[Inaudible].
Hi, I'm Hillary with water logged today, we're going to talk about angel fish.
There are several different types of angels that you can keep in your tanks and
you can break them down into two main categories. So you're going to have your,
I guess you could call them the large angel fish and your dwarf angel fish,
but we're going to get started talking about those dwarf angel fish. Now,
as their name suggests, they're a good bit smaller in size. Um,
so you're going to have ones like your flame angel, beautiful,
bright red coloration. A lot of people really love those.
You can have a beautiful lemon peel again,
as the name suggests it's a bright yellow really, really pretty.
You also have your pygmy angel,
you have a BI colored angel and a coral beauty.
That's actually one of my favorites. I just love the color patterns on there.
It's a beautiful purples and reds, and it's just so pretty.
When it comes to large angel fish,
you can break them down into two more categories,
but I'm going to go over all of them as a whole.
And then we'll break them down a little bit further. So first off,
these two are not reef safe.
That is going to be the flag Finn angel and the blue girdled angel.
Those guys aren't reef safe. So Fowler tank only,
otherwise you're gonna be spending a lot of money on coral that you don't want
to spend. Next up. These two are reef safe.
This is going to be your Bellis angel and your LaMarcus angel.
These two actually are a little bit smaller. If it were up to me,
I would categorize them as one of the dwarf angels,
but generally in the industry they're categorized as those large angel fish.
Next up is the queen angel fish,
the emperor angel fish and the blue face angel fish.
All three of these are reef safe with caution, but again,
there's always exceptions to the rule.
They might be reef safe and then mow down all of your corals. So, you know,
always do your research before you've put the fish in the tank.
Now I mentioned that you can break them down further into two more categories.
So that first category that we're going to break them down into is, um,
sexually dimorphic,
which means the males are going to look a little bit different than the females.
And you can see that it's very evident in these Bellis angels,
the males and the females look a little bit differently. Now with most of these,
um, typically when you go to your local fish store,
a lot of them will be labeled. So if you're not sure, always ask, um,
a lot of them are very, very helpful.
The next grouping or category is ones that will change depending on their
age.
So one of my favorites is the emperor angel.
They look totally different as juveniles, and then as they grow older,
their color pattern, their pattern and their colors totally change.
I can remember a couple years ago at Mac,
I saw a guy when he was walking around the front of his shirt, had the juvenile,
and then when he turned around, had the adult infer angel.
So that was pretty cool.
Another one that changes based on age is going to be the queen angel
fish. Now that color change isn't as noticeable,
but it's still definitely a different color change and a different pattern.
Okay, now that we've talked about the different groupings of angels,
let's talk about sizes and how much tank space they need.
As you can imagine, those war angel fish are going to stay pretty small.
They're going to be about three to six inches in size.
So you can get away with maybe a minimum of a 55 gallon tank
when they're full adults, um, 55 to 70 gallon tank for those guys.
Now the large angel fish with the exception of the Bellis and the lull marks,
they're going to get SU substantially bigger seven inches to over a foot and a
half in length. So those are pretty big angel fish.
You're going to want to make sure you have a lot of space for those 125 gallon
to up to 220 gallon. If not larger,
if you can afford to go bigger, definitely go bigger.
The fish will definitely appreciate it. All right.
Let's head to the kitchen and talk about diet. Now that we're in the kitchen,
let's talk about diet for angel fishes, right? So if you didn't know,
angel fishers are omnivores,
which means they're going to eat meats and they're going to eat vegetables
before I get into the store bought foods that you can purchase for angel fish,
like Rass. Some angels can be coral eaters, right?
So always make sure you do your research before you buy your fish.
But I've got some fun ways that you can incorporate corals, um,
in your choral eating fish's diet. If you do have them in Fowler tanks,
but I'll get to that in a minute. First off,
let's start with our dry foods, right?
So dry foods are going to be things like your flake foods.
They come in a huge variety. Um, you've got your pellet foods as well.
Now, something to keep in mind with the pellet foods.
And this one is a great example. If you look down here,
it's going to say large pellet.
So make sure that you're buying a pellet that is small enough to fit into
your fish's mouth. This is particularly something to keep in mind.
If you've got those dwarf or pygmy angel fish, those little small guys,
you don't want to get a large pellet like this. It might not necessarily fit.
The next step is going to be our gel foods and our DIY foods. Um,
in the past, if you've seen the videos,
I've talked about some of the DIY foods like this gel mix,
there's also dome mixes out there. These are really great.
If you have to mix in medication to treat your fish,
or if you just want to mix a huge variety and do it yourself,
you can add things like Nori and maybe some vegetables.
You can put them all in here. And it's all in one food that you can feed.
But another variety of gel foods is things like this. Mastic.
They look kind of like little gummies.
You can smash them and put them on rock work.
Now I mentioned some of those coral eating angel fish.
So if you go to your local fish store, you can ask them if anybody's, you know,
given them, um, turned in rocks or something.
A lot of times they might have dead coral frags for whatever reason that they
could sell you,
you can take these home and clean them and then use things like mastic and stick
it along. These, uh, pieces of coral, and it will simulate their natural,
um, foraging behaviors out in the wild. If they are those coral eaters,
this is a great option for Fowler tanks.
All right, next up is going to be our frozen foods.
So you have a huge variety of frozen foods as well.
You've got things like your PE myosis. Um,
it's a good fit food for like any fish in your tank,
but these small little shrimp in here are going to be great for angel fish.
They can go and chase after them as they're floating in the water column.
It's a lot of fun for them. Now,
another one that is made just for angel fish, um,
is this ocean nutrition, pygmy angel formula. Um,
you can see it's, it's made specifically for those dwarf angel fish.
