Regal Angel Primer

[ThRoewer]

I'm not sure why everyone thinks that it is necessary to add garlic - it's not good for fish over the long term.

Brine shrimp, especially live adults, are a good starter food, but they should not become a long term staple. If feeding live ones they should be loaded up with Spirulina and Selcon.

Clams (little neck, oyster, mussels,...) are usually also a good food to get them eating. It shouldn't matter if fresh or frozen, as long as they are still on the shell.

Any form of algae will be good, but higher macro algae are best. My regals go after Caulerpa, Halimeda and Gracilaria - probably more, but these are the ones I tried. Of dried algae I found them to go after reconstituted Wakame. They didn't show much interest in nori. Wakame is good because when being reconstituted it soaks up water like a sponge, which allows you to load it up with vitamins, Selcon, medications,...

 

[Salty150]

I'm not sure why everyone thinks that it is necessary to add garlic - it's not good for fish over the long term.

Brine shrimp, especially live adults, are a good starter food, but they should not become a long term staple. If feeding live ones they should be loaded up with Spirulina and Selcon.

Clams (little neck, oyster, mussels,...) are usually also a good food to get them eating. It shouldn't matter if fresh or frozen, as long as they are still on the shell.

Any form of algae will be good, but higher macro algae are best. My regals go after Caulerpa, Halimeda and Gracilaria - probably more, but these are the ones I tried. Of dried algae I found them to go after reconstituted Wakame. They didn't show much interest in nori. Wakame is good because when being reconstituted it soaks up water like a sponge, which allows you to load it up with vitamins, Selcon, medications,...

It is my understanding that fish like the "smell" and "taste" of garlic - that is why it is used - it also has medicinal purposes.

We are just telling you what has worked for others - LIVE FRESH oysters and mussels still in the shell seems to work better than dead frozen ones, etc.

Also, the New Life Spectrum foods have done wonders for fish who won't seem to eat anything.

 

[Giovanni]

The guy in that video states that keeping regals with tangs and even dwarf angels will stress it to death. That is total crap.

 

[ThRoewer]

The guy in that video states that keeping regals with tangs and even dwarf angels will stress it to death. That is total crap.

Once acclimated and settled in a regal can hold its own.
Though if in an overcrowded tank with rather nervous and restless fish the regal may just become more reclusive.

 

[orly20]

Wow great thread lots to read and learn.

 

[ThRoewer]

Thanks all. Will keep you posted. Long shot no doubt.

Any updates on that little guy?


A week ago I found this little guy and just couldn't leave without him

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/L6ahWAIxvVg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Eating from day one. At first a bit shy, but now like a greedy little pig.

It's with 2.75" my smallest regal. I plan to pair it with #5 (3.5").
Both are Sumatra Yellow Bellies.

 

[DaveRaz]

He is very cryptic still after three week. He hangs out under the reef, most of the bottom of my tank is a cavern made with shelves. He runs off the whitetail bristle tooth and the two wrasses don't benture near him. He is the king. Not eating much, nibbleing here and there. Im not confident he will make it. He never ever leaves the bottom but swims around quite a but under there. Gets cleaned from the blood shrimp often and picks at the underside of the shelf rocks and eats food from the bottom that gets swept to the back corner from the power heads. I'll attach a pic of his home but he's not very photogenic. Lmao nit the best pics, only ones I have on the iPad.

0 for 2 via NY Aquatics. I had to euthanize him last night. He never ventured out from underneath the shelf for a month. I found him after work laying on his side barely able to move. Sick feeling.

 

[Dmorty217]

0 for 2 via NY Aquatics. I had to euthanize him last night. He never ventured out from underneath the shelf for a month. I found him after work laying on his side barely able to move. Sick feeling.

Sorry to hear this. For the record he claims he won't send non eating regals which I'm not 100% is factual. Also I have gotten velvet from there 2 different times and both times involved Regals. I just got 2 Regals from Reefwise 2.5 weeks ago, both of which are eating and always out and about.

 

[ThRoewer]

Sorry for your loss. I feel NYAquatics is a rather dicey source where you can get a whole load of trouble - velvet is the last I would want to deal with and if their system is infected you won't get much good from there.

A healthy regal should eat without causing much trouble, especially specimen around 3 inch. If they don't eat the second or third day something might be wrong with them.
A lot has to do with how they were caught and handled.

 

[rmcgookey]

Any updates on that little guy?


A week ago I found this little guy and just couldn't leave without him

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/L6ahWAIxvVg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Eating from day one. At first a bit shy, but now like a greedy little pig.

