Centropyge colini log.

[Terryz_]

it's hard to say for sure. if it's internal, there might be chance of curing but usually it's too late by the time they decide to start feeding...

there's a chance it's cyanide also. this one there's totally no way for human intervention.

feeding is definitely not a win with them. look at mine. all 4 were feeding. yet how many going to make it? to be honest, i will be surprised if even ONE makes it..

as for availability, yeah could be seasonal. but just put our names on LFS "alert" list and we should be fine. If you want lah.

i think for colini and golden, best is to get healthy ones right from the start. this is one fish that must be handled properly since collection to your tank.

sealife and coral farm usually have very good specimens from the way they handle. coral farm's golden angel is one of the healthiest i've seen. actively pecking on liverock in a tank full of anthias, mystery wrasses and multicolour angel.

i think the most important step is to secure a healthy individual. next, bring home, acclimate and straight away into a tank with plenty of liverock. we don't know how long they have been kept with the oversea supplier and how long they have been not-feeding. liverock straight after purchase will help stimulate a feeding response ASAP.

then, keep them in dimly lit areas to reduce stress for the first few days.

flood tank with brine shrimp and slowly wean onto other foods.

i think my approach with them is too aggressive. I should never have put them under such strict quarantine protocols since the beginning.

after this batch if all don't make it, i will stop quarantining them. From next time on, straight into liverock tank and feed feed feed.

Like all reports on colinis and golden angels around the world, nothing but complete luxury will spell doom for this fish. so far they're right.

that's just my take on the situation. so far how many people succeed with golden and colini in singapore. less than 4?

in the U.S although they are strict with QT, most of them skip QT for goldens and colinis. really, they don't take QT very well...

mine is a classic example.

The only thing I would let the go thru is a medicated period for 1-2 weeks... Still deciding what medicine to use...

They should be able to take it...

[Terryz_]

yes. you're right. like i've said before, feeding is definitely not the acid test for them. If you tell me you have one that's feeding i will just say, "so what?"

sigh.... getting very discouraged. nevermind, all this is valuable experience for me that will help me better myself as a reefer.

i've learned so much about these fishes ever since i embarked on my log.

terryz, one day lol. one day we will have all 4 living together in 1 glass box.

I had 3 living in one tank before.. 6 months and above... Didnt have the chance to try golden becos I have more than 9 angels in the tank already... No point getting liao..

[yikai]

I had 3 living in one tank before.. 6 months and above... Didnt have the chance to try golden becos I have more than 9 angels in the tank already... No point getting liao..

3 very good but not good enough! ALL 4!!! haha. and no cheating. must be ownself buy from LFS and train ourselves. hehe

[Terryz_]

3 very good but not good enough! ALL 4!!! haha. and no cheating. must be ownself buy from LFS and train ourselves. hehe

LOL!!! Will be damn frustrating to come home and first thing is flood tank with food and see if they feed and do a head count in the morning before leaving for work/school.... LOL..

[yikai]

LOL!!! Will be damn frustrating to come home and first thing is flood tank with food and see if they feed and do a head count in the morning before leaving for work/school.... LOL..

i have been doing that for the past 3 weeks. sianz.

the irritating thing is the hopeful anticipation of watching them stare at the food, then JUST WHEN THEY GOING TO EAT, they swim away. dam frustrating.

AND WHEN THEY FINALLY START EATING, they stop few days later.

[Digiman]

I remember someone here in sgreef sold his pellet eating colini which he kept for 2 years. I remember someone in reefcentral from SA has a venustus for years and still gg in strong. Always envy pple who can keep their fishes alive for many years not to mention difficult ones. Normally barely exceed a year some misfortune will befall and wipe out my entire tank. After seeing lemon's golden angel i feel like trying another time, which LFS still have stock?

[Terryz_]

I remember someone here in sgreef sold his pellet eating colini which he kept for 2 years. I remember someone in reefcentral from SA has a venustus for years and still gg in strong. Always envy pple who can keep their fishes alive for many years not to mention difficult ones. Normally barely exceed a year some misfortune will befall and wipe out my entire tank. After seeing lemon's golden angel i feel like trying another time, which LFS still have stock?

That colini was bought by me... LOL... Went to Tampines to collect... Very fat one... But perish in my tank due to ICH... :cry:

[yikai]

I remember someone here in sgreef sold his pellet eating colini which he kept for 2 years. I remember someone in reefcentral from SA has a venustus for years and still gg in strong. Always envy pple who can keep their fishes alive for many years not to mention difficult ones. Normally barely exceed a year some misfortune will befall and wipe out my entire tank. After seeing lemon's golden angel i feel like trying another time, which LFS still have stock?

someone in reefcentral has a pair of spawning colinis. BEAT THAT!! ARGH.

no more golden in stock. if you can provide better conditions than me i will be glad to sell you my "pair" at cost price. i have a feeling it will wither away in my holding tub. -.-

dont want to see any more deaths liao.

