Regal Angel Primer

[Finsky]

Tank mates

Tank mates

Unfortunately I lost mine. Had him 3 weeks and he developed some infection and was eating one day and dead the next. Poor little fella.

Real bummer losing an angel of that status. It could have come to you with a hidden illness to lose it so soon. I lost a six inch Imperator angel adult after only a month a couple of years ago. Swimming and eating fine and floating one day when I got home from work. My wife was real bummed and told me at the door the "new fish", the Imperator, was dead.

I have been lucky so far with a 3 1/2 inch Regal I have had for a year and a half. A year ago I added a similar sized Blue Girdled Angel. They both really ignore each other even though the Majestic is chunkier by the nature of their shape. I have plenty of live rock for him to pick at or hide in and my 4 1/2" Powder Blue Tang and 4" Purple Tang both of which I have had for over two years do not seem to bother him, each other, or any other fish. He does bother/chase any of the three four striped damsels which get to close to him.
He is a real good eater.

The only aggression I have is between the pair of Clarkii clowns in their left side of the tank orange bubble tip and the Cinnamon clowns in their right side of the tank red rose bubble tip. I have recently added a green bubble tip just to the left and below the red rose and the Cinnamons are acting like it is a second room in a two room house.

The female Cinnamon has drawn blood from the back of my right hand as I was moving live rock near their red rose bubble tip.

She will on occasion, visit the Clarkii clown's orange bubble tip without any permission although does not bother the angels or tangs.

If I were you I would try a different source like Doctors Foster and Smith and get one large enough in comparison to your other fish. Doctors Foster and Smith has never disspointed me when I have purchased livestock through them. They do have a 14 day guarantee which they will extend a week at a time up to at least a month in my experience if you keep them up to date on the condition and behavior of you Regal.

How long have you had you 180 up and running? How much live rock do you have? I think Regals need alot and it makes me think of Pet Stores when I see them in tanks with little live rock. I have live rock the entire five foot length of my tank. Is your salinity maintained in a narrow range even with water changes? I do a 10% with Reef Crystals and add 35 ppt salinity replacement water at 80 degrees to a tank with 35 ppt along with 80 degree water and a pH range of 8.1-8.4. I know 80 degrees is a bit high for most people although I think it is a big reason why I cannot remember the last time I have seen one of my fish with ich.

 

[LKGRenegade22]

I appreciate your informative post. If I order another one I think I am going to try where you listed. I was very impressed with the Exquisite wrasse I got from them.

With that being said my 180 has been up and running 6 months, but almost all of the live rock came out of other tanks that had been running for years. I have ~300 pounds of LR and most of it is covered in soft corals and LPS. I have alot of other fish including a powder blue and purple myself but nobody really paid much attention to the regal after he had been in a few days. My salinity stays constant at 35ppt and I do a 25g weekly water change and I keep my temp around 78-79. I'm like you, I' haven't seen any disease (including ich) in this tank ever since I set it up. I feed a little much to keep everyone happy, run 2 skimmers, have good flow and stay on top of things.

 

[flameangel88]

Tom--thanks for the update on Kent Marine-C and glad to hear your Regal is looking better.


Here's couple of pics of my Regal taken earlier today. He's filling out nicely and I think it's from the pellets he's been eating. He eats more pellets than frozen and doesn't fight for live clam like the other angels.

 

[LKGRenegade22]

Flame, what exactly happened to yours to cause it to have that nasty wound? Very nice job of getting him healed up.

 

[flameangel88]

LKGRenegade--sorry for your loss.

I'm not sure but that was the way I received it in which I was surprised it was even ship out in that shape. I thought it was a goner for sure especially it wasn't eating the first 3 weeks. I think I was lucky as the fish wasn't skinny to begin with. This experience with the Regal and experience along with a Goldflake certainly changed my thinking and not to prejudge anymore.

Kevin

 

[Finsky]

Sounds like my tank and husbandry only on a bigger scale

Sounds like my tank and husbandry only on a bigger scale

I appreciate your informative post. If I order another one I think I am going to try where you listed. I was very impressed with the Exquisite wrasse I got from them.

