Regal Angel Primer

[alton]

I want to take this time for the OP starting this thread and for everyone posting there ideas and experiences. My second Regal is doing okay, I added 15lbs of LR to the QT 100 gallon tub he is in. So far the only food it likes is PE mysis when I soak it in garlic. Last Friday was a week since I got him. He would eat something one day, but then would not eat it on the second including blood worms. So far he is not very shy, I would say this guy was very easy to catch probably swam up to the person who caught him?

 

[Chicago]

Yep looking good. Yellow belly or not.

 

[jroovers]

I picked up a regal four days ago, the Indo-Pacific version, and put him into my 120 with mostly SPS, I estimate he is about 4" long. He looked very healthy at the LFS. I brought him home and straight into the 120 - my small PBT, who has never shown aggression, went nuts on him. By some grace of goodness, I got the PBT out and sold him... but not before he banged up the regal a bit. Three days later, he is doing well though... he swims at the corners of the tank a lot but is doing it less and less. He is eating mysis with increasing aggressivenss, and seems to like to be fed little bits more frequently. Yesterday I did 5 feedings with mysis and increasingly he took more and more with each feeding - I've got some clams on standby just in case, but as long as he is eating frozen mysis I'm going to keep him on that, I don't want him to switch now! Last night he took a NLS pellet, but I'm not sure if he ate it or spit it out. Anyhow, definitely a finicky fish that will take some doing to get eating regularly, but what a beauty!

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

I picked up a regal four days ago, . I brought him home and straight into the 120 - my small PBT, who has never shown aggression, went nuts on him. By some grace of goodness, I got the PBT out and sold him... but not before he banged up the regal a bit. Three days later, he is doing well though... he swims at the corners of the tank a lot but is doing it less and less.

My small pbt (which had been in the tank only a short time) did the same when I introduced my regal. It clearly was going to kill the regal. I put the regal in an acclimation box for a week and the pbt never gave it another look.

 

[secrest]

Quick question, how do you guys open clams to feed them on the half shell?

I got my first regal in 2005 and had him for about 4-5 years before I had to sell my tank due to a move. He was a great fish and very easy, he ate frozen, pellet, flake, anything you threw in basically so I never had to do anything special.

I finally found one to go in my new tank the other day, and he is the stereotypical regal. Picks at live rock, but no real interest in food from the water column. I went to the grocery store today and got some fresh clams to feed him but I have no idea how to open the clams.

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

Personally, I use an oyster knife (long, pointy blade with bulbous handle) and insert it in the muscle area in the back and pry and twist.

The more standard way is to take a thin, moderately sharp knife and slide the blade between the shells from the front. You can lightly steam or microwave the clams to assist if the shells are closed too tightly.

Some freeze the clams and then thaw them and slice the shells open to feed.

 

[secrest]

Thank you, that will help me a lot. Most of the clams are shut pretty tightly and I couldn't figure out how to open them.

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

It is good that they are shut tight as it means they are fresh.

Don't use any that are partially open and don't shut immediately when you tap on their shell as they likely are dead or dying.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

I just purchased an indo/pacific (blue chest) regal last week and I'm happy to say that's it's starting to eat everything I put into the tank. My lfs was feeding it omega one pellets and mysis. When I initially brought it home it only ate the omega one and refused to eat everything else. But after soaking the pellets with zoecon and angelixir every feeding it finally took in nori and ocean nutrition angel formula today. So far it's diet consist of nls,omega one, hikari marine A, mysis, nori, and angel formula. From personal experience Angelixir never fails me and gets the most finicky angels to start eating a wide variety of foods.

 

[stuifbol]

Survived de velvet-infection from last week:bounce2:

 

[led stony]

Mine eats everything. I food soak in vitamins. Pellets and flake. He gets a cloudy eye once in a while but clears up. Good luck

 

[pitmindi]

help desperately needed

help desperately needed

Hi, I hope someone can help me. I got a mail order regal angel about 10 days ago and it hasn't eaten. It is about 5". An expert at my lfs said it will die, they always die, and they shouldn't be sold since their diet in the wild is corals. I wish I had researched this before I bought it since I hate to see a fish starve. I have a 125 gallon, 6" tank, with a 3" picasso trigger, a 6" spanish hogfish, a 6" puffer. I feed mysis and larger shrimp and tried claims but the others eat the clams and the regal just swims past everything. My tank has many macro plants and I put some zoas in it as a food source from another tank and something (probably the regal) is eating them. I also tried garlic, although its not really soaking in the fresh garlic, its more like mixing with the small garlic pieces. The other fish ate with gusto, although they always do, but the regal just ignored the food. PLEASE HELP

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

This is one reason that it is so important to quarantine your fish - it gives them time to adapt to aquarium food without competition from established fish.

