Hey guys! So, as some of you know, I love cherub angelfish and I think that they are a wonderful addition to a lot of tanks! I have had the amazing opportunity to keep one for the past year and to dive with a wild population down in Cozumel and I just want to share my experience with them!
DISCLAIMER: This is just my experience with the fish I have observed/interacted with. Not all cherubs do what mine does, and they may
Captive
These are photos taken by me of my cherub in my tank at home. Photos shot with an IPhone 8 using an IceCap lens with the macro and orange filter
Environment
So my current angelfish was a wild caught specimen that I bought from my LFS at about 3/4”. During my year with him (sexed via angelfish cheek spine), I have been feeding only LRS nano reef Frenzy. I haven’t been able to get him onto pellets or flake successfully and have not tried alternative frozen or live foods. He is in a 20 gallon IM peninsula mixed reef including clams, anemones, LPS, scolys, SPS, Duncan, zoas, goniopora, etc with no issues and does not pick at anything; his tankmates are stomatella snails, a fire shrimp, and a pair of percula clowns and they all exist together with no issues whatsoever.
Picking/eating behavior
I do have quite a few hitchhiker pineapple sponges on my rock, which I notice him picking on and they have decreased both in size and number since his arrival (presumably because theyre being eaten). Since angel formula cubes for the larger species have a high amount of sponge in them, I am assuming he recognizes an insufficiency in the food he is being provided and fills that by eating the pineapple sponges which seems to be a natural behavior (I’ll get more into that in the “wild” section!). He also picks at frag plugs, especially new arrivals, but doesn’t touch the actual coral so I’m thinking he picks at algae/pods/microcritters on the plug itself as he does not touch the actual coral polyp. When the tank is fed (1-2x per day)
I notice that he swims quickly towards the food but eats the smaller particles, leaving larger chunks for the clowns and shrimp. I have seen him steal food from the clowns but this is only on occasion and he usually drops it immediately after stealing it making me think that he doesn’t steal because he’s hungry, but because he likes to mess with the clowns a little.
He has never stolen food from a coral, I feed mysis to the larger LPS (scolys, acan, favia, Duncan, etc) and anemones then reefroids to SPS and zoas and he shows no interest.
Behavior (habits and towards tankmates)
The cherub has proven to be a very curious fish. It is the only fish I have seen exhibiting play behavior. It actively played “chase” with my male clownfish. This was not aggression, no torn fins or fast attack moves, this was definitely play behavior. He also seems to enjoy photobombing my photos and generally being adorable.
He has a habit of going through the tiniest cracks in the rock, then does a victory lap around the tank. To test this, I built an obstacle course in the tank out of rubble, which he took great interest in. He seemed to really enjoy the stimulation so I feel like live rock and an intricate aquascape are important for these guys!
Growth Rate
So I’ve had mine for a year, starting at 3/4” inches at purchase. I feed LRS nano reef frenzy 1-2x per day and he picks on algae and sponges a little. Currently he is around 2 1/3” - 2 1/2” inches and at what I feel is fully mature size. He started to exhibit the male spine at about 1 3/4” to 2” inches in length, at which he seemed to go through a little grouchy “puberty” stage where he was slightly aggressive towards my male clown (around 1 1/4” - 1 1/2” at the time) but no ins or anything like that.
His coloration is the same from when I got him except the blue highlights on the edges of his fins and eyes have become brighter and flashier. He still has the same amount of yellow on the face and the shade of both his yellow and purple has not varied at all.
Wild
Environment
This is only from about a week of diving experience in Cozumel, an island in their natural range off the coast of Mexico. Populations around other islands may be different!
The reefs down in Cozumel are beautiful, lots of varieties in the coral. Potato chip corals, very fluffy SPS, gorgonians, feather dusters, condylactis anemones, carpet anemones, monti caps, black coral, barrel sponges, etc. I notice that these guys live primarily in the potato chip coral colonies or very porous live rock formations with lots of tunnels and holes, usually in around 30-40 feet of water. They live side by side with many species of damselfish and wrasse and don’t seem to have problems with one another.
