reef compatable angel or butterfly?

[Wrench]

Looking to add just one 'nice' fish to my tank once it is established. I'm short on space so it's going to be a few small fish, a tang and I would like to have an angel or a butterfly. I've heard mixed reports on them being reef compatable. I want to eventually add some soft corals so I am trying to plan ahead. The fish I would like to have are passers angel,flame angel, emperor angel, copper band butterfly or a racoon butterfly. Any advice on either of them being reef safe or other suggestions?

 

[clos10]

I've had success keeping a Coral Beauty in my reef tank. My tank is filled with softies though, I know they are more prone to picking at stonys. My problem with my Coral Beauty has been that it is extremely aggressive towards new tank mates. Ive also had decent luck with a bi-color angel. I had bad luck with a lemonpeel and a flame. I would stay away from the butterflys , not only are they hard to keep but I dont know too many that are reef safe, that also goes for the larger angels, not that they are hard to keep but they are deffinetly not reef safe.

 

[dorkfish]

Angels are pretty much hit or miss when it comes to reefs. One angel of one species can act completely different towards corals than another angel of the exact same species. Eg. clos10's as well as many other people's experience with flames is that they don't do good in reefs, while other people have found them to not do any damage to their reef.

 

[BadRoma1]

i love my copperband butterfly. the only problem i had with him is that he ate all my feather dusters. cool fish, not afraid of me at all, eats out of my hands like some other fish, never hides. my tank has been in very poor condition for some time, i'm changing that now by building a refugium and getting better skimmer by tuesday, but he is o.k. so i think those fish can be as easy as any other fish. i think a copperband is as easy as a yellow tang. also at the beggining he was obused by my yellow tang, but he still was able not stress out about it much before he got adjusted to the tank.

 

[Wrench]

Thanks for all the advice. Maybe once the tank is established I'll get one and keep an eye on it once I add the corals. I plan on SPS corals so maybe I'll be ok.