Big Day for Regal in QT

Sonicblast12

Sonicblast12

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Day six, Regal started eating NLS pellets. It was eating clam on the half shell on day one, formula two flakes on day two, and made the leap to pellets today. That wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be.

The fish is not quite fin clean, trying to burn off the ich it arrived with. After three days the fish looked pretty bad, but each day is better than the previous. A combination of hyposalinity and a large UV is getting rid of the problem quickly. I'm glad it is eating, I've had mixed results with angels eating at hyposalinity.

Pretty shy initially, this fish is getting bolder by the minute. Has that distinctive angelfish curiosity that good specimens display.

I was hoping this one wasn't going to become another statistic, and it looks like we are on the right track.
 
I couldn't really believe it was eating flakes on the 2nd day. I've had dwarf angels that didn't do anything other than pick rock for months. I was a little skeptical when I was buying the fish since it's an Indo-Pacific and I could see the ich. My last words to the guy who sold the fish to me were, "I hope I don't kill this one."

It was doing the thing that a lot of shy fish do, it wouldn't eat in front of me. So I started feeding and leaving the room. I'd sneak back in the room and it was hitting the flakes pretty good and shredding the clam all over the tank. Now it is pacing the corner of the tank eyeballing me. Wants more food, and I'm going to oblige.

Interestingly, still doesn't show much interest in frozen. But if I had to choose, I'd take pellets and flakes over frozen any day. Everything does well on a mix of NLS and Formula 2.
 
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Lovely fish! Sounds like your regal is on the way to recovery. I hope he or she is in good health soon.

If you don't mind my asking, how did you get it to eat pellets? I have 3 lyretail anthias in QT right now and they don't recognize pellets as food. They gobble up any frozen, but swim right by pellets when I put them in. I've tried NLS marine and NLS Grow (very small pellets), and I've tried soaking in garlic, all to no avail. Did you do anything in particular?
 
The only thing I really do is when I'm conditioning a new fish is to always offer the foods I want them to eat first, which is basically always the reverse order of what the fish wants.

I feed pellets first, all different sizes and types. This is important. The Regal didn't notice anything smaller than 3 mm NLS pellets even though it isn't big enough to eat them. Started picking on those and only after failing it moved over to the previously ignored 2 mm NLS pellets and began eating those. I have a large Powder Blue tang that can easily eat 3 mm NLS, but won't eat them. Only eats 1 mm.

If the pellets don't work, I move to flake, then frozen, then a clam on a half shell.

It usually takes a couple of days for fish to eat anything, but most eat by the time I get to option three. The clam is an equalizer, not many fish can resist.

I always make sure the fish gets the calories it needs during the first week. Doesn't matter what it is eating, it's going to get a heavy dose of whatever it is eating best. But it will always get that meal last. My Regal is still going to get clam tonight. If I were throwing in clam shells and then pellets, the fish would never eat pellets. No reason to.

For the anthias it's probably going to be easier to convert them to flake. You can mix the frozen and flake food and soak it together and feed the mixture. Doesn't take long to get any fish on flake when you mix with frozen and eventually cut out the frozen. That's a good way to get any fish to step 2. After fish is eating flakes it seems a lot easier to get them to pellets. Just remember to always offer the food you want first.
 
Thanks for the advice! I haven't yet tried flake. I'll try mixing the frozen and flake as you suggest, and then try pellets thereafter. I'll also remember the bit about offering the food I want them to eat first. Continued good luck with your Regal!
 
Congrats on getting him to eat pellets! I am having troubles with my potters angle not eating. Have had it for a week and he has not eaten anything that I have seen. I have tried pellets 2 kinds, flakes, formula 1 and 2, brine shrimp and nori. He looks really healthy and swims around. Do you have any ides? Thanks
Charles
 
I could ask you the same thing, I just lost a Potters yesterday after it had been in QT for a month. Never did anything but pick on the rock. Developed some kind of fungal infection and I never could get the upper hand.

I had another that was outwardly healthy and a good eater, but just dropped dead one day. I'm 0-2 with the Potters Angel.
 
Is this your first Regal?

I've had two so far. First was a yellow chested IO/Red Sea Regal that was allegedly eating flake. I never got it to do so, but it did happily chase down PE Mysis. After about 7 months it began to eat blanched broccoli, raw shrimp and scallop. Sadly, I lost it due to my Ritteri anemone wandering into a powerhead, shredding the tentacles and releasing nematocysts and killing everything in the tank except the clowns at the 1 year mark.

The second one is a blue chested Regal from Vanuatu that I've had for alittle over 4 years. I had it in QT with two other smaller fish that taught it to eat pellets, flakes, and pretty much every thing else.

One of the things I've noticed with these fish is that both of mine took right about a year to fully acclimatize to the tank and become more aggressive feeders.

The fact that yours is becoming a hardy eater in QT in such a short time is a very good sign.

Good luck and I look forward to seeing regular updates of your success with this fish.

Nick
 
First Regal, I've always passed on them because of their reputation.

I have a feeling this is going to be an aggressive fish.

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I have found that many fish will eat PE mysis as it seems to have a strong scent. After they are eating PE mysis, I start mixing the pellets and flake with PE mysis so that they soak up the juices from the mysis, and then gradually reduce the amount of mysis and increase the amount of pellets and flakes.

I also have had good luck soaking foods they like in garlic and/or selcon so they associate food with those scents, and then introducing pellets soaked in the garlic or selcon.

My regal is done its quarantine (since December 1) and is about to be introduced to the DT. It has been a good eater (mysis (particularly PE), brine enriched with spirulina, homemade mix of seafood, angel formula, Rods, NLS pellets, Omega One veggie flakes, etc.
 
Mine is the boss of the tank right now, but it took her about a year and half to decide she wanted to be...

She left Zoa's and Clams alone for the first 3 years I had her, then one day, she scarfed down a brand new frag of Devil's Armor zoa's that had been in the tank for all of 15 minutes. It was downhill from there. On the bonus side, the annoying ugly zoa's that were beginning to grow in places I didnt want were removed without incident....

Nick
 
I posted these videos on the aggressive side of the forum but figured I could give an update to this thread on the reef fishes side of things. The Indo Pacific Regal was moved into a 75 gallon with a bunch of other small angels. A temporary setup for a lot of these fish, but a good place to grow and learn to interact with each other. The Regal is the most aggressive feeder in the group and doesn't like the Majestic in its territory.

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Here is a video of the pellet eating Red Sea Regal I picked up a couple weeks after the Indo. I haven't decided if I'm going to house them together or separately.

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Looking great! Makes me want to try a Red Sea Regal, however with my luck would never get one that will eat pellets!
 
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