What should i do with this Angel?

[TheMan]

I have just recently acquired a bicolor angelfish. I was excited until i went to my lfs and he said BICOLOR ANGEL!, those are impossible to keep. My lfs guy says he has NEVER had success with them. So now I'm worried about what to feed the guy and how to keep him alive. ANY advice on how to keep this fish would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[iomegas_reef]

I have just recently acquired a bicolor angelfish. I was excited until i went to my lfs and he said BICOLOR ANGEL!, those are impossible to keep. My lfs guy says he has NEVER had success with them. So now I'm worried about what to feed the guy and how to keep him alive. ANY advice on how to keep this fish would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

That guy was being a dick if he told you that. Sure, bicolor angels are a little harder to take care of than the onther dwarf angels, but not impossible. Find something he likes to eat and make sure his water is high in quality. Everything should be fine..

 

[UnderGrad]

Rule #1: NEVER go to the LFS for advice...
Rule #2: LFS advice is usually worth what you pay for it... nothing.

 

[Anonymous]

Do a search on them. This fish is considered a poor choice by Bob Fenner for aquaria, especially for beginners. They do not seem to adapt to longterm captivity very well, we don't seem to be able to meet their true nutritional needs. I would say that the best situation for such a fish would be any reef system larger than 100 gallons (they hit 6" upon maturity) with a very well-establish refugium and best quality live rock (this means going with wild-harvested, not cultured).

This can be greatly mitigated by providing COPIOUS quantities of live rock upon which the fish will forage, but you cannot rely on this as its sole source of food. Do be absolutely certain to get him eating a variety of foods ASAP. Also, make best use of Selcon!

 

[dizzy]

Rule #1: NEVER go to the LFS for advice...
Rule #2: LFS advice is usually worth what you pay for it... nothing.

Undergrad, Your dead wrong on this one. There are plenty of stores that give good advice. If your lfs doesn't give good advice then don't support them, but you should not put all stores down as being equal. Actually lfs have more knowledge of which fish do well and which fish do poorly than anyone else. Not only do they have first hand knowledge dealing with 100s of individuals of many species, they also get positive and negative feedback from customers. The bicolor angels from Fiji do much better than the Philippine ones. They can be pretty aggressive though, especially to other Centropyge angels. While not the easiest of angels they can be kept successfully by skilled aquarists.

 

[Anonymous]

I agree they're not the easiest to keep, but a large tank with LR like SM described will work.

Mitch, if you knew the LFSs around here you might be inclined to agree with UnderGrad. A lot of them have a "keep it alive long enough to sell it" attitude. There are owners like you out there who know their stuff, but they're few and far between, IMHO.

 

[cdeakle]

My LFS is awesome and hasnt steered me wrong yet. When I got started and was a big time NOOB he gave me a protein skimmer at his employee cost so I would have a good start.....

 

[Len]

Bicolors may be a little more picky, but they are far from impossible IME. Try mysis, live brine, or food soaked in "clam juice" to solicit a feeding response if it is picky. Who knows .... it might eat right away (my two did).

And on the off topic discussion:
I don't think all LFS give bad information, so pick yours carefully. I will agree that most IME give notoriously bad information for two reasons: to increase sales and due to simple ignorance. Again, pick carefully and take the info with a grain of salt as with any other info you get. We're always here if you have questions too. Good thing about online communties is you get lots of responses, plus we have no commercial agenda

 

[delbeek]

We have two of these fish on display, once since 1994 and one since 1997, one for Fiji and one from the Philippines. They eat flakes, mysis, gel diet, and Cyclop-eez. The tank is about 400 gallons, with live rock, clownfish, about 30 anemones, filefish and butterflyfish. Here are a couple of pics.

 

[delbeek]

Oopps that first pic was the OLD display before we rennovated, here is the one I meant to post:

 

[Biotech]

The Bicolor I have eats not only frozen food but also pellets and nori. It is about 3" and stays out in the open all the time.