Behavior
Something is very peculiar about these fish in the wild that I was always warned about when keeping them in captivity, they seem to live in groups. I never saw a lone angel, always in a pair, and the largest group I saw was six together in the same 6”x6” colony of potato chip coral and interacting with one another.
There seemed to be a dominant fish that was larger, looking for a male cheek spine, I could not find one on any of the largest fish. I’m leaning towards them being a matriarchal species but I feel like it would be worth some second opinions. I did find 1-2 males in the groups of 4+ fish living together, always smaller than the female and if there was a second male it was very small.
I did see a few male/female pairs that looked a lot like mated butterfly fish in behavior, foraging with one another and never more than a couple inches apart.
It is worth it to note, that several of the fish (especially groups of 4+) had torn fins. Nothing too horrific but there were definitely small chunks/tears taken out of them especially the tail fin. I didn’t see any of them fight with each other so it could be species aggression or simply damage from living in the wild. But the fact that it occurred mostly in larger groups has me thinking that there was some fighting going on between the angels.
I don’t know if this is something that can be achieved in a tank but I do know of several people that have had success pairing other species of dwarf angel (such as the flameback) so I don’t see why this is impossible. If you’ve done it, please share!
I found these fish very very skittish, which is definitely not the case with my fish at home. I grabbed onto a rock (not coral, just algae-covered rock) for about 20-25 minutes and sat there very still watching a harem. I repeated this about 15 times with different groups. The earliest one ever emerged and began to act normal again was about 10 minutes, otherwise they hid deep in the rocks even though the damselfish near them were unfazed by my presence. Most of the fish here are used to the presence of divers and appear to act completely normal but the cherubs seemed very freaked out, I even had a school of tangs swim so close that I could feel the water flow from their fins!
Coloration
These are NOT my photos and I don’t take any credit for them. They are photos from the internet that show the difference between my fish and the ones I’m seeing during diving. The pics from the captive section are mine, I took them and that is my fish
A big difference I noticed between these wild specimens (I studied 200+ individuals, so not a super small sample) and the ones I have/see in the LFS is the amount of yellow in the face. These fish have just a touch of yellow on the tip mouth/nose area whereas my fish and the fish I see for sale have yellow to beyond the eyes, almost to the gills usually. The most yellow on the face in the wild here was about to the eyes on a fish less than 1” long.
The blue highlights are the same vibrancy and tone but seems to be a little bit of a thicker edge on the wild specimens than my angel or the ones I usually see for sale, which is a thin line around the edge of the fins. These wild ones have very pronounced, thick highlights especially around the eyes and anal fin whereas my fish has thin lines (about half the thickness).
The purple color seems to be very consistent between specimens and is the same as my fish at home, the yellow is also the same color as my fish at home.
Feeding Behavior
It seemed like they mostly picked at algae/sponges/small critters like pods. They did not venture far from wherever home base was, much like a clownfish with an anemone won’t really stray.
I noticed that many of the fish (especially the larger ones) were pretty girthy. Not beach ball round or anything but probably around the width of a water bottle cap (the height of the rim of the cap, not the diameter).
“Is this a good fish for my tank?” and closing thoughts
So, is this a good fish for my tank? I feel like these have a few absolute requirements that must be met for a good quality of life
1. Plenty of live rock structure. It doesn’t have to be fancy, just some live rock stacked so it’s got some caves, tunnels, cracks, etc. You want somewhere for the fish to be able to sleep in at night and for them to dart into should they feel threatened. The tank should be minimum 20 gallons IF the tank is a peninsula or lagoon style (longer rather than tall, not a cube). A minimum of 30 is definitely better.
