Regal Angel Primer

Can someone offer any advice, my regal has stopped eating. From being a pig on Saturday (3 Days ago) its now not really interested in food. It did peck at some clam flesh I put in there on a rock yesterday but didnt eat it.

It now wont touch any food that passes by it.

It had been eating well up until now.

Ive had it since 02/11 & its been fine until the other day.
 
ddr

what are your water parameters. Check everything including temp PH ammonia nitrate nitrite alk.

Check the fish for any lesions.

Put some live brine/or frozen mysis to stimulate it. Add some garlic too(supposed appetite stimulant.

Good luck and keep us posted
 
Well that was bizzare, Regal was eating again last night. I didnt feed the night before as I wasnt home, but fed last night & the regal was almost back to his piggie self.

Dan.
 
Another Update:

My Regal is now bold and agressively eating. He no longer hides when I walk up to the tank. He even attacks the turkey baster when I feed, eats like a pig and has even gotten a bit agressive with food competition between the other fish.

The Regal is also swimming around in the open of the tank all day. The next goal is to get him eating nori.
 
I have a mix of sps and lps corals, clams, gsp and some brown polyps (palythoas). Thus far I have not seen him nip at any thing and I have not seen any evidence of him doing so. I even have a scolymia coral which many people seem to find as a delicacy for Regals, but of course my maroon clowns are hosting in the scolymia so they may be protecting it.

Of course, yesterday both clams fell to the sand! Maybe he picked at them and knocked them down, or maybe it is conincidence!
 
Rook,

That is cool I think mine is like yours. I just recently added lps and sps and haven't seen any damage from my regal and I also have a flame which is also nice. The angels are spoiled babies as is with all my fish. I hope that everyones regal are doing great too.
 
Well more good news, and some bad news. The good news is that my Regal started eating nori and now is on a good balanced diet. The bad news is he also started to pick at my scolymia coral, or at least I think he did. I had to remove it in an attempt to save it. Hopefully he does not start eating much else. I was hopeing the maroon clowns which were hosting in the scolymia would protect the coral from the Regal, but alast my maroons are too docile.
 
Question for all the RA owners out there? I have heard much negative comment on trying to own one of these beauties in a non reef non LR fish only tank...A friend of mine just found a beautiful Red Sea speciman and added it into his community tank. After a week he is eating Formula 1/2 and Brine/Cocktail shrimp nicley. Still a bit squirmish when it comes to feeding time as it's very competitive but he is starting to get in there and hold his own. He did manage to get a nice fat healthy one however...so what are hi schances to survival.
 
This has nothing to do with whether or not it is a reef tank or fish only tank and everything to do with the environment of the system... whether or not it contains corals. Regals could care less if the environment they are provided with is alive or not. This comes from the fact that generally reef tanks are kept to much stricter standards when it comes to water quality with less fish and less competition. Fish only systems tend to have higher nitrates and other nutrients, and have more fish generally resulting in more harrassment/competition from tankmates. Theoretically, there is no reason why these guys should not be kept in fish only systems...
 
In addition, reef tanks will provide more of a food source in the time period where regals are adapting to prepared foods...
 
The issue of regals needing to be in reefs is more concerning water quality...in general water quality in reeftanks needs to be better than FO tanks. Lots of fish only tanks are at the maximum with fish load both in a waste manner and territorial manner. Regals needing both prestine water quality and a low stress level usually will not do well in a FO tank, however it certinally can be done if you have adiquite husbandry and friendly tankmates.
-Nathan
 
saltman1,

My tank is just starting out to be stock with coral. So my regal was in a fish only with LR. If your friend picked up a nice fat health Regal than the odd is a lot better remember to keep up with feeding. You can ask your friend if your regal swim in the open in the morning or any time when no other fish is swimming in the open yet. I found that this was a great time to feed the regal each day as there wasn't thing in my tank to compete with her. My Regal is pretty much the top fish in my tank.
 
Lol I need to learn to read better still early in the morning. I agree with both Copps and MrMongoose. If I were your friend I would do a lot of feeding and overfeed each time until the regal really settles in. Also do a lot of water changes because the increase in wasted food. This would be way I'll go at it in a fish only to make sure the Regal stay health and without knowing more information about tankmate, size of the tank system, and system setup.
 
I have been reading this thread through from the start, (I need to also put in a disclaimer that I am a newbie). Can I ask someone to describe to me what a 'clip' is. It was made with reference to a manner of feeding to replicate something more natural. the frist reference was made by BEPE in January 2004.

thanks.
 
a clip is just a plastic...well clip that you can place in the tank or on the the side of the glass. It is used because in the ocean fish are use to picking thier food off of a stationary object like rocks. So when they are first put into a tank its hard to get them to eat by dumping food in the water because they don't reconize this stuff in the water colum as food.
 
We just purchased a regal angel yesterday at a LFS. He was specially ordered for us. It did pick at red nori a little while in his tank. I brought the fish home yesterday and acclimated him. We decided to put him in the main tank instead of a Q-tank. He just kind of hid in the rocks yesterday. Everything seemed fine. Today, he doesn't want to swim. Kept sitting on his side. We then decided to move him to our refugium so we could monitor him. All of his fins have deteriorated and his mouth looks torn up. There is a little red on his tail fin. There is nothing in the refugium but pods and caulerpa. Any suggestions...????
 
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