Regal Angel Primer

[RegalAngel]

By all means try the clams in the shell, I did and got nibbles. I also tried fresh live oyster in the half shell and on a clip...nibbles as well but not life sustaining as it would not bite the same next time. Try live black worms, live tubifex worms, and live brine shrimp. Same result for me just an occassion taste but not anything to sustain life. Try the frozen foods section, I did all of them!...but no go except for the blood worms which were an occassional taste. Try the freeze dried section...mine did nip at some freeze dried tubifex on the surface but not much. Flakes, well not my guy nor seaweed(red or green), nor freeze drid mysis, planton, krill or frozen krill. How about some petroli soul? nope.

:fish1:

 

[dviper150]

Do I open it up and put it directly in the tank or do I need to "clean" out the clam first? What am I looking for inside the clam that I should put in the tank. I was told to take out all the guts.

 

[Kieth71]

I just crack it open and throw it in.the fish will do the rest.

 

[Argentiner]

Finsky: Not sure about the white markings. The only difference I know is the yellow bellow from the ones in the Red sea. I'd have to see a pic. For the others having trouble starting the fish feeding, I waiting until the store got him eating pellets before I took it home. Not many LFS will do that, but it's the one way to be sure with these guys. The LFS told me if he couldn't get this guy eating, he would never order them again, as he had lost so many others from this. AND he has the most knowledge on any LFS in a city of over a million people, so he knows what he is doing.

 

[rgentry123]

what i do is take the handle end of a butter knife and lightly smack at one side of the shel until it cracks... then i take off the broken shell pieces and leave the meaty part on the bottom half of the shell that isnt broken. this way it has some weight to it and isnt floating all around the tank and the angel will know exactly where it is all the time and continue to go back to that spot for it's food :thumbsup:

 

[rgentry123]

Finsky: Not sure about the white markings. The only difference I know is the yellow bellow from the ones in the Red sea. I'd have to see a pic. For the others having trouble starting the fish feeding, I waiting until the store got him eating pellets before I took it home. Not many LFS will do that, but it's the one way to be sure with these guys. The LFS told me if he couldn't get this guy eating, he would never order them again, as he had lost so many others from this. AND he has the most knowledge on any LFS in a city of over a million people, so he knows what he is doing.

i know these are hard fish to get eating but i cant really imagine any decent LFS owner never ordering them again....

 

[Finsky]

Clams

Clams

Thanks, I will try some clams. By the way, do clams expire? I bought 2 clams about a month ago and put them in the fridge instead of the freezer and I took them out today to try it out and they smelled really bad so I ended up throwing them away. I will go buy some fresh ones tomorrow.

I purchase my razor clams for $15 per one lb package which I cut up into
1/4" to 1/2" size pieces which I then put into one of the reusable/throw away type of plastic food containers with the blue lids and freeze. Each week I will cut off a chunk which I then thaw in hot tap water and drain and then feed to my two red rose bubble tips anemones.

I usually cut the left over pieces with a paring knife into small bite sized chunks which will fit into my Regal's mouth. The Regal does not have the largest of mouths although mine will try to stuff as much as it can into it when it grabs a piece of clam a bit too large. It just loves the left over clams.

I would not try using any clams which were unfrozen and kept in the refrigerator for more than a day and even then I would give the left overs the "smell test" as the clams will go bad (stinky and mushy flesh) very quickly and I would not want to feed it to any of my tanks inhabitants in this condition.

08/24/08 Indo-Pacific Regal Angelfish - 3 1/12":fun2:

 

[Finsky]

Indo-Pacific Angel

Indo-Pacific Angel

3 1/2" Indo-Pacific Angel in tank since August 2008. Eats healthy, looks healthy, swims healthy and fast in and out of 150 lbs of live rock, and chases Four Striped damsels!

I think the twin markings above both of its eyes are some kind of birth defect.

 

[szwab]

I just bought a regal angel and an emperor from bluezooaquatics 3 days ago and the regal still hasn't started eating. The emperor eats anything I put in the tank. I offered it, mysis, algae sheets, formula 1 and even the sample food that bluezooaquatics gives with each of their shipments that is suppose to make the fish go crazy over it but still no luck.

I recently bought garlic and vitachem and mixed that with the foods but still no nibble. Is this normal for it? How can I get it to eat? What food will entice it to start eating?
Thanks for the help!!