With that being said my 180 has been up and running 6 months, but almost all of the live rock came out of other tanks that had been running for years. I have ~300 pounds of LR and most of it is covered in soft corals and LPS. I have alot of other fish including a powder blue and purple myself but nobody really paid much attention to the regal after he had been in a few days. My salinity stays constant at 35ppt and I do a 25g weekly water change and I keep my temp around 78-79. I'm like you, I' haven't seen any disease (including ich) in this tank ever since I set it up. I feed a little much to keep everyone happy, run 2 skimmers, have good flow and stay on top of things.

I like to over filtrate (is there such a thing) as I run two Rena XP4s each rated for up to a 265 gallon tank with an Aqua-Medic Turboflotor 1000 SL skimmer rated up to a 250 gallon tank and two 3,250 gph Hydor Koralia 8s for good circulation.

This is a good thing as I can feed some extra liquid coral food and/or feed the fish a bit more than five minutes worth.

I almost purchased a 180 until my landlord told me my five foot 120 was as big as I could go.:fun4:

It really sounds like your Regal was on its way out of this world before it reached you tank.:sad2:

Look to the future.:bigeyes:

 

[LKGRenegade22]

I like to over filtrate (is there such a thing) as I run two Rena XP4s each rated for up to a 265 gallon tank with an Aqua-Medic Turboflotor 1000 SL skimmer rated up to a 250 gallon tank and two 3,250 gph Hydor Koralia 8s for good circulation.

This is a good thing as I can feed some extra liquid coral food and/or feed the fish a bit more than five minutes worth.

I almost purchased a 180 until my landlord told me my five foot 120 was as big as I could go.:fun4:

It really sounds like your Regal was on its way out of this world before it reached you tank.:sad2:

Look to the future.:bigeyes:

The 180 looked huge when I bought it but now it doesn't seem so big anymore. I said something the other day about upgrading to a 300 to the wife and got "the look". :eek2: Yeah I'm not 100% sure what happened with the regal but he was eating and appeared healthy when I brought him home. He was not harrassed and had plenty to eat (he even ate almost all of my zoos) so there was not really much else I can do. I want another or a goldflake but I might just settle for another wrasse right now.

 

[Finsky]

Warning: Do not try this at home unless.............

Warning: Do not try this at home unless.............

The 180 looked huge when I bought it but now it doesn't seem so big anymore. I said something the other day about upgrading to a 300 to the wife and got "the look". :eek2: Yeah I'm not 100% sure what happened with the regal but he was eating and appeared healthy when I brought him home. He was not harrassed and had plenty to eat (he even ate almost all of my zoos) so there was not really much else I can do. I want another or a goldflake but I might just settle for another wrasse right now.

I received three six lined wrasses on the same day from Drs. F & S. The next day there were two swimming around together like a pair and the third was not seen to this day?

I like to think I have a mated pair since I think I was told two of the same sex will fiight? Anyways, my two are really cool swimming around the live rock with an attitude of a fish survivalist.

 

[LKGRenegade22]

Ha I have 10 wrasses, but no sixline. I'm not turning one of those little terrors loose in my tank!

 

[Finsky]

Terror in the deep?

Terror in the deep?

Ha I have 10 wrasses, but no sixline. I'm not turning one of those little terrors loose in my tank!

Hi:

They were not bothering anybody until I put a Mandarin in the tank and then one six lined bopped it on the head with its pointy little mouht.

I am waiting to see if the Mandarin will reappear as it was put in the tank only a week ago and it could crawl around in the rocks for a long time.

Tom

 

[LKGRenegade22]

LOL I've seen some sixline kill some other wrasses and be total terrors. I had some long ago but I won't ever have one in a tank with other wrasses.

Back on topic, anybody got any update pics of their regals?

 

[Idle Moor]

One week into my regal's tenure in my tank and not too much has changed. I am aggressively feeding her and she is slowly improving her eating habits. Yesterday for the first time she ate a significant quantity of flakes. However today she was back to spitting them. I am feeding twice a day, going home at lunch for the first one. I start with the least favorite (flakes) as the first course and then offer small amounts of increasingly palatable foods as she loses interest in one after another. Standard fare includes varieties of pellet, shreds of thawed scallop, cyclopeez, and live brine. She won't eat very much of any one type of food so I switch around trying to get the most possible into her, sometimes taking as much as 45 min per feeding. She eats significant amounts, but always only the tiniest pieces get her attention, and it's never enough to make her belly look fat, which would make me feel better to see. She is not a naturally good planktivore and is competing against an increasingly aggressive-feeding niger trigger, which doesn't help.