Regal angels can be kept in aquariums and they do eat regular aquarium fare and not just corals. The lfs expert is wrong in this regard.

Have you tried nori rubberbanded to a rock and spirulina flakes?

If the regal is eating zoas, it should adapt and start eating other foods.

Keep trying the mysis and clam, and also try fresh from your grocery store chopped shrimp and scallop. Get some garlic extract from a lfs and soak the food in it (it sounds like you are using chopped garlic cloves).

Try filling the other fish up first on flakes and pellets, and then feed the foods that you want the regal to eat. Try using a turkey baster to squirt the food near the regal.

You can also try live brine shrimp, frozen enriched brine shrimp, and live blackworms to get it started eating.

Make sure none of the other fish are picking on the regal. That will shut its appetite down.

Keep at it. The larger fish can be difficult to get to eat.

 

[rhouse24]

The other fish ate with gusto, although they always do, but the regal just ignored the food. PLEASE HELP

Hi pitmindi,
I have been in your shoes and lost the battle so I know how bad it feels. You need to get him eating as soon as possible. Once they start to starve they seem to get more and more stubborn about it. 9 times out of 10 they will eat clams on the half shell so I would try that today. My current regal likes new life spectrum thera A pellets. I started him eating them by putting the pellets in a dish in the sand bed. From my experience, regals are not designed to eat out of the water column. Good luck.

 

[Jeff000]

Great thread.
I lost one of the nicest regals I have ever seen after 3 weeks of not eating, but didn't try the live clam until it was too late.
I want to try and pair a couple of regals after this thread, but I get lost in the pages on how to actually do this,

 

[MIKE NY]

I just recently got my Indo-Regal...while in QT got it to start eating clam on th half shell by adding some garlic drops to it....now it devours them. I then placed it my fuge for a couple of reasons...firstly to acclimate it to eat other foods without the competition of the DT and now it eating PE mysis, brine, Angelfish forumla and Rod's foods...also there are plenty of critters to eat ..and secondly I'm testing it by placing frags of LPS and softies to see if it will eat them..so far it's been good..fingers crossed. I'm going under the assumption that if I keep it well fed it will leave them alone.

 

[szwab]

I had a pair of regals in my reef. Got them at different times. They were one of the most stressful fish to keep (for me). One of them started eating after a week. The other one took almost a mointh. Not sure of how true this is but for mine anyways it was almost like they had to learn to eat from the water column. The first food that both would accept was clam on the shell rubberbanded to a rock with fishing line tied to it for easy removal. Once they started eating they were good to go. The first did not touch corals. The second started in on zoas after a week which was ok. I could do without zoas. That said once the second started eating them the first did as well. After about a year for each respectfully there were no issues in feeding they would eat anything offered live, frozen, pelets flake you name it. I always have nori in the tank for the fish to pick on, however they were the fattest fish of all of mine. Had them for over 4 years and finallly they started nipping at some LPS not bad but nippping then they moved on to SPS which was when they found new homes. Like all angels each has a personality and are hit and miss when it comes to corals. I honestly believe my first learned from the second one. BTW the second one I got was a good 5 1/2 inches and did fine so hang in there. Clams are best but try to feed anything and everything. I'd only put clams in for a couple of hours so as not to foul the water. They are not an easy fiish to acclimate but once they eat they seem to be very hardy. They never did truley pair up. The larger one did become very dominant which is another reason they got split up.

Good Luck!! Keep us posted.

 

[fishfreak2009]

I just got my regal. It is a regal from the Red Sea (it was brought in with a semilarvatus butterfly and a larvatus butterfly, along with 8 line flasher wrasses). It is a 5 inch beauty. So far it won't touch clams or nori, but it will eat flakes that are floating on the surface. I'm going to try soaking some food with garlic tomorrow to see if I can get it eating more than flake. The angel will be in quarantine for 6 weeks, along with the sweetlips in the video (which is eating greedily).

<iframe width="640" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/quvZ9b8jz2s" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[alton]

One caution with Garlic, I soaked PE mysis in Garlic and he ate it, but if I added too much he would not touch it. So just be careful on how much you add. I use a 100 gallon rubbermaid tub for QT on my angels.

 

[fishfreak2009]

Well, I put some clams in the other day to tempt the regal angel to eat. I then went to bed because I work 3rd shift. I asked my parents to take them out within 3 hours. 10 hours later I woke up and the tank was white. It reeked of ammonia. The sweetlips was dead and the angel was gasping at the surface and darting about. I immediately moved him to the display. He seems to have suffered no ill effects, and is feeding on frozen mysid, nori, pellets, and flake food (although he only eats it if it is floating on the surface). I added prazi pro to the display just in case, and I am thanking God he didn't die, as well as that he had been treated with cupramine at the LFS for a week before I got to pick him up.