Try anything and everything feed variety and frequently until it starts eating. Make sure you maintain your water params and that it's not getting picked on. Feed you other fish 1st then target the regal. Both of mine seemed to prefer to eat off a rock before accepting food from the water column. Now both eat anything and everything, feeding is no longer an issue but I still cater to them

 

[dviper150]

ok thanks everyone. I will try the clams tomorrow and see what happens. Do i just leave the clam in there until its gone or do I take it out after 20 30 mins?

 

[szwab]

Give it a few hours just don't forget about it.

 

[dviper150]

haha yea I don't want my water levels going crazy with that rotting in there lol. Thanks for the help everyone!! I will let you know if it takes or doesn't take the clam tomorrow. I have garlic so I will add that to the clam too and see if that makes it more enticing for the regal.

 

[Finsky]

Clams and Regals

Clams and Regals

ok thanks everyone. I will try the clams tomorrow and see what happens. Do i just leave the clam in there until its gone or do I take it out after 20 30 mins?

I would not let clam pieces sit for more than an hour or two if nobody is interested. If you only have the Regal which would eat clam then two hours would be more than enough.

I have two pairs of clowns, Clarkiis and Cinnamons, and four Four Striped Damsels, and a Purple, Powder Blue, and Clown Tangs which can also eat the small clam pieces. If a piece falls to the crushed coral substrate, the Dwarf Hermit Crabs go for them. The crabs smell the clams when I feed the anemones and start crawling out from hiding in the live rock.

My Regal still tends to swim into the rock when I start to take pictures although my Blue Girdled Angel of similar size does the same. My tangs are also smallish around 4" and will hide in the rocks if bothered too much.

When I feed it is a different story.

 

[dviper150]

Just put in the clam today and added garlic to it too but no nibble at all. Its been in there for about 20 30 mins. How long does this usually take?

 

[szwab]

Just put in the clam today and added garlic to it too but no nibble at all. Its been in there for about 20 30 mins. How long does this usually take?

If that was known there would be less of a need for this thread. It is possible it will never eat. You just need to be persistant and don't give up.

 

[dviper150]

I will take it out in an hr and try again tomorrow. Can I use the same clam tomorrow, of course I will freeze it when I take it out but can I use the same clam again or do I put in a new one?

 

[szwab]

I would use a new one as it's probably already started to decay.

 

[dviper150]

okay thanks for the help. I will stay on this and hopefully it will eat soon.

 

[flameangel88]

I wouldn't worry about the Regal not eating yet as it may still be stressed from shipping. I would just let it be for 2 days and keep the lighting at minimal for the most part. I've one recently that took 26 days to even just nip and spit brine. It started to develop a small bulge on one side and missing a small chunk on the anus area which I treated 2 rounds of Prazi and Maracyn 2 and by the 3rd day on the 2nd round of Prazi the Regal started nipping on food and the bump on the side was gone. It's been eating pellets since. I also treated with Cupramine before it went into the DT.

My recommendation is to feed small food size such as enriched brine or Arti-pods before going with PE Mysis.

GL with your Regal!

dviper150: The above was a reply to another poster. As I said in the above, it took my Regal 26 days to even nip and spit so that's not uncommon with sensitive angels. I would continue to feed small amount of frozen and just twice a week with live clam. The key is to offer variety of food till you see interest on the part of the Regal. It took only few extra days after my Regal started eating to accept pellets and pellets is the primary diet since adding to the DT. I'd Blueline angel taken 7.5 weeks before eating and Colin's angel 5.5 weeks. It the fish is healthy they will be fine as long as the stomach is not pinched.

Continue to feed small amount and feed multiple times through out the day.

GL!

 

[rgentry123]

yeah man, best thing is just to keep at it. it's the greatest sense of accomplishment when they finally start to eat and then start going after prepared foods. give it time though. they are VERY slow to get eating. i tried just about everything before getting any real feeding response. i tried angel formula, pe mysis, brine shrimp, enriched brine shrimp, nori, live clams, bloodworms, blackworms, pellet, flake, EVERYTHING. i finally had success with the live clams, once i was sure it had started eating the clams pretty well for about a week or so i stopped giving it clams all together (at this point it still was ignoring all prepared foods). after a few days with no clams it had started to nip at prepared foods and then one day just starting eating everything i was throwing in the tank. i QT'd for about a week initially but my regal really didnt seem to be doing good so against conventional wisdom i moved him into my DT. I think this did help because it seemed to learn to eat from the water column from the other fish in the tank. it worked for me but i certainly wouldnt recomend to everyone. its still risky because i could develop an issue which could pose to be VERY problematic since it's already in the DT. best of luck to you!