Emperor Angelfish Care

The Emperor angelfish (Pomacanthus Imperator) is one of the three very popular angelfish belonging to the family Pomacanthidae İco. They are a favorite choice among those with large fish-only aquariums. It is also the most popular angel within its own genus, Pomacanthus.

One of the most distinctively colored marine angelfish, it has bright yellow horizontal lines on its blue body, while a black band lined with neon blue covers its face. It's tail is either yellow or orange. Juvenile Emperor angelfish are no less stunning. Their deep blue body is filled with electric blue and white concentric circles.

The Emperor angelfish is commonly found throughout the Indo-Pacific ocean, Red Sea and even the Great Barrier Reefs in Australia.

As juveniles, they provide cleaning services to other fish in the wild. They will constantly pick at any parasites it may find on the bodies of other fish.

A pricey fish, juveniles are priced from $60 to $80 USD while very large "show quality" adults can fetch up to $400 USD.

Most species within the genus Pomacanthus are bully's in one form or another. The emperor angelfish is aggressive towards other large angels and is very hostile towards members of the same species.

Fishes from outside the Pomacanthidae family are generally left alone. It might bully large tangs, butterfly fish and even larger wrasses but in general, other species are ignored.

The emperor angelfish attains lengths of up to 16 inches in the wild. That translates into lengths of up to 10 to 11 inches in an aquarium as angelfish rarely achieve their full length in captivity. At that length it is still a big fish that needs larger aquariums to really do well. 150 gallons should be the bare minimum and a 200 gallon or larger tank is highly recommended.

Caves and overhangs really only work with larger tanks, most opt for an "open" scape when housing large angels such as the Emperor Angelfish. They require a large amount of swimming space.

The Emperor Angelfish is not considered reef safe. Though you may sometimes see them housed in reef aquariums, they're generally better suited to fish-only aquariums. This is because their diets in the wild include corals, sponges, tunicates and algae.

They should be offered a good variety of foods from algae based foods like nori/seaweed as well as meaty foods like krill and mysis shrimp.

A balanced food that is pretty good for your Emperor Angelfish is Formula Two. It contains a mix of seafood and an extra portion of algae for herbivorous fish. It is available in three forms, flake, pellet and frozen. If you're going for a good pellet food, i suggest trying the highly reputable New Life Spectrum instead.

The most complete food available for all large angelfish is Angel Formula by Ocean Nutrition. This food was developed with large angelfish in mind, they contain fresh seafood, vitamins, marine sponges and fresh algae. Unfortunately, Angel Formula is only offered in frozen form.

They should be given ample amounts of algae. You can choose either seaweed sheets from companies catering to angelfish or you can get nori sheets sold as sushi wrappers at your local supermarket.

Make sure you buy unflavored/unspiced nori when shopping at the supermarket. Just get the regular, plain nori. Raw nori would be even better. Attach the seaweed/nori to a clip and stick in onto the side of the aquarium.

The emperor visited my house. He came uninvited, of his own volition, for reasons best known to him. There was no post of the Emperor's arrival on the city bulletin nor was there any mention of his visit in the local newspapers. We didn't see any Royal carriage drawn by white stallions and thoroughbreds from the Royal stables. No bugles sounded alert before his arrival nor any trumpets blared. No Royal Guards preceded his carriage nor did any battalions follow him. He came all by himself without his consort and any entourage. He wore clothes, but this time the joke was on us for the clothes made him invisible to us. He had no ministers next to him, not even his court jester.

In fact, he came like a petty thief and entered my house through the back door. Emperor he was, but he lacked the guts to tackle me--the guard at the entrance to my house. He might have been scared by the cigarette burning in my mouth or the Scotch in my throat. He might have been intimidated by the large size bottle of Scotch on the coffee table next to me. The golden elixir in the full bottle might have intimidated him.

Emperor he was, but he had no appreciable manners. He didn't deem it fit to say "Hi" or "Hello" to me-the lord of the house-but decided to sneak into the bedroom where my wife for forty six years was sleeping dreaming of the capital times she had with her husband-me.

Sneaking into the wife's bedroom of a woman when the lord of the house was present in the house was not judicious, but he, being an Emperor, had gone the whole hog even while committing a heinous crime.

Emperor he was, but he lacked chivalry and attacked a thin, frail woman in her late sixties. I'm in my early seventies, and the emperor could have tried his prowess or whatever with me. Had he attacked me, I am sure he would have found in me a plucky fighter, and I would have given him a blow for blow.

Instead, he attacked a woman well past her prime and brought disrepute to his name. When he attacked her, he did a thorough job, defiled her entire body and left her devastated. When I heard her plaintive cry, I rushed to her room without any delay only to find the culprit missing.

"What happened?" I asked my wife.

She collapsed on the bed without a word and pointed a finger towards the ceiling. Before looking in the direction of her finger, I looked at my wife. She looked entirely different from the woman who made my heart skip a beat when I first met her. Gone was her ebullience, the sparkle in her eyes, the luster in her tresses, the glow in her cheeks and the radiant smile on her lips. She used to look like a woman aglow with a thousand-watt bulb inside, but now she looked as if she were engulfed in darkness, within and without. I couldn't believe she was the same woman before whom I knelt holding a ring studded with a large diamond. The woman before me was all bones sans any flesh and looked like an apparition, a skeleton which could barely speak.

Her dulcet voice, which in her younger days used to enthrall an audience of thousands now stood mutely. She could barely smile or talk İco Emperor. My knees gave way, and I collapsed unable to bear the ghostly sight of my life partner. An uncontrollable rage surged up in waves, and I looked up to see the intruder, who looked like a monster and devil combined. He had no fangs and no claws but sported a wicked smile which would kill the toughest mule even with a single blow.

I rushed to the next room and brought dozens of scalpels of various sizes to attack him. When I charged at him, the invader didn't flinch and stood his ground. Instead, he jeered at me, "You can bring all the scalpels in your armory. They're not going to be of any help."

Watching his confidence I changed my weapons and brought out a humongous radiation gun capable of sending a powerful beam and reducing him to ashes. The aggressor, surprisingly, didn't shy this time also and laughed at me. "You are wasting your time," he said.

I threw the scalpel and the gun and rushed to the next room full of chemicals. I am desperately searching for the right compound, which would work and save my wife from the destruction caused by the mean and most vicious Emperor on the face of this earth.