There is still some shimmying and flashing on rocks, particularly in the morning, so I assume there is some parasite somewhere. The flashing is always against the gill area, and is done on both sides. I typically let fish fight these things on their own and don't plan to treat the tank, but will see what happens. She acquired a small vertical gash on each of her flanks early last week. At first I thought it was from the rocks, but then I saw she wasn't rubbing that part of her body and decided they were likely from the trigger. The trigger hasn't been the least aggressive as far as I can see, but the angel is very often showing territorial displays by pushing at the trigger with her flanks. I'm guessing the trigger had had enough one or more times. Both wounds have healed.

Fingers crossed, but not considering her "mine" yet.

 

[Idle Moor]

Week 2: The Swimming Dead

Week 2: The Swimming Dead

Things have been going downhill the second week. After starting to really eat flakes well my regal has now pretty much lost interest in food. I've resorted to fresh clams, but it even just picks at those. She is shivering more and I'm seeing some white spots now. This won't have a happy ending. My fault for not listening.

 

[flameangel88]

One week into my regal's tenure in my tank...

She is shivering more and I'm seeing some white spots now...

Sounds like ich...now the bigger problem in dealing with it in the DT. I would take drastic action before it's full blown whether taking all the fish out and treating in hospital tank or going with hypo or copper route in the DT.

GL!

 

[Tracey2]

I lost my regal to ich and now I so wish I had acted fast and pulled the fish into hypo or cupramine. Maybe she has just lost interest in food because of the ich, can you pull her to a qt and get the ich off of her, nothing to loose at this point.

 

[Finsky]

Ich!!!!

Ich!!!!

I would raise the tank temperature to around 84 to 86 for a week or two barring any other course. No guarantee, although it sounds like things are in desperate mode. The temperature route would have been my first attempt to cure serious ich. I keep my tank at 80 degrees year round and I think this helps keep ich off my one a half year old 3 1/2" Regal and one year old 3 1/2" Majestic Angels and my two year old 4 1/2" Powder Blue Tang and two year old 4" Purple Tang as well as the other fish smaller fish including the two six line wrasses, pair of Clarkii clowns and breeding pair of Cinnmon clowns, six Yellow Tailed Blue damsels, three Four Striped damsels, and one Black Mouthed damsel. I have five Bubble Tip anemones for the clowns.

I mention this as I think a fishes tank mates can affect its health if it is picked on during the day or night as my Regal hits the live rock when the lights go out as does the Majestic.

I think a new fish could come from a place of purchase with a bad case of ich already putting the "guilt trip" on the unsuspected purchaser. I trust I am getting a healthy fish from my LFS as well as Drs Foster and Smith Live Aquaria.

What size tank, filtration, live rock,water parameters, other fish do you have?

What is the age of your system?

My tank is going on four years old and my Regal likes to swim in and out of the live rock which has alot of things growing on it in the many caves and tunnels of 150 pounds of live rock. Both my angels pick at the live rock all day long.

I am sorry to hear of these losses and you want everything to be optimum for a sensitive fish like the Regal including tank mates, water quality, live rock for hiding and picking at, as well as a healthy fish to start.

 

[Tracey2]

Finsky, when you first bought your regal did she go into QT or the display?

I am in the process of tearing down my 2 tanks and building 1 large 270g tank and am considering trying the regal again. I feel sick about my last regal because she ate everything and I feel if I had acted faster and pulled her to a treatment tank she might have made it.

Every fish I have ever bought has had some type of parasite that needed to be treated and I have bought fish far and wide, so the only way I can see keeping a regal and other more delicate fish would be that they are the only ones in the tank (no stress) or they are able to be treated in QT????

I do plan to read this entire thread before attempting a regal again but would love to hear from those who are successful keeping them and if they went straight to the display or QT.

Also, in my area it seems we cannot get red sea regals and if we do they are large and won't eat, I am considering a long distance trip to pick this fish up next time and would like to know if anyone here has regular access to the red sea version??

 

[michealprater]

Showing off my new fish.

 

[Tracey2]

She is beautiful. I just checked out your build thread, you have a gorgeous group there. How did you get someone to give up their red sea regal and can you do it again:fun2:

 

[michealprater]

Thanks for checking my build! I got lucky and found someone getting out of the hobby after years in it.