Emperor Angel

[moreey]

LIkes to hide in the rocks the majority of the day and night. He comes out a little bit during the morning hours before the lights come on, but seems to be very shy. I don't remember him being this shy at the fs. I am not having any luck finding any information on behavior of this fish, can anyone help me out?

He's got 2 tank mates; a queen angel and flame angel. The queen spends alot of her day out in the open and is very social.

 

[Anonymous]

A Queen Angel and an Emperor Angel? Bad, Bad combination. Adult angels, especially Queens, are intolerant of other angels. Unless you have a 2000 gallon tank, take the Emperor back to the FS.

 

[Anonymous]

I agree with Matt.
Mind you, back in the day I had a 180 gallon angel tank that housed an emperor, a queen, a french, a lemonpeel, a personifer, a passer and a blueface. Although they did just fine for a year and a half, it wouldn't have worked long term. Other guys I knew had similar tanks - we were all into angels big time.
Keeping the passer with the queen was the real accomplishment, but the passer was little, and the queen was large. I didn't run into problems until the french got huge, then some adjustments had to be made. My interests wandered (as they often to with hobbies) to other things, and I changed the tank around before any other problems arose.
For the majority of the time, for the majority of keepers, one angel per tank is best. Or, a large angel and a dwarf angel do well usually. You want to mix sizes, and color patterns, and feeding habits.
2000 gallons though is out of hand, you could keep an angel and an imperator together long term in a much smaller tank. 500 gallons will do.

Cheers
Jim

 

[moreey]

They are both juvenilles now and their new home next year will be a 500 gallon. My new house is just being built and the tank should be up and running by this time next year. I was told to ahve these fish together they needed to be added as juvenilles at the same time.

 

[Anonymous]

How big is the tank they're in now? How long have the queen and emperor been in this tank? Angels usually take a while to get used to their new surroundings, and they also do much better if they know they are the "head of the tank." As long as he's eating and not showing any signs of disease, I wouldn't worry too much. Angels will appreciate a constant source of nori or macroalgae to graze on (try "Seaweed Selects"), some chopped shrimp, squid, crab, and mine seems to especially like "Angel Formula" by Ocean Nutrition. You should have some type of sponge based food in their diet, in any case. Also, a large amount of mature live rock will offer grazing opportunities.

If I was you, I'd add some more pygmies into that 500 gallon tank. IME, they are much more tolerant of each other than larger angels. A LFS here has a Centropyge venustus, loriculus, flavissimus, aurantotus, hotumotua, multicolor, argi, and bispinosus all in a 400 gallon reef!

 

[Anonymous]

I have to disagree about dwarf angels being more tolerant of each other in general. Interesting that that is your experience. C. argi is one of most aggressive little fish you can put in a reef tank, and I don't say this based on observing one specimen. Only in a VERY large tank would I attempt mixing so many of them - thus the 400 gallon tank you speak of. I've kept a flame with an argi in a 90 gallon, but they were added at the same time, and still there was much bickering.
Moreey, when mixing angels (or any marine fish for that matter) you want to mix sizes and color patters to minimize intraspecific aggression. Example, putting a juvenile emperor and a juvenile Koran together might not be the best idea (although I've done it). Same story with a passer and a queen. You are better of with a 4 inch imperator, and a small flame for instance. They have dissimilar color patterns, and dissimilar feeding habits. So, in theory and imperator and a ciliaris would do ok, except for the built in aggressiveness of the queen, and again, any angel of the genus Holocanthus. Introduced simultaneously as juveniles, you will be fine I'm sure.
Matt has given you good advice regarding feeding, but not all angels will accept nori as a food source (which angels to you feed nori too Matt?) Definitely give it a try, as many angels consume algae in the wild. Imperators are cleaners as juveniles, and will appreciate a varied diet including meaty items such as mysis shrimp, Selcon soaked brine shrimp, formula foods, etc. Emperators are more omnivorous than queens, which are almost obligate spongivores.
Cheers
Jim

 

[Anonymous]

My majestic eats nori, spinach, broccoli...I usually only feed broccoli, because it just holds up better in salt water. I'm not sure of its nutritional content, though, so I'm reluctant to suggest it as a food source. In any case, I think the more varied diet the better, so I just try everything and see what the fish will eat.

I had a flame and argi together, and a coral beauty and argi together (at different times) in an 80 gallon tank. In both cases, the argi was the resident fish, but smaller than the newcomer. In both cases, the fish acted virtually indifferent towards each other. They would graze off nori right next to each other. Like I said, just my experience, so I wouldn't expect this to be the case in all circumstances.

Your point about the mixing of size and color patterns is a good one. All those pygmies I mentioned together have pretty different patterns. I guess hotumotua and multicolor are somewhat similar, but not as close as say, a heraldi and flavissimus or vrolikii and eiblii.

 

[Anonymous]

Hmmm...never tried broccoli! I'll give it a whirl. I have a juvenile imperator that doesn't seem to want to eat anything but brine right now. I'm trying to ween him off of it, with little luck so far - very stubborn little guy. :roll:

Jim

 

[moreey]

well, no more issues with the queen, she died about an hour ago. I got home from work and she was literally pasted up against a rock, I finally got her out and put her into the hospital tank and she was dead in less than 5 minutes! I am a little upset that even after 14 days in quarentine i still got a disease and now have to figure out how to get the emperor and flmae out of the tank. The flame has shown very few signs of infecting,but I am almost certain the emperor is not healthy.

 

[Anonymous]

moreey,
Sorry to hear that...I truly hope the rest of the angels pull through.

Jim,
It took my majestic a while to accept broccoli, but now it attacks it right when I put it in the tank! For some reason, it will only eat the dark green flowerettes and not the main stalks. Broccoli holds up really well in saltwater. I usually replace it once every two days or so, and it looks good as new.