It's with 2.75" my smallest regal. I plan to pair it with #5 (3.5").
Both are Sumatra Yellow Bellies.

My little guy didn't make it past 24 hours. Came in too cold and barely breathing. Did all I could. NYA shipped me another one arriving today. swimming well. Has torn up fins and a small red protrusion on the base of the tail. Tried to manually remove it without luck. Will post pic and video. Hope to get him eating soon. Was eating frozen mysis at NYA

Where did you find yours?

 

[ThRoewer]

I found him at a local store here that has them way too often - that's why I'm at 6 now.

The two Philippine blue bellies are with me for 8 months now. They were skinny rescues, but by now they are the fattest of them all. Unfortunately they are of equal size so I don't know if I can successfully pair them up. Though one has a submissive and the other one a dominant personality. The issue is to keep the dominant from picking the submissive apart.
These two sometimes really scare me because they like to steal Mysis out of my gigantea carpet anemones and quite literally dive into them :headwally:

The three larger Sumatra yellow bellies came down with a load of ich the third of them brought in. They are all cleaning up in hyposalinity right now. Yesterday I started the salinity ramp up. They still have another month of QT time to clock before they can move on to their final tanks.

The first two of them will go into the 100 gallon tank.
The third and the baby go into the 42 for now.

At that point all my tanks have at least one regal angel in them

 

[Giovanni]

I found him at a local store here that has them way too often - that's why I'm at 6 now.

The two Philippine blue bellies are with me for 8 months now. They were skinny rescues, but by now they are the fattest of them all. Unfortunately they are of equal size so I don't know if I can successfully pair them up. Though one has a submissive and the other one a dominant personality. The issue is to keep the dominant from picking the submissive apart.
These two sometimes really scare me because they like to steal Mysis out of my gigantea carpet anemones and quite literally dive into them :headwally:

The three larger Sumatra yellow bellies came down with a load of ich the third of them brought in. They are all cleaning up in hyposalinity right now. Yesterday I started the salinity ramp up. They still have another month of QT time to clock before they can move on to their final tanks.

The first two of them will go into the 100 gallon tank.
The third and the baby go into the 42 for now.

At that point all my tanks have at least one regal angel in them

It is official you have a regal addiction! LOL :uzi:

 

[rmcgookey]

Regal 2 from NYA

Regal 2 from NYA

Finally have a chance to upload some pics and vid. Received him on Tuesday morning overnight from NYA. Came in at 74 degrees, zero ammonia, swimming and breathing normally. (if you've seen my recent posts I brought in a tiny (3.5") yellow belly from NYA that came in on death's bed last week and made it about 24 hours. This one is larger (closer to 4"+) with no blue spot. Much fatter and swimming around normally. Still not eating except for nibbles off the rock. Day 2 and tried clam (frozen), rods food, prime reef angel formula, mysis, NLS finicky eater pellets, purple and green nori. Wont eat from the column or fixed to a clam shell or rock. He's curious though and actively swimming everywhere. No one is bothering him. Went through 24 hours of isolation via egg crate and then unleashed him. Shy but swimming everywhere actively.

Came in with damage to tail fin and dorsal as seen in pics. That doesnt worry me as much as the tiny red protrusion on his left tail fin a the base close to his body. It's a tiny splinter of what looks to be flesh. Shows on film as a tiny red dot. Couldnt remove it manually with a q-tip. I swabbed some iodine on it prior to putting him in the tank before a 5-6 minute fresh water bath in a bag. (image 1 below) No visible flukes. If anyone knows what this could be LMK. My strategy at this point is get him eating and if he doesn't heal move him to a hospital tank and medicate.

Images attached and vid here:
https://youtu.be/WdJqumc2yfc

 

[rmcgookey]

I found him at a local store here that has them way too often - that's why I'm at 6 now.

The two Philippine blue bellies are with me for 8 months now. They were skinny rescues, but by now they are the fattest of them all. Unfortunately they are of equal size so I don't know if I can successfully pair them up. Though one has a submissive and the other one a dominant personality. The issue is to keep the dominant from picking the submissive apart.
These two sometimes really scare me because they like to steal Mysis out of my gigantea carpet anemones and quite literally dive into them :headwally:

The three larger Sumatra yellow bellies came down with a load of ich the third of them brought in. They are all cleaning up in hyposalinity right now. Yesterday I started the salinity ramp up. They still have another month of QT time to clock before they can move on to their final tanks.

The first two of them will go into the 100 gallon tank.
The third and the baby go into the 42 for now.

At that point all my tanks have at least one regal angel in them

Which local store? I'm jealous of all the cali folks who can access quality rare fish! Along those lines, if any of you have a source for quality yellow belly juvenile regals please holler! So tough to find a healthy baby. Are the "red sea" yellow bellies really exported from the red sea and caught/transported well?

