Regal quit eating

twiggyb

twiggyb

Active member
Well, I don't want to panic, but the regal that I received that has been in captivity for 5+ years has stopped eating on me. It's been 3-4 days since it has last eaten anything that I have seen. Where she hangs out though all the hair algae on the back is cleared out. I feed the tank one full squirt with a turkey baster twice a day with mysis, mussel, blood worms, angelfish gel and reef plankton. I've been throwing some flakes in as well since that's what I saw her eat when I picked her up. I'm feeling like a failure here with a fish that's been in an aquarium for so long doing well and now it's chosen to stop eating on me. I don't know what my params are at the moment, but I'll test them out in the morning when I can see what I'm doing. Its in a 40b with my OSFF, 6 green chromis and two skunk clowns. I do a 15g wc every week on it. The temp stays around 78 to 81 and my salinity is 1.026. I've debated whether or not to move her to my 65 reef, but I'm not sure if I should do that if there is a problem that I would have to treat for. Any help would be appreciated.
 
LIVE food would get him/her to eat, but getting that shipped here would be expensive. Some people, including myself grow live mysis...but I'm low on stock right now...and by low I mean REALLY low
 
Yeah I put some nori in there, but she didn't touch it. Then I tried some with garlic and still no go.
 
Somehow I unsubscribed to this thread. Ok I only tested for nitrates, ammonia and alk. Would have done nitrites and phosphate, but I don't trust the results of my API test kits. My ammonia was 0 and so was my nitrates, but I think that is due to the hair algae that's growing on the back glass. My alk is 7, not sure if this affects fish more than corals so I just tested it anyway. She ate two little mysis the night before last and ate a couple bites of mussel last night. Nothing in the mornings though. Hopefully she'll eat here before I leave for work in a half hour or at least tonight when I get back home.
 
This is just my opinion but 7 alk is a little low for sensitive fish. I try to keep my oh above 9 and ideally around 10 to help offset ph swings. I almost lost my Achilles when my kh dipped down to 8. My ph went from running 8.02 to 8.18 to 7.88 to 8.15. I'm assuming this was related to the lower kh not resisting th ph swing. U might try to raise it a little but this is just my opinion

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Well she ate voraciously last night so hopefully she'll keep it up. She was actually up front waiting for it with the others.
 
Regals are a weird fish. Both of mine took awhile to acclimate and begin to become aggressive in eating. Its probably the new environment as opposed to water quality. If your corals are okay, then the fish is most likely fine. What else is in the tank with it?

Nick
 
6 green chromis, orange spot filefish, two pink skunk clowns, two rbtas, couple of chalice frags, green slimmer frag, red monti cap, and some pom poms and pink star polyps.
 
Here's a phone pic when I first put her in

61b12d18.jpg
 
Okay doesnt look like anything that's aggressive or bullying to your Regal. I'd bet money its the new habitat throwing her off.

Mine likes uncooked shrimp chunks and scallop pieces, but it took her a bit to figure that was food. I've found having harmless, non aggressive fish that are hearty eaters "show" Regals and other finicky fish what to eat...granted yours has been in captivitu for several years already, so it should have a pretty good handle on that, but its still something to keep in mind.

Nick
 
She's eating great! Comes up to the front of the tank now with the rest to eat. I think it was just acclimation issues. Looks very colorful.
 
Hexamita....

Hexamita....

Just a heads up, not sure if you know! I noticed you said you were feeding some blood worms in your food as well. Not certain if you knew this because I never did until receiving an e-mail on it, but anyway. Frozen blood worms can carry Hexamita which can be fatal. I know they feed blood worms a lot to fresh water Cichlids and such for a filler. I was not aware of this and had several clowns die from it. I attached an article below that I found on it. http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/disease/hexamita.php Now freeze dried blood worms apparently do not carry it but, frozen do because the freezer does not kill Hexamita. Didn't know if you were aware, so thought I'd let you know because until reading about it I had no idea. Glad to hear things are going better. Good luck, J
 
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