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? re nipping flame angle


Fritz0id3937

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I got a flame angel to my 65 gal about 2 weeks ago. When I first added him he was nipping everything, rocks, ZOA's, LPS, SPS. He seems to be settling down some or most corals are just learning to deal with it. Only a purple digi and a pink pocci seem to still be affected. They keep their polyps closed up most to time, all the other sps stays extended, even my yellow pocci, birdsnest and mili have good PE. Anyone have any advice? Will sps be OK and still grow even if the polps have to hide most the time? Will the flame angel lose interest? Should I surround those frags with corals he doesn't prefer to nip? Should I feed more often vs once a day, to give the pocci and digi more of a break? What have other ppl done or experienced? Thanks!

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The best thing that you could do in this situation would be to remove the flame angel.

 

That's what most people do, or if you like the fish better, keep the fish. 

Edited by surf&turf
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I have one and occasionally I see spots on my acros where it was eating flesh. I also don't get polyp extension like I used to but I also have a temperature that eats tips of sps. We love the fish and do not worry about it, as long as the acros stay healthy they aren't a threat to them.

Is yours eating tips or eating flesh on the side of colonies? I have noticed most angels pick a favorite coral to eat. Our multicolor actually ate the slimecoat and skin on a rainbow austera til it died. Still I kept the fish, it never messed with anything else. This was a full mixed reef.

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Never got good polyp extension on my sps during the day until I got rid of my flame angel. Never hurt anything though. It also liked to pick on all my snails. Left my other soft and LPS corals alone. Try to use a rubber band to attach some algae sheet to a small rock to see if you can direct it away from the corals.

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I like the fish to much to remove him. Good idea with the algae sheet, I'll try that. I start to get pe again when he is busy eating and then full. He just nips, but I don't think at the tips, maybe more the sides? I don't see any lost flesh, but not sure what to look for I guess. The corals look fine just the polyps are hiding most the time. They all come back out if he leaves them alone for a while.

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Feed him something he likes. My potters pecks the rock and when he hits coral along the way just takes a nip and then moves on...like, oh, that's not what I want. Keep him fed so he doesn't feel like he has to go to plan b.

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Corals can survive a nip here or there ...if the angel is focusing his attention somewhere leave that coral in there so it can continue to be it's "scratching post" . You have to prefer that fish to certain coral or you won't be happy keeping him long term...but for me it's worth the risk. I bet polyps are just out at night instead of during the day

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I believe polyp extension is something you sacrifice a bit when you have angels of any kind in your tank. 

 

I commented on the polyp extension in copps frag selling tank at one point and said I didn't have such good extension in my tank with the same frags (half of mine are from copps) and he immediately asked if I had an angel in the tank.  I said yes, I had a flame angel, and he demonstrated with his pointer what mine probably looks like.  A couple taps with the pointer and it looked just like mine. 8)

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You can tell in my tank which corals our tail spot blenny likes to graze on. The polyp extension is not as good as any of the other corals and the growth is stunted. We will get him out when we switch to the 300. If you don't want to get rid of the fish, have you considered setting up another tank on the system for outcasts and new additions?

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  • 2 weeks later...

The angel only picks on my 2 poci's for the most part. They seem to be doing OK, get more PE in the middle of the night. Would a trapezia poci/acropora crab help keep the flame angel away? Anyone have any luck with a trapezia crab?

Edited by Fritz0id3937
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