Pygmy Angelfish

[Lucid]

I found one of these guys (Centropyge argi) today at my LFS. Wanted to know if they were good fish for reefs. The info I just looked up online says they will nip at LPS and clam mantles. Why they do that? Just in their nature? I plan on having mostly soft/mushrooms/zoas corals in my 75g. Will it be ok with a cleaner shrimp and other sand bed critters? Any opinions welcome.

[LCP136]

In nature they eat a lot of algae. With soft corals, I think it should be fine, but its hit or miss with angelfish generally. Sometimes people get one that devours their corals, and sometimes, like with my coral beauty, they will ignore any coral in the tank. The sand bed critters will be fine with it.

Good Luck

LCP

[charlie]

LCP is pretty much right on with that statement. I personally have found the dwarf angels to be a hit and miss proposition also. I have a flame angel in my 80 gallon, with lots of mushrooms and zooanthids, and it is a model citizen, just picking at the rocks.
On the other hand, I had a bicolor in my 300, and I never really saw it pick at any of the sps corals that I have. It passed back in July, and since then I have noticed that I have more polyp extension during the daytime hours nowadays, and I NEVER had that with that fish in there. So obviously, he had been picking at them!!!
Just a side note, I could never get a good picture of that fish either, he was a sneaky little dude!!!

[Lucid]

Thanks guys for the comments. I put a hold on the guy for now. I wonder if the LFS will put in some corals to see if he'll nip at them for me. :P

[zhenya]

Well, it is one of this instances when individual behavior of particular fish comes into play. I have one of these fish in my 75g reef tank and he has been a model citizen since the get go. He took a sample of some of the acroporas, actually, but gave it up for the easy meals that came from above...(meaning frozen mysis and such ).

I have brain corals and I have a baby clam and have yet to see this fish nip on any of the most predictable items. So there....

[cdearing]

http://i37.tinypic.com/z0n5l.jpg

I guess it must be hit or miss because my angel has never nipped at any of my coral, to my knowledge. I am very happy with the addition of my angel. He/she has been a model citizen in my tank!

[Ninong]

Centropyge argi is considered to be the safest, or maybe I should say, least risky, of all the dwarf angelfish. It's also the smallest.

The usual ranking, starting with least risky, is:
C. argi
C. bispinosa
C. loriculus

All of the rest are considered too risky for a reef aquarium.

[Lucid]

Got my Pygmy in Thursday, went a different route. Went back the next day and he wasn't looking too chipper, so I ordered one online with some corals etc. This dude is real fast so it's hard to get a good look at him lol. He is more purpleish in color than a sapphire blue. Will his color shift to a more blue as he ages? Right now he is about 1.5" long (if that). I'd get a pic of the little guy if he'll stop doing mach 2 across the 20g QT. ;)

I did get a good look at him a few minutes ago. I changed some things around for the lighting and there are a bunch of wires behind the tank. He came out of his PVC hideout and checked the wires out. Then started to swim against the filter current in front of me.