Bellus Angels

[lpsluver]

Who has real life experience with Bellus Angels? I've read conflicting info and would like to see if it can be cleared up before I consider dropping 200 clams on a pair. Hardy or not? Is decompression sickness still going on with these fish? Do they really need to be in dimly lit tanks and what defines dimly lit?

[deftonead]

i have had a female for over a year now and have had absolutely no problem with it. even when i went through an outbreak of ick she was the only one that had absolutely none. very hardy fish!! also never seen her nip at any of my SPS, LPS, or softies. my favorite fish to date!

[techreef]

i second deftonead. my female eats well, doesn't harrass my corals (SPS, LPS, zoas, shrooms) or inverts, and actively swims all over my tank. a great angel to put in a reef tank, IMO.

[lpsluver]

Thanks deftonead and techreef. I'm guessing that "dim lighting" is relative based on what the 2 of you are using. Any experience with males? I've read they are the tougher of the 2 to keep.

[deftonead]

there is a male in the 180 coral tank at the LFS up the road from me i used to work at and he has been in there probably 2 years now... not as colorful as the females but seemed pretty easy to take care of when i worked there. where are you getting one for $200? the local stores around here sell them for about $80 and i got mine for $50.

[deftonead]

oh nvm i just noticed you said pair....

[deftonead]

here are some pics. not very good quality but pics none the less...

[lpsluver]

Thanks. She looks nice. Have you seen these females with brown instead of blue stripes? In Scott Michael's Angelfish book the female looks brown, not blue, so therefore my wife did not like it. I'm thinking it was a bad picture.

[techreef]

my female is blue stripes too, not brown. looks nicer than the males IMO. And sorry, forgot to address your lighting Q. I've got plenty of light beaming into my tank via overdriven T5s. Enough that I bleached a montipora and a birdsnest due to not accimating them to the high light position i immediately put them in. i haven't seen the angel being bothered by the light at all.

[deftonead]

ive never heard of a female with brown stripes... are you sure it wasnt a male? ive been some older males where the orange has faded to brown.

[lpsluver]

Yep I'm sure. He has the male/female pair in the picture and the female looks brown. I believe the picture was a bad one. Prolly bad lighting on a fast moving fish.

[chrisstie]

The owner of my LFS has a pair of bellus that were kept in the store display for a good 5 months or so, and later went into their own personal tank at home. The angels have been doing excellent in the new set up and have actually spawned (not that raising them would be viable but they have been doing the mating dance and ye old puff of cloudy water)

I can't say that every bellus coming in would be of best quality but the ones in my area have all been doing extremely well

[anydarnthing]

I have had bellus angels for over a year in a brightly lit tank with no problems, what book was it that had the bad picture? I would like to know so I can tell Scott about it and maybe give him a hard time.