2. A good diet. Most frozen foods should be fine, especially angel mixes. If you have lots of naturally occurring sponge, I don’t think that it’s necessary to feed the angel mix but it definitely won’t hurt! Mine has done very well on LRS food.
3. Peaceful tankmates. I did not find this fish in the wild with aggressive neighbors and they were very skittish of both divers and other fish. I would not house them with aggressive fish that could damage them or tear fins.
If you can provide these three things (which most of you can) then there are a few things you need to know before jumping in.
These fish may pick at corals, especially fleshy LPS (acans, scolys) and clams. All centropyge angels are prone to nipping, but I have found these to have very good success rates. I keep mine with a maxima clam,4 scolys, and 4 acan colonies with no worry. Keeping them well fed is a great way to encourage them to leave your corals alone. I find that feeding your fish immediately before feeding your corals helps curb that desire to steal from your coral. After a fish learns that a coral can provide a meal, that coral may become the meal.
These fish max out at around 2 1/2” inches. Please don’t keep them with fish that could eat them at any point in their life cycles because they will never get bigger than that. Don’t get that angler fish and say “Oh a flame angel gets to 6” which is too big, so I’ll just get this cherub and grow it out until the angler can’t eat it. “ No, that’s not gonna work.
Personally, I wouldn’t mix these with other centropyge species or multiple male cherubs. I think a male/female pair, two females, or a harem with two females and a male are all very possible but I don’t think it’s a good idea to mix species or throw two males together. There are no other centropyge angels in Cozumel so I can’t say that it’s definitely a bad idea, but it’s pretty common to say that mixing centropyge angels is a no-go.
That’s it! So, if you’re looking at maybe getting a cherub angel, they are definitely a very beautiful fish that are great for nano tanks. They are peaceful and have a great personality to boot, and I would definitely recommend one over a flame angel in terms of nippiness towards corals. They’re very active and free-swimming with gorgeous colors and are usually inexpensive (mine was $16 at my LFS during the pandemic). If you have one, please comment! If you’re interested in one and have more questions, feel free to comment as well! Let’s have a discussion on these beautiful and under-appreciated fish!
DISCLAIMER: This is just my experience with the fish I have observed/interacted with. Not all cherubs do what mine does, and they may
Captive
These are photos taken by me of my cherub in my tank at home. Photos shot with an IPhone 8 using an IceCap lens with the macro and orange filter
So my current angelfish was a wild caught specimen that I bought from my LFS at about 3/4”. During my year with him (sexed via angelfish cheek spine), I have been feeding only LRS nano reef Frenzy. I haven’t been able to get him onto pellets or flake successfully and have not tried alternative frozen or live foods. He is in a 20 gallon IM peninsula mixed reef including clams, anemones, LPS, scolys, SPS, Duncan, zoas, goniopora, etc with no issues and does not pick at anything; his tankmates are stomatella snails, a fire shrimp, and a pair of percula clowns and they all exist together with no issues whatsoever.
Picking/eating behavior
I do have quite a few hitchhiker pineapple sponges on my rock, which I notice him picking on and they have decreased both in size and number since his arrival (presumably because theyre being eaten). Since angel formula cubes for the larger species have a high amount of sponge in them, I am assuming he recognizes an insufficiency in the food he is being provided and fills that by eating the pineapple sponges which seems to be a natural behavior (I’ll get more into that in the “wild” section!). He also picks at frag plugs, especially new arrivals, but doesn’t touch the actual coral so I’m thinking he picks at algae/pods/microcritters on the plug itself as he does not touch the actual coral polyp. When the tank is fed (1-2x per day)
I notice that he swims quickly towards the food but eats the smaller particles, leaving larger chunks for the clowns and shrimp. I have seen him steal food from the clowns but this is only on occasion and he usually drops it immediately after stealing it making me think that he doesn’t steal because he’s hungry, but because he likes to mess with the clowns a little.