[Digiman]

That colini was bought by me... LOL... Went to Tampines to collect... Very fat one... But perish in my tank due to ICH... :cry:

Oh so u're the murderer of the longest surviving wild colini in singapore ever.

[Terryz_]

I remember someone here in sgreef sold his pellet eating colini which he kept for 2 years. I remember someone in reefcentral from SA has a venustus for years and still gg in strong. Always envy pple who can keep their fishes alive for many years not to mention difficult ones. Normally barely exceed a year some misfortune will befall and wipe out my entire tank. After seeing lemon's golden angel i feel like trying another time, which LFS still have stock?

I believe LCK still have...

[yikai]

Oh so u're the murderer of the longest surviving wild colini in singapore ever.

bullet through the heart. HAHA

[Terryz_]

Oh so u're the murderer of the longest surviving wild colini in singapore ever.

Regretted adding the CB(Coral Beauty) in my tank.. Killed every single angel in my tank... My feeding and surviving multibar and venustus and regal...

[Digiman]

someone in reefcentral has a pair of spawning colinis. BEAT THAT!! ARGH.

no more golden in stock. if you can provide better conditions than me i will be glad to sell you my "pair" at cost price. i have a feeling it will wither away in my holding tub. -.-

dont want to see any more deaths liao.

Recently my luck on fishes also seem to be running out. Got the 2 terelabrus rubrovittatus from fuel but one jumped out of QT during the first night and died! The QT has 8 inches of glass clearance and the fish still able to jump, i mux say it's the greatest jumper i've encountered. Left one but still hiding in the main tank, v shy and not sure if i'll ever see it again.

Let me think about the golden angel, how big are they again? I'll contact u if i decide to try again.

[yikai]

Recently my luck on fishes also seem to be running out. Got the 2 terelabrus rubrovittatus from fuel but one jumped out of QT during the first night and died! The QT has 8 inches of glass clearance and the fish still able to jump, i mux say it's the greatest jumper i've encountered. Left one but still hiding in the main tank, v shy and not sure if i'll ever see it again.

Let me think about the golden angel, how big are they again? I'll contact u if i decide to try again.

both are 1.5 inch. very small and good size.

[Digiman]

both are 1.5 inch. very small and good size.

Do u mind pm the price of your golden angels, as well as a bit more details on their current condition like feeding and swimming behaviour and fin conditions and how their doing w each other so i can consider. Thanks a lot.

[Terryz_]

Do u mind pm the price of your golden angels, as well as a bit more details on their current condition like feeding and swimming behaviour and fin conditions and how their doing w each other so i can consider. Thanks a lot.

I think a video will be a best viewing of the angels if you not going down to view yourself..

[yikai]

terryz, digiman, guess what i woke up to today?

the golden from ahbeng is dead. coral farm 1 still looks ok and healthy.

1 of the colini is dead also.

now i'm left with 1 colini still alive and 1 golden angel still alive.

Colini log update

- after 3+ weeks of trying them out, with 3 deaths, i will stop my attemps with centropyge colini until i have more ideal conditions to settle them in. at least with a tank that has been cycled, any problem i can dump in the sump and monitor from there. it's difficult to do that in a toyogo box.

Golden log update

- The first of the two golden angels died after 2 days. With no obvious reason. but we're talking about golden angels here.. they don't need a reason to die remember? i think dying unexpectedly with no reason is on their morning agenda. i'm left with 1, the much healthier coral farm 1. at this point my morale is so low, i really don't expect my remaining colini and golden to survive past this week.

conclusion?

these two fish really live up to their name of being super difficult. If you're reading this and thinking "LOL, surely can't be that hard lah. it's a dwarf angel afterall.." , well, think again. that was my mentality before starting this log, and now i can honestly tell you that they are really really not easy.

to keep 1 alive is already worthy of an appluase. to keep a pair alive long term, my hats off to you. to sustain a breeding pair/harem? well i'll leave that to the gods.

no more attemps on these fishes until i get my confidence back and when my tank is ready.

