Flame Angelfish - The Striking Flame Angelfish

The Flame Angelfish (Centropyge Loriculus) is arguably the most recognizable member of the genus Centropyge in the marine aquarium hobby at present. It owes this fact to the beauty this saltwater aquarium fish possesses. The whole angelfish is a very intense red to orange while its dorals fin ends and accentuated by an electric blue patch.

Vertical black stripes that vary in number are also present across its body. Not all flame angelfish are equal as the number of stripes will differ along with the general color of the marine aquarium fish. Some have more orange than others. Angelfish collected off Hawaii generally have a intense red coloration throughout their entire body. Their stripes are also a lot more narrower than other variants. Flame angelfish collected from the waters of Hawaii are rare as most of them are shipped from Christmas and Marshall Islands.

Once they have been correctly acclimated and have adjusted to the marine aquariums environment, they are resilient fish. They are grazers that continually nip on live rock, algae, crustaceans and unfortunately on corals as well. Coral nipping is typically hit or miss and there is never a way to tell if such a behavior is about to take place.

A great many saltwater aquarium enthusiasts have kept them in full reef aquariums and have gotten away with it but there is always a risk. And once they start nipping you will have to deal with removing them from the reef aquarium by some means, a task that highly undesirable as it usually means dismantling the rock structure if a trap does not work.

They will eat dry pellet food along with frozen fish foods given enough time and are usually worry free once they have gotten used to their new environment. Once they have established themselves in the tank, they can become quite a bully. They do not tolerate the presence of other members of the dwarf angelfish family and will likely harass another flame angelfish to death if kept together in a small tank.