Banded Multifasciatus Angelfish

[csababubbles]

Lee,

I have a healthy, disease-free, trained on frozen food Banded Multifasciatus Angelfish in my QT for quite some time. Can you please tell me which tank would be more appropriate for him.

This is what I know about him from reading and observation:
He is a little over 2.5".
He eats like a champ except he does not take nori on a sheet yet.
He is very secretive and lives to hang out in a cave upside down most of the time and does not swim around much.
From reading, he does not live in bright sunny shallow reefs but mostly buried inside the rockwork on reef slopes inside caves and under overhangs.
He is one of the less likely dwarf angels to pick on corals.

Which tank would be more appropriate? I see positives for both tanks as well as negatives but which is more important?

Tank 1 Postives:
220 FOWLR with LOTS of caves and overhangs and basically just a lot of rockwork for him to hide and duck inside so this should suite him well.

It has low light levels, with only actinics on for about 80% of the time so this should suite him well.

I feed the tank ALOT and there is a good number of fish in this tank so he should be getting a lot of poop and detritus to eat (in addition to the frozen food)

There is a lot of micro-algae and diatoms growing all over the rockwork so he should be in heaven picking at all that stuff.

The only negative thing I see about this tank is the fish compatibility. In particular the current angels I have (Regal Angel and Potter's Angel). The Regal hangs out in the open a lot but also likes to hide in the rockwork which is exactly where the Banded Multifasciatus Angelfish will be spending most of his time. The potter is another dwarf, although its in another genus but they seem to be closely related and that has me a little worried. I think he may be ok since there is so much rockwork which he will stay amongst anyways, and the tank being the size it is. Neither of these angels have bothered any of the other fish in my tank (Idol, Copperband, anthias, Panda Puffer). Aside from the angels, will the other fish bother him?

Tank 2:
24" cube 45 gallon tank with lots of corals. he MAY eat the corals or pick on them but I've read he is one of the better dwarfs but obviously you never know. metal halide lighting which is a negative for him but is on for only 2-3 hrs a day (the rest of the time its just two T5 lamps on) and he can hide in the caves and overhangs where its dark anyways. the rockwork is set-up in caves and overhangs so that should suite him but is it too small a space being 24" cube?

the fish in there are a bangaii pair and a single fathead anthia. they are docile but they all like to hang out in the caves as well 50% of the time so you think this might be a problem for the Banded Multifasciatus Angelfish?

So I would really like to hear your thoughts on this Lee.

Thank you.

 

[leebca]

The larger tank for sure. The landscaping permits up to 3 dwarf angels, however you may need to make an adjustment.

If the fishes are 'having issues' after putting the new one in, you may have to rearrange the landscaping to sort of divide the tank -- so that a fish on one end of the tank can't have a straight line-of-sight view of another fish on the other side of the tank.

Otherwise all should be fine.

 

[csababubbles]

I put him in the main tank on Friday.

First day I kept the lights off except ambient room lighting. He stayed hidden. No eating that I could see.

Second day he ventured out a little from the caves. No eating that I could see. Came into contact with the Regal and Potter and absolutely no aggression!

Third day he is much more at home. Ventured out of his cave quite a bit, exploring the rest of the tank, coming up to me at the front glass. A little bit intimidated by the activity during feedings but seems to be eating again and getting used to the new scene.

Will post some pics and updates today.