[dnsfpl]

my golden seems braver after adding a pair of 1" black clown

hope i did the right thing

sorry for your lost

RIP

[yikai]

my golden seems braver after adding a pair of 1" black clown

hope i did the right thing

sorry for your lost

RIP

in this case, your clowns acted as the dither fish.

dither fishes will help encourage shyer species to venture out more.

thanks but it's normal for golden angels to die. i just wished it would have survived longer

[dnsfpl]

the success rate will greatly improve with a proper mature setup

notice my golden only swim away from direct light(pl 36w)

i guess tank mate and lighting will affect their behavior

cheers

[yikai]

the success rate will greatly improve with a proper mature setup

notice my golden only swim away from direct light(pl 36w)

i guess tank mate and lighting will affect their behavior

cheers

yes of course their chances will improve in a mature set up. that's why i say they never fare well in QT and are all doomed to die.

golden angels are extremely cryptic in the wild. they are fairly deep water and hide for most parts of the day. they live in extensive coral growths, like porites, and in order to catch them, divers have to either break apart massive amounts of coral to get to them, or use poison like potassium cyanide.

giving them a lot of rock and dim lighting will greatly facilitate their acclimation to your tank.

tank mates play a vital role in their survival also. golden angels are extremely shy, so if you have boisterous tank mates like damsels, tangs or other angels, you can forget about seeing your golden angel. they will hide most of the time.

[yikai]

here is an extract from copps in RC re colini angelfish.

"The key is getting them to adapt... and you are at the mercy of their collection and treatment before you receive them. As I say in my signature, there is no angel that is tough to keep... just those that are tough to adapt... and C. colini is the case.

I've had my pair since '06. These originally came from Fiji. I originally had them as the sole pair of angels in a smaller system, but last year I added them to my large reef with many other Centropyge, including joculator and interruptus, and they do fine.

This species is fascinating... I own many Centropyge and these are quite unique in behavior. With time they are not that shy, nothing like C. aurantia for instance... they show themselves often and travel together most of the day, never being that far apart from eachother. Their closest relative appears to be Centropyge narcosis. Many people claim they are shy and need passive tankmates, but they have proven resilient and tough amongst my fray of tankmates I have them with... again a very cool angel.

The issue is that these guys are very widespread but not common anywhere. Believe it or not Pat Colin originally collected the species in joculator land in the Indian Ocean (Cocos-Keeling Islands). Pat Colin was also the first person to witness the newest species of angelfish... Centropyge abei. Colini are just delicate through capture and transport, so IF you could get them in good shape and feeding that is the biggest hurdle.

To do this the best method is the same method I use when I receive all of my angels... get them in a separate system with no competition, just ambient light, and a calming environment with no stress. Hammer them with all foods... find SOMETHING they will eat in the short term, and worry about long term nutrition later on. Get calories of something in them, and feed often... I feed sometimes 10 times a day if I'm home to new fish... so that they could replenish body weight and be aided in recovery... a fat fish is a fish that could fight off disease. If you notice signs of anything developing you could offer treatment... another advantage of not using the "dump and hope approach" as I call it... getting a new fish and dumping him into your display with a bunch of adapted and territorial fish that allow food to last about 8 seconds in their aquarium...

"

[Digiman]

terryz, digiman, guess what i woke up to today?

the golden from ahbeng is dead. coral farm 1 still looks ok and healthy.

1 of the colini is dead also.

now i'm left with 1 colini still alive and 1 golden angel still alive.

Not surprising. Too much transfer and fluctuations in salinity has prob stressed the fish or the fish is prob caught by cyanide so doomed to die. I'll not qt these fishes at all if i've to choose. Hope the best for the other two survivals. U should stop fluctuating the water parameters and let things stabilise and it should increase their chance of survival.

[yikai]

Not surprising. Too much transfer and fluctuations in salinity has prob stressed the fish or the fish is prob caught by cyanide so doomed to die. I'll not qt these fishes at all if i've to choose. Hope the best for the other two survivals. U should stop fluctuating the water parameters and let things stabilise and it should increase their chance of survival.

the golden that died did not undergo hypo at all. it was acclimated from normal sea water to normal seawater. all my goldens had not experienced any fluctuations in water parameters.

only the colinis did.

[yikai]

for more information regarding golden angels,

described by randall and wass 1974, they are found throught indonesia and the great barrier reef. they live below the depths of 50m usually in large extensive network of porites or other corals. they are very rarely seen by divers due to their extreme shyness.

because of this, almost all golden angels are caught using cyanide in indonesian waters. effects of cyanide may even start to show after 2-4 months. like i said, 6 months of living in your tank shud be considered as "ok". IMO.

another thing to note. from all accounts or should i say, most accounts on internet and books, golden angels are not reef safe, or not as reef safe compared to flame or argi etc. with almost every specimen nipping on at least some kind of coral.