He has never stolen food from a coral, I feed mysis to the larger LPS (scolys, acan, favia, Duncan, etc) and anemones then reefroids to SPS and zoas and he shows no interest.
Behavior (habits and towards tankmates)
The cherub has proven to be a very curious fish. It is the only fish I have seen exhibiting play behavior. It actively played “chase” with my male clownfish. This was not aggression, no torn fins or fast attack moves, this was definitely play behavior. He also seems to enjoy photobombing my photos and generally being adorable.
He has a habit of going through the tiniest cracks in the rock, then does a victory lap around the tank. To test this, I built an obstacle course in the tank out of rubble, which he took great interest in. He seemed to really enjoy the stimulation so I feel like live rock and an intricate aquascape are important for these guys!
Growth Rate
So I’ve had mine for a year, starting at 3/4” inches at purchase. I feed LRS nano reef frenzy 1-2x per day and he picks on algae and sponges a little. Currently he is around 2 1/3” - 2 1/2” inches and at what I feel is fully mature size. He started to exhibit the male spine at about 1 3/4” to 2” inches in length, at which he seemed to go through a little grouchy “puberty” stage where he was slightly aggressive towards my male clown (around 1 1/4” - 1 1/2” at the time) but no ins or anything like that.
His coloration is the same from when I got him except the blue highlights on the edges of his fins and eyes have become brighter and flashier. He still has the same amount of yellow on the face and the shade of both his yellow and purple has not varied at all.
Wild
Environment
This is only from about a week of diving experience in Cozumel, an island in their natural range off the coast of Mexico. Populations around other islands may be different!
The reefs down in Cozumel are beautiful, lots of varieties in the coral. Potato chip corals, very fluffy SPS, gorgonians, feather dusters, condylactis anemones, carpet anemones, monti caps, black coral, barrel sponges, etc. I notice that these guys live primarily in the potato chip coral colonies or very porous live rock formations with lots of tunnels and holes, usually in around 30-40 feet of water. They live side by side with many species of damselfish and wrasse and don’t seem to have problems with one another.
Behavior
Something is very peculiar about these fish in the wild that I was always warned about when keeping them in captivity, they seem to live in groups. I never saw a lone angel, always in a pair, and the largest group I saw was six together in the same 6”x6” colony of potato chip coral and interacting with one another.
There seemed to be a dominant fish that was larger, looking for a male cheek spine, I could not find one on any of the largest fish. I’m leaning towards them being a matriarchal species but I feel like it would be worth some second opinions. I did find 1-2 males in the groups of 4+ fish living together, always smaller than the female and if there was a second male it was very small.
I did see a few male/female pairs that looked a lot like mated butterfly fish in behavior, foraging with one another and never more than a couple inches apart.
It is worth it to note, that several of the fish (especially groups of 4+) had torn fins. Nothing too horrific but there were definitely small chunks/tears taken out of them especially the tail fin. I didn’t see any of them fight with each other so it could be species aggression or simply damage from living in the wild. But the fact that it occurred mostly in larger groups has me thinking that there was some fighting going on between the angels.
I don’t know if this is something that can be achieved in a tank but I do know of several people that have had success pairing other species of dwarf angel (such as the flameback) so I don’t see why this is impossible. If you’ve done it, please share!
I found these fish very very skittish, which is definitely not the case with my fish at home. I grabbed onto a rock (not coral, just algae-covered rock) for about 20-25 minutes and sat there very still watching a harem. I repeated this about 15 times with different groups. The earliest one ever emerged and began to act normal again was about 10 minutes, otherwise they hid deep in the rocks even though the damselfish near them were unfazed by my presence. Most of the fish here are used to the presence of divers and appear to act completely normal but the cherubs seemed very freaked out, I even had a school of tangs swim so close that I could feel the water flow from their fins!