 

[ThRoewer]

It's Aquatic Collection in Hayward. Their prices are pretty decent: small Philippine Regal $45, small Indian Ocean Regals $120, Red Sea Regals $150-$180. I got the last actually at a good discount (I bought almost half the regals they got lately )

According to them they see really no significant difference in appearance between Red Sea and Indian Ocean Regals. The biggest difference seems to be the acceptance of food - in their experience the Red Sea eat better right out of the bag - I can't confirm that as I didn't have any eating issues with the Indian Ocean specimen and the only Red Sea regal I ever had (from DD no less) never took a bite.

The issue with Red Sea supplies these days is that the only country that collects and exports them is Sudan (at least that's the info I got). Egypt and Jemen stopped their exports (political unrest, civil war).
The issue with Sudan is that it can't directly ship to the US (rouge )nation status) so all their shipments into the US go over relay hubs (Sri Lanka) or European wholesalers. That adds to the transport time (and cost)

As for the color difference - I feel in pictures Red Sea specimen have a more solid orange tail fin while Indian Ocean specimen are more yellowish with a hint towards green in their tail fin.
Though side-by-side in the same tank I couldn't see a difference at all.

Pacific regals have besides the grey-blue chest a more greenish tail fin and are overall more bluish-gray.
I feel this actually goes beyond a simple color difference. I'm coming more and more to the conclusion that the Indian Ocean (of which the Red Sea is a subset) and Pacific Regals are actually two distinct species. There is a clear separation line and no area of overlap I would know of. Also the behavior of yellow and grey-blue regals is quite a bit different.

 

[Dmorty217]

Red Sea fish also come from Oman. You don't see many Red Sea fish because of the international embargo on freight from Yemen and Oman with the unrest over there. Eqypt stopped collection all together I believe

 

[OrionN]

We still see a lot of Purple Tangs which only come from Red Sea.
I got a Yellow Belly Regal Angel from Alton last weekend. Doing great in my refugium right now. I keep him there so I make sure he eat well before release him to the DT. Alton live about 160 miles from me so we meet 1/2 way at one of the truck stop to deliver/pick up my fish. Thanks Alton.
I get picture later this week

This is my second Regal. I have a blue chest Regal that is slightly smaller than this one in my DT already

 

[rmcgookey]

Finally have a chance to upload some pics and vid. Received him on Tuesday morning overnight from NYA. Came in at 74 degrees, zero ammonia, swimming and breathing normally. (if you've seen my recent posts I brought in a tiny (3.5") yellow belly from NYA that came in on death's bed last week and made it about 24 hours. This one is larger (closer to 4"+) with no blue spot. Much fatter and swimming around normally. Still not eating except for nibbles off the rock. Day 2 and tried clam (frozen), rods food, prime reef angel formula, mysis, NLS finicky eater pellets, purple and green nori. Wont eat from the column or fixed to a clam shell or rock. He's curious though and actively swimming everywhere. No one is bothering him. Went through 24 hours of isolation via egg crate and then unleashed him. Shy but swimming everywhere actively.

Came in with damage to tail fin and dorsal as seen in pics. That doesnt worry me as much as the tiny red protrusion on his left tail fin a the base close to his body. It's a tiny splinter of what looks to be flesh. Shows on film as a tiny red dot. Couldnt remove it manually with a q-tip. I swabbed some iodine on it prior to putting him in the tank before a 5-6 minute fresh water bath in a bag. (image 1 below) No visible flukes. If anyone knows what this could be LMK. My strategy at this point is get him eating and if he doesn't heal move him to a hospital tank and medicate.

Images attached and vid here:
https://youtu.be/WdJqumc2yfc

Anyone have an idea about the ailment showing? (shows best in the 1st image where he is in the bag)

 

[rmcgookey]

We still see a lot of Purple Tangs which only come from Red Sea.
I got a Yellow Belly Regal Angel from Alton last weekend. Doing great in my refugium right now. I keep him there so I make sure he eat well before release him to the DT. Alton live about 160 miles from me so we meet 1/2 way at one of the truck stop to deliver/pick up my fish. Thanks Alton.
I get picture later this week

This is my second Regal. I have a blue chest Regal that is slightly smaller than this one in my DT already

I heard Eritrea is exporting regal angels now. (told to me by NYA when I asked where mine came from)

 

[Dmorty217]

I heard Eritrea is exporting regal angels now. (told to me by NYA when I asked where mine came from)

Michael will get fish from places most other don't for better or worse.