Red Sea Regal Angel and Red Sea Pearlscale Butterfly?

[fishfreak2009]

Who here has kept these? Any tips? Any suggestions? I have a 5 inch red sea regal coming in next weekend, and possibly a red sea pearlscale butterfly. I plan on quarantining the two of them in a 75 gallon for 6 weeks, and there will be 25 lbs. of live rock as well.

 

[reeferstace]

Peter, SDGuy, has one of the Red Sea pearlscales. It's a gorgeous fish and near the top of my "must haves" -not Peter's but one like it

Lots of folks here have the regals and several have the Red Sea variety. There should be at least a couple of threads about them going back the last couple of days.

 

[SDguy]

Mine is hardy. Took a while to eat larger pieces of food... longer than some other butterflies I've had. But, now he eats pellets. I'd say average, as far as butterflies go, for aggression. Great fish, with beautiful, unique colors.

 

[fishfreak2009]

Peter, what did yours start eating when you first got it in? Was it clams on the half shell? I used to always use fresh clams to get butterflies and angels feeding, until I fed a bad clam from the local grocery store and it wiped out the entire tank.

 

[SDguy]

Small pieces of diver scallop and raw shrimp along with mysis (Hikari and PE). I tend to only use clams if I have to... they are messy and can foul QT water quickly...

 

[alton]

There is a post called Regal Angel Primer here some where that helped me a bunch.

 

[Katis]

Are these butterfly fish easy to acquire?

 

[reeferstace]

DD has had three or four the past several months. Beyond that I have seen none for sale. One of my LFS got one in but it shipped poorly and had a severe fluke infestation. They tried very hard to save it. . Not a very common fish for sale from what I've seen.

 

[fishfreak2009]

DD has had three or four the past several months. Beyond that I have seen none for sale. One of my LFS got one in but it shipped poorly and had a severe fluke infestation. They tried very hard to save it. . Not a very common fish for sale from what I've seen.

One of my LFS has been getting in large quantities of red sea fish recently. Recently the owner ordered in 17 large purple tangs. I got one of them at an awesome $100 price tag. This order he is getting more purple tangs at $100, some red sea regal angels, an asfur angel, some sohal tangs (including showsize specimens), and hopefully my red sea pearlscale butterfly. He could have also gotten 8 line flashers, mesoleucos butterflies, golden butterflies, sunrise dottybacks, maculosus angels, Heniochus intermedius, bicinctus clowns, larvatus butterflies, Arabian Butterflies, Melapterus Butterflies, Red Sea Racoon Butterflies,marginatus damsels, thalassoma hortulanus wrasses, fourline wrasses, and assasi triggers.

 

[SDguy]

Lots of Red Sea fish coming in lately, but I'm still waiting to see any wild bicinctus show up. Sure hope some do...

 

[fishfreak2009]

Lots of Red Sea fish coming in lately, but I'm still waiting to see any wild bicinctus show up. Sure hope some do...

You are talking about wild bicinctus clownfish right? I was told I could have gotten a pair for $90. I turned him down because I don't have the money.

 

[SDguy]

Again, I've heard a lot, but have yet to see any

 

[fishfreak2009]

Well, my regal angel came in last night. Unfortunately, the pearlscale did not. Oh well, maybe another time.

 

[tylersarah]

Peter, what did yours start eating when you first got it in? Was it clams on the half shell? I used to always use fresh clams to get butterflies and angels feeding, until I fed a bad clam from the local grocery store and it wiped out the entire tank.

Everything died after feeding a rotten clam? How long was the clam in the water?

 

[fishfreak2009]

Everything died after feeding a rotten clam? How long was the clam in the water?

Less than an hour. The fish ate the clam and died. The only fish that survived were my ocellaris clownfish pair (who were coincidentally the only fish that didn't eat any of the clam).

 

[tylersarah]

What an unfortunate loss! Was there any indication the clam was bad?

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

In general - if the shell is slightly open and you give it a sharp rap, it should close immediately if the clam is alive. If it doesn't close tight, it is dead or dying.

Similarly, the clam should be difficult to open and it is dead or dying if there is little to no resistance if you slide a knife between the shells edgewise.

 

[tylersarah]

Good information! I buy roughly a dozen littleneck clams, freeze immediately and then feed within a month or so. Sendiks offered me their clams that had just died and were no longer able to sell for free, but that may not be the best idea.