Suggestions On Keeping A Wild Caught Baby French Angel?

[TexasDiver1]

Hello,

Does anybody have any suggestions on keeping a 2.5" long baby French Angel collected off a jetty at Padre Island, TX? It seems to have adapted rapidly to the 20gal. natural Gulf tank I have it in (local jetty live rock, local Gulf live sand, and local Gulf seawater). I feed it a frozen cube of Saltwater Multi Pack variety of 4 frozen foods, occasionally a frozen cube of Mysis Shrimp, Omega One Marine Pellets (twice a day), and NutraFin Max pellets (twice a day). If also pecks at the live rock. I change out about 20-25% of the water twice a week with natural seawater that I pour through an activated carbon filter cartridge as I am putting it in the tank. Any suggestions for keeping him healthy and growing? Also, can anyone explain to me head and lateral line erosion that I read some angels can get? What causes it and how do you avoid it? Thanks, John.

[Cliff]

Are you sure it’s a French angelfish (Pomacanthus paru) ? Unless I am mistaken, I thought these fish are naturally found in the Caribbean. Could you post a picture maybe?

Assuming it is a French angel fish, I would suggest finding your fish a much larger tank. As these fish can grow to be well over a foot in length, your 20 gallon tank is nowhere near big enough for him. I’m afraid he will likely out grow you tank pretty quickly. I would also just back on the amount of food a little as well. In my 90 gallon tank, I have two larger and five smaller fish which I feed one single cube of frozen food once a day which is the same amount that you are feeding your single angel fish (not including the pellet foods you are feeding). Perhaps try offering only ¼ of a cube or the pellets once a day. Over feeding can negatively effect your water conditions. Your angel fish is also a omnivore and would benefit from the occasional feeding of seaweed.

I would be careful taking live fish out of the ocean to keep at home in your aquarium. There are usually laws that regulate that sort of thing and you don’t want to get yourself into trouble

The below link has info on head and lateral line line erosion.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/sp/index.php

I hope this helps

[TexasDiver1]

Hey Cliff,

It is definitely a French Angel, and as of today, I have just seen my 4th and 5th Frenchies on the opposite jetties of the same channel that I saw the first three (of which one I caught). I believe I actually saw a 6th one one night about a month ago when I was looking for baby Spotfin Butterflies. As of now, I have seen 2 very small French Angels in the 1.5 - 1.75 inch range at these jetties.

As far as tank size goes, that is all I can afford right now, and since I just lost my job, it will have to wait till I can afford a 40 or 75 gal. tank.

As far as feeding goes, I should have stated more clearly that I put in part of one of the variety frozen cubes in each morning, rotating them from morning to morning to provide more of a variety, the other part of the cube gets split between my other two tanks. Also, each morning, I feed a little bit of the Omega One Marine Pellets (small) and a little bit of the Nutra Fin pellets. I also feed the pellets again at night about a half hour before lights out. My French Angel also periodically pecks at the live rock off and on during the day.

As far as regulations are concerned, there are none here in Texas on collecting tropical fish and some locals around here collect for their aquariums as well. We all seem to be pretty conservation conscience and not over do it on the collecting. I think Florida though, has some restrictions on the number of tropicals you can catch per day and prohibits collecting them in any of the state and national parks.

John

P.S. We have more tropical marine life on the lower Texas Coast than most people would think. I have personally seen: French Angels, Spotfin Butterflyfish, 1000's of Sergeant Majors, Dusky Damsels, Spadefish, and Mangrove Snappers. I have heard that there are some Groupers here too, and I have heard at a larger jetty system just north of here that there are Cocoa Damsels, Beaugregories, and Queen Triggerfish there too. I have also personally seen a baby (about 20 inches long) nurse shark in 2 ft. of water right off the beach and some really neat small sea plume gorgonian corals growing on the rocks of the jetties. For me, I just don't understand why anyone would want to invest so much money on exotic tropicals from other parts of the world that are usually collected using harmful drugs when we have some pretty neat and somewhat hardier tropicals right here in our own backyard.