My New Angel

[Mike612]

It's safe to say that he'll eat anything now if the food's the right size. I fed him spirulina early this morning without the daphnia and he went for the smaller pieces. Later on in the day, I just fed him some color bits and again, he went for the smaller pieces with gusto!

 

[Mike612]

He's eating everything! He seems to love the color bits over everything else, but he still eats his frozen food like a good little fish

 

[Mike612]

Here's another blurry picture.

 

[Len]

Awesome Mike. I might have missed you mentioning it, but does your angel nip polyps?

 

[Mike612]

He's actually not in my reef. I didn't think he'd survive in there with my aggressive Yellow Tang. He's in my seahorse tank, but my seahorse tank is actually seahorseless right now . It's basically a fuge setup with some caulerpa and red algae plants. He loves to hang around the red algae plant. He can pick at the pods in there all day long! There are a couple of live rock in there, but really not much. He seems to love his home though so that's what I care about!

 

[Gaffes]

How is he doing so far? I hear they can be difficult to keep.

 

[Mike612]

How is he doing so far?

He's doing extremely well. He's eating everything that I give him. He started to go for bigger pieces of food also. He adjusted to the lights in my tank and he's always out grazing. When I watch him, he's usually curious and comes to check me out. He only hides when something really spooks him or when the lights are out., but otherwise I always see him.

I hear they can be difficult to keep.

The Golden Angel is definitely not a beginner fish and probably shouldn't be kept by most average hobbyists either. I only have a month of experience with this fish right now, but it's doing much better than I expected and in such a short amount of time. I think the keys to keeping this fish are to pick a healthy specimen from the beginning and keeping the fish in a peaceful tank. While this angel is extremely shy, it should be moving around at least a bit. Don't take one home if it's just sitting in the back corner. Make sure it's alert of your presence. If it's out and goes into hiding when it sees you, that's fine. You also have to make sure that it can maintain its balance. If it can't, it's suffering from decompression issues. Leave that specimen where it is.

Odds are that the fish won't be eating at the lfs because it's known to take a while to get adjusted to prepared foods, but if it's alert, keeping its balance in the water column, and has no obvious signs of disease like ich or popeye, I say that this is one of those fish that you could take home with you. I was told that my angel wouldn't eat for at least 3 months. I fed the tank more often than I usually do so that I can go through all the different foods that I have faster. Within a week, he was eating! Now I went back to my usual feeding schedule and he's eating formula one, formula two, spirulina, mysis, krill, and pellets. He goes for the pellets the most.

 

[Gaffes]

Good to hear that he is doing well. Very nice markings according to the photos.

BTW, what is the fish in your avatar?

 

[Mike612]

That's a Purple Masked Angelfish, Paracentropyge (sometimes referred to as Sumireyakko) venustus. That angel's probably a little harder to keep than the Golden Angel. It's difficult to feed, it can suffer from decompression issues, and it's really shy. It's a beautiful fish, but it's by no means a beginner fish. It takes a lot of effort and research to keep this guy alive. I have one now in my reef, which is also why I didn't put the Golden Angel in there, and I have kept two others in the past. This one and the other two never showed any interest in coral. That's one of the nice perks about them. The only issue I ever had was with my first Purple Masked Angel. It liked to nibble at my Blue Linkia Starfish... My current Purple Masked Angel doesn't bother my Marble Star. This is just more proof that all angels, even from the same species, are different.

 

[Mike612]

Update: The angel's still doing very well. He's turned from eating small bits to picking at big pieces of food and now only goes for the biggest pieces. It's weird considering he only ate small foods in the beginning, but whatever makes him happy. He's still eating everything that I give him, except for nori. Past experience has shown me that most angels don't learn to pick at nori unless they see other fish, like tangs, pick at it first. It's ok though because he's eating spirulina and sponge-based foods. He also picks at the caulerpa in the tank so I know my baby's getting his vegetables