Coloration
These are NOT my photos and I don’t take any credit for them. They are photos from the internet that show the difference between my fish and the ones I’m seeing during diving. The pics from the captive section are mine, I took them and that is my fish
A big difference I noticed between these wild specimens (I studied 200+ individuals, so not a super small sample) and the ones I have/see in the LFS is the amount of yellow in the face. These fish have just a touch of yellow on the tip mouth/nose area whereas my fish and the fish I see for sale have yellow to beyond the eyes, almost to the gills usually. The most yellow on the face in the wild here was about to the eyes on a fish less than 1” long.
The blue highlights are the same vibrancy and tone but seems to be a little bit of a thicker edge on the wild specimens than my angel or the ones I usually see for sale, which is a thin line around the edge of the fins. These wild ones have very pronounced, thick highlights especially around the eyes and anal fin whereas my fish has thin lines (about half the thickness).
The purple color seems to be very consistent between specimens and is the same as my fish at home, the yellow is also the same color as my fish at home.
Feeding Behavior
It seemed like they mostly picked at algae/sponges/small critters like pods. They did not venture far from wherever home base was, much like a clownfish with an anemone won’t really stray.
I noticed that many of the fish (especially the larger ones) were pretty girthy. Not beach ball round or anything but probably around the width of a water bottle cap (the height of the rim of the cap, not the diameter).
“Is this a good fish for my tank?” and closing thoughts
So, is this a good fish for my tank? I feel like these have a few absolute requirements that must be met for a good quality of life
1. Plenty of live rock structure. It doesn’t have to be fancy, just some live rock stacked so it’s got some caves, tunnels, cracks, etc. You want somewhere for the fish to be able to sleep in at night and for them to dart into should they feel threatened. The tank should be minimum 20 gallons IF the tank is a peninsula or lagoon style (longer rather than tall, not a cube). A minimum of 30 is definitely better.
2. A good diet. Most frozen foods should be fine, especially angel mixes. If you have lots of naturally occurring sponge, I don’t think that it’s necessary to feed the angel mix but it definitely won’t hurt! Mine has done very well on LRS food.
3. Peaceful tankmates. I did not find this fish in the wild with aggressive neighbors and they were very skittish of both divers and other fish. I would not house them with aggressive fish that could damage them or tear fins.
If you can provide these three things (which most of you can) then there are a few things you need to know before jumping in.
These fish may pick at corals, especially fleshy LPS (acans, scolys) and clams. All centropyge angels are prone to nipping, but I have found these to have very good success rates. I keep mine with a maxima clam,4 scolys, and 4 acan colonies with no worry. Keeping them well fed is a great way to encourage them to leave your corals alone. I find that feeding your fish immediately before feeding your corals helps curb that desire to steal from your coral. After a fish learns that a coral can provide a meal, that coral may become the meal.
These fish max out at around 2 1/2” inches. Please don’t keep them with fish that could eat them at any point in their life cycles because they will never get bigger than that. Don’t get that angler fish and say “Oh a flame angel gets to 6” which is too big, so I’ll just get this cherub and grow it out until the angler can’t eat it. “ No, that’s not gonna work.
Personally, I wouldn’t mix these with other centropyge species or multiple male cherubs. I think a male/female pair, two females, or a harem with two females and a male are all very possible but I don’t think it’s a good idea to mix species or throw two males together. There are no other centropyge angels in Cozumel so I can’t say that it’s definitely a bad idea, but it’s pretty common to say that mixing centropyge angels is a no-go.
That’s it! So, if you’re looking at maybe getting a cherub angel, they are definitely a very beautiful fish that are great for nano tanks. They are peaceful and have a great personality to boot, and I would definitely recommend one over a flame angel in terms of nippiness towards corals. They’re very active and free-swimming with gorgeous colors and are usually inexpensive (mine was $16 at my LFS during the pandemic). If you have one, please comment! If you’re interested in one and have more questions, feel free to comment as well! Let’s have a discussion on these beautiful and under-appreciated fish!