Two Pygmy Angels???

[Chubosco]

I have a stand and canopy for a 180 Gallon tank. Someday, hopefully soon; it will be set up. I'm doing much research now. So my question, I would like to have two dwarf angels in the tank. It seems to be a no-no having two dwarfs in a tank; but, if two can't live in 180 gallons...how do they even exist in the world? Don't really care about the world part, just my someday tank!

 

[Len]

While I have seen it done, I personally have had terribly luck mixing dwarf angels. They are very territorial and fight in the confines of our aquariums. Although 180 gallon seems pretty large, think of it relative to nature where they each have miles of territory. Centropyges are not school or social fish. They may be found in male/female pairs, but that's the extent of their socialization. If you can get a mated pair, you can likely do it. I recommend against two different species.

 

[Anonymous]

If you want two pygmys, I would try a male and female of the same species.

Plenty of room to swim, and plenty of rocks to hide in.

That said, I have never had any luick keeping one at all, so what do I know

 

[Anonymous]

Finding a male/female pair of pygmy angels is pretty easy to do :lol:. They are like clownfishes in that if you have 2 males the less dominant fish will turn female or if you have2 females, the more dominant will become a male.

 

[danmhippo]

I've never been able to keep more than one in a typical 4 -5 foot tank. However, I did tried to keep 3 in a experimental pond, 6'X4'. It worked for a couple of month until I break the pond apart.

I gave each one of them their distinct boundary (rockpile). In the confine of a narrow tank (24" width), the result is unpredictable.

 

[Anonymous]

My brazillian flameback is the king of my 180...and if I was to put another pygmy in there, I can only imagine the instant bad karma.

Get a pair...trying to pair them yourself is a recipe for disaster, imo.

 

[Oceans Ferevh]

I have two angels in my 65 galon tank. One is a dwarf Flame angel (Centropyge loricula) and the other is a Bellus angel (Genicanthus bellus). The Bellus is large enough that she is the top fish but is not aggressive enough to cause the Flame angel any strife. She will chase the flame angel a little but it dousn't fase the dwarf really. I wouldn't try to put two darfs in one tank though, unless male and female.

 

[Chubosco]

Thank you one and all for the info. I'll stick to one dwarf; I imagine I'll have enough unseen problems without trying an experiment. Hey, you guys are great, I love this place!

 

[Anonymous]

It can be luck of the draw in many cases as well. My lfs 220 display succesfully housed 4 different species. There was a bit of fin flaring from time to time, but there was enough space for them to avoid each other. Centropyges form harems in the wild with several females and a dominant male. I saw a thread quite awhile ago (not even sure where) about a guy keeping 6-7 flame angels together in a modest sized tank with lots of pvc pipe shelter spots. He documented little to no aggression. Not recommending this and I believe he was attempting a breeding effort, but it has been and can be done. The larger the tank the better the chances.

 

[Anonymous]

it could be done, but you'd most likely have to try different combinations before success would be achieved.
I was thinking of trying this in my 125gal, but i think my lemonpeel might no appreciate it thought :wink:

 

[Bojangles]

I had kept two angels in my 200g before it crashed and I lost everything except what I didn't want and the two fish I just happened to get for free becase no one else wanted them hehe.

I had a flame angel and a coral beauty for about 2-3 months. What I did notice in that time is that the flame just liked to roam the back wall of the tank and hang out in a cave, while the coral beauty was often found actually hovering over rocks in the center seeming to look for trouble. Both had excellent fins, no loss of color or appetite during that time.

 

[supergiantrobot]

I'd like to ask a related question...

If I have a tank with mostly or entirely soft corals, what angels, if any, can I have in the tank? My notes from previous research on the topic say that any Genicanthus angel is fine. I also had a note that a Potter's angel or even a Rock Beauty might work after some time.

Opinions? If I stick with softies, can I ever have an angel?

 

[Bojangles]

Theres one LFS within 40miles of myself that I actually trust. This being said they have 3 display tanks roughly 100g each. Their softie tank has a potter's dwarf which I'm to understand has been there since it was set up 3 years ago and has never been a problem of any kind. The potter's is being kept with several open brains, frogspawn ect that are known to be popular nipping targets without trouble. However there are no clams in there

 

[supergiantrobot]

I brought this topic up in the #reefs IRC channel this morning. These angels were all considered safe:

Any Genicanthus angel

The Pomacanthus maculosus (aka Map Angel, Arabian Angel, Blue Moon Angel)

And many of the Centropgye angels (although many reported a 50/50 chance of nipping)

Pictures of many of these angels can be found at themarinecenter.com.

 

[Bojangles]

Going by that doesn't leave out many species of dwarf angel does it? This particular post doesn't seem very active but from all the hours of reading I've done on this site I can safely say that at least 50% of RDO's people wont trust any dwarf angel with softies or clams.

I myself dont keep many corals since my tank crashed in august. I've always been a fish guy since I was a little.