the tank?

-brandon
 
Might work, might not. You need to remove ONE of them for sure.
The clown is now stressed and very susceptible to pathogens/disease; a parasite bloom will be a real problem in your reef. If you move the angel you will have two stressed fish.
 
i dont think i would remove one. i think it would be better to buy one of the small, clear in-tank containers to put the angel in. you could just buy a specimen box that has the hook on it for hanging on the side of the tank. drill holes in the sides and the bottom and put the angel in it. i beleive it is better to isolate the fish that is causing the problems, and let the new fish get settled in. this way the angel can still see the maroon, but he cant do anything about it. i have seen it work, and then again sometimes it doesnt. this is assuming that your going to try to keep both.

im also a fan of tank dividers, as long as they are the clear type. when i used to raise pirahnas, they worked very well for me when i introduced 2 inch fish in with the the 6 inch fish. when i just popped them in they were snacks. when i put in the tank divider for a few weeks they NORMALLY became another member of the school. i have never had the need to use a tank divider in a marine aquarium though.
 
Mean Angel Fish

We recently went through this with our 55 gallon reef. We have a coral beauty and added a couple anthias. He was mercyless!!!! It was horrible! Constant torment. What we ended up doing, is completly rearranging the tank. Moving every rock. I know its not recommended becuase everytime you move a rock, you can release nitrates into the water. Depending on how builtup and old your reef tank is this may not be practical. However, since we've done this, the coral beauty has chilled out a lot and my anthias are happy and out all the time. Angels, generally should be the last fish to add to a reef tank for this reason. No worries Im not casting stones though! My husband fell in love with this coral beatuy and easily persuaded me to add him to my tank. Hopefully this will help some. If you do rearrange it all, you may want to do a small water change at the same time to suck out any toxins that may be released. Hope this helps.

Lexi :)
 
Thanks for the input everyone. I've been watching the tank pretty closely over the last couple of days and the clown fish doesn't seem any worse for wear. It seems to have become quite attached to a frogspawn coral at the bottom of the tank and has been standing up to the flame angel when it gets too close.

I've also read somewhere the an angel fish should be the last fish that you add to your tank but like Lexus9903, when I saw it, I had to buy it. I think I'll hold off on purchasing any dividers for the time being and hope that everything can get along.

To answer your question Brandon, I have about 50-60lbs of live rock in the tank.
 
was just wondeing if they both had room to hide,
and i've heard that flame angels should be the last to enter the tank too..

good luck

-brandon
 
Oh yeah, there's lots of hiding places. The flame angel wants to lay claim to all of them though.
 
One thing they really like is hunting, small shrimp, pods, etc. Mine is so busy hunting it could care less about the other fish in the tank. You may want to add a fuge to breed these type of creatures. They'll slowly make it up to the main tank and you'll be amazed at the beahvior of your fish.
 
Could the frogspawn coral be stinging the others? Perhaps the clowns are becoming tolerant now. Just an idea.
 
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