So if this is all of you, if this is all that you have in your tank,
as those dwarf angels, go ahead and consider getting one of these.
But if you do have a variety of fish in your tank,
you can get something like this reef, multipack,
it's got stuff for a bunch of different types of fish that you might have.
Cause let's be honest, chances are, if you've invested in this stuff,
you're not going to just have one fish.
You're probably gonna have a whole bunch. Um,
unless you have say like a little nano tank or something small,
that's dedicated to a species.
Now I did mention that they are omnivores.
So they're going to eat vegetables as well.
So you can always supplement their foods with things like Nori.
You can get it in a variety of different colors.
It's really your personal preference. What you want to get. Now,
one thing I will recommend, um, if you're going to use the clips,
it works really well, but if you're going to use the, um,
there's a lot of products out there that are like little containers.
You can put the food inside pouches. If you're going to do that,
make sure that the whole space on them is large enough for those angels to get
their mouth in. Unlike tangs angels have, um, a short blunt,
little nose and a mouth. It's not as long as those tanks.
So you don't want them scraping their nose and their mouth as they're trying to
get to the food. So you can kind of see it's got larger holes,
a lot easier for them to get to that wraps up all that we're going to talk about
with respect to diet,
but let's go discuss some of the issues that your angel fish could possibly
encounter. Okay? So with any fish that you get,
they're probably going to encounter at least some sort of health issues
throughout their life and angel fish are no different.
So let's go over a few of the common things that at least in my experience
angels are known for as with any fish, crypto,
carrion is always something that you are likely to battle,
especially if there is stress.
So something that you can use for that first defense is a great
product. It's by dr. Tims. Actually, one of you asked me about this last time,
highly recommended. If you're adding new fish, if your fish are stressed,
this is something great that you can add to any tank.
Um, this is, um.
Quicker is also another one that you can use.
It treats a variety of different issues,
but the one thing with angel fish in my experience that I saw
a whole lot of are flukes,
which can be dealt with using a fresh water dip or a fresh water bath. Now,
if you don't feel comfortable using a fresh water bath,
if you've never done it before, it can be very intimidating.
There is a great product out there. Um,
it is called a safety stop it's made by blue life. Absolutely fantastic.
So if you get this, you flip it on the back.
It's very specific instructions that you have to follow.
It does take a little bit of time, but it's really good if you don't,
like I said, feel comfortable doing those fresh water baths,
or if you don't have a lot of time to core team, this is supposed to be very,
very helpful for getting rid of those flukes.
Another thing that I've encountered a lot with angel fish is your NEMA. Um,
if you've never seen your name of before, it almost kind of looks like, um,
bruising underneath the scales. Sometimes if you don't catch it soon enough,
it can look like a big ulcer on the side of the fish.
And if you catch it fast enough, um, or if you use the safety stop,
when you first get your fish,
it can always help to reduce the risk of getting that. Or, um,
I've actually used safety stop on a fish before and helped to stop your name,
uh, and it's progress.
So those are just a few things that you can use that are for the common problems
that angel fish encounter, but nothing is a substitute.
Make sure you're always monitoring your water,
doing your water testing and water changes as needed. Now,
something else you can do to make sure that your fish have good healthy lives
are offer them enrichment. I know you guys probably think I'm crazy,
but I do want your fish to live their best life.
And enrichment is a great way to do that.
We talked about this a little bit when we were in the kitchen with the different
types of diet and food.
Foods that we use, but you can use.
Things like these clips,
it offers a way for you to put Nora in here or other foods.
It offers that chance for those fish to graze. Like they normally would.
You can use things like that, mastic gel and put it in the rock work or, um,
in dead corals, if you might have them for those fish,
that aren't reef safe that do like too much on corals.
That is a great alternative something else that you can also use.
And you might not have used it with your saltwater tank,
but if you ever started out in freshwater,
you might've seen those little vacation feeders. Those are basically, um,
in the public aquarium industry, we call them like dental blocks.
And it's great for fish like puffers and angel fish that like to pick and nip
that stuff. Those are great forms of enrichment for them.
That's something else you can use.
You can always change up the take decorations.
You can add different flow patterns,
angels aren't as skiddish as say Rass.
So you can always change up their lighting patterns.
If you have one of those programmable lights,
you can throw in maybe a thunderstorm or a program,
a sunrise and sunset for them,
that is a good way to add enrichment to their lives.
Now I'm curious if you have an angel fish at home,
leave a comment below and let me know what you have done to enrich their lives.
If there's anything cool that I haven't mentioned.
I'm definitely curious to know. All right.
Another way of enriching those fishes lives is with tank mates, right?
So as always,
you can go online to Marine Depot where you can check out the fish compatibility
chart.
All you gotta do is look for the fish that you want to add to your tank and see
how well it will get along with angel fish. Now,
a rule of thumb that I've learned over the years is that you can mix the dwarf
angel fish and the large angel fish relatively easy without any problems,
but you don't want to mix dwarf angel fishes with other dwarf angel fish.
A lot of times they will get very aggressive and territorial and fight,
and you don't want that. So other things to keep in mind,
especially with these larger angel fishes, is that they,
I mentioned before are pickers, right?
So a funny story I once had,
or I had temporary really adopted a baby stingray because it was kept with a
queen angel fish.
And the queen angel saw that little stingrays eyes popping out on the top of its
head and went right after them.
So definitely don't put any angel fish in with stingrays or sharks
because they will go after those eyes.
And it's just not going to end up good for anyone. All right.
That pretty much wraps up everything. I have to talk about. Angel fish.
I'm curious if you've ever kept an angel or if you love to keep an angel,
let me know what your thoughts on the Mar and your experiences.
Thank you so much for watching. I'll see you next time.