Regal Angel Primer

[curthendrix]

Does anyone have any experience/advice for pairing up two regals?

[HOZERTHEBONEFISH]

Curt

FragGuy has set up tank with pair of spawning regals. I emailed him a couple of months ago and he replied quickly and was very helpful.

He gave me pointers on sexing the fish. (size of the spine on lower gill plate). If you look at mine it is relatively short. Mine is likely female. If you look at Copps regal, the spine is quite long... therefore male.

He told me to set up a big tank(smallest is 90) and get them together.

Go to page 7 on this thread and you will find a link to his video.

Hope this helps.

[curthendrix]

Thank you. I would like to have a spawning pair as the center-piece fish of my 500g. I find mated fish more interesting to observe the individuals. I'll check out thread and video.

[HOZERTHEBONEFISH]

Just wanted to show off and update my angel. Def losing the juvi false eye. She continues to grow get fat and happy. I am feeding mostly spectrum pellets.

[saltman1]

I have had a very successful up and running fish only system with no live rock. How do you feel my chances are of a Regal doing well in our tank?? We feed all our fish a wide variety diet but no live rock to graze on....

[HOZERTHEBONEFISH]

This is just my hunch. No data to prove it. But I think that there are certain sensitive reef fishes that do better in a reef system or at least FOWLR. Regal I believe, is one of them. Mine does graze and pick off stuff from LR, esp in the beginning when it didnt eat anything that I gave her.

Looking at your avatar, looks like you got some fish that is going to outrace the regal out for food(hippo tang butterfly etc).

So I would suggest no...

[ledford1]

I've had my Red Sea Regal for 5 days now. I stumbled across her at the lfs. She was fat, had no blemishes, great color, and was eating at the store - the best Regal I've ever seen. My wife and I figured this would be our best bet if we wanted to try a Regal.

I did have to separate my Naso Tang. About the second and third day, after no prior aggression, started being very defensive come feeding time.

So far, I've only seen her eat brine and a few flakes. When I feed flakes, she's very particular about which one's she'll eat.

I've been trying mysis, krill, Marine Cuisine, Emerald Entree, dried plankton, bloodworms, and sheets of nori - but no luck yet. I'll soon try the oysters and squid as I have read other doing.

When you mention feeding things like Formula One, how are you feeding it, in a clip or by hand, for example?

[brahm]

get Spectrum mine went CRAAAAZY for it.

[Aquaduck]

Try some red or brown Seaweed Selects nori. My Indo Regal goes nuts for it. If yours doesn't just keep trying.

[ledford1]

Thanks, I appreciate eveyone's help.

This is a great thread. I read somewhere in these 14 pages a suggestion to mark this thread at the top of the page. There's a strong argument for that.

[michelo]

I have the royal(real) angel 2 days ago ... the first day was very nice but now this hidden behind of a rock and it(he,she) does not go out at all, it(he,she) is some 5cm ... that I can do???????

[HOZERTHEBONEFISH]

Michelo

I am assuming that you have a regal.

Is there a fish that is harrassing it? If so, remove it. If not, I would try live brine to stimulate it to eat. Its ok for it to hide for the first few days.

[HOZERTHEBONEFISH]

Michelo

I am assuming that you have a regal.

Is there a fish that is harrassing it? If so, remove it. If not, I would try live brine to stimulate it to eat. Its ok for it to hide for the first few days.

[d34532]

Hi all,

I jumped into the bandwagon and finally found the Regal(redsea) I wanted. This is the 3rd day but it started to go after flakes on day 2. I did feed my tank on day one so that my other fish didn't go into a feeding crazy and scary her/him. Its the biggest fish in the tank and open swimmer on day one.

[Rook]

Hello all,

I too just purchased the infamous Regal Angel. I got a 3" Red Sea Regal from a local hobbiest who had the Regal for about 7 months. I just picked it up on Saturday. I acclimated him over about three hours in a five gallon bucket with a powerhead and heater and them placed it directly into the display tank. Right now he is the only fish in the reef tank. I have the other fish in a QT tank and plan to keep them there for at least a week to give the Regal time to adjust.

Since placing the Regal in the tank he has been swimming around and checking out his new home, but of course he is pretty shy when he sees me, and he quickly hides. I think I provided a few too many hidding places for him though,

I did not try to feed the first day, but I did try once on Sunday and again this morning to feed Spectrum pelets, which is what he was eating before. So far I have not seen him eat, mainly because he hides when I am around. However, from a distance I have seen him picking at things in the water column, and picking at the liverock, so I hope he is finding something to eat. Fortunately I have a lot of sponge and other "stuff" growing on the darker sides of my liverock for him to nip at.

I plan to buy some live brine shrimp from the lfs and try that, and also prepare a mix of frozen foods, garlic, Selcon and Spectrum. This time I am going to turn the pumps off and attempt to sneek the food in without him seeing me. Hopefully this will work.

[MrMongoose]

Sounds like a smooth transition. Don't get too worried if he doesn't eat right away and if all else fails Oyster on the 1/2 shell will get him munching away.

[nctangman]

I am getting a 125g tank this week. I am considering getting a Regal angel, however with the tank comes a Pinktail trigger fish around 8 inches long. It has alot of personality and has not bother any inverterbrates including starfish and shrimp. My question is this:

Is a PT Trigger compatible with a Regal Angel or is this gonna be a problem??

NCTangman (Kirk)

[moonpod]

Uh, I would be very, very leary. the PT Trigger isn't necessarily on par with say a clown or undulate trigger, but it doesn't take all that much to spook a Regal when first acclimating.

[Rook]

Good news. I believe the Regal ate today. I turned off the return pump and added some food to the tank and left it for a minute. I then army crawled behind the couch to sit and watch. Low and behold the Regal came out of its layer, darted forward to some food flowing by and ripped it out of the water column. At least I am pretty sure he ate it, hard to tell from twenty feet away.

I fed him a mix of frozen foods, mysis, enriched brine, squid and frozen formula 2 with Selcon added. I forgot the garlic, but added it for tomorrow. I also put a half sheet of nori in for him to nibble at.

So far he has been swimming around pretty calmly and ripping at some liverock. He also made a home in a long cavern I inadvertantly made on the side of the tank. Good hiding spot but I cannot see back there at all.

[DJPB]

WOW! There are some awesome regals in this thread!!! Glad to read that so many people have researched and shared info on Regals. When this thread was started, there were no dedicated threads on Regals, and now this is on the 14th page!! It makes me happy knowing that some have asked if their conditions would favor a Regal before taking the risk.

Here's a recent photo of my regal - Reggie (Miller)

[d34532]

DJPB,

Glad you started this thread and nice looking Regal there. Im waiting for mine to settle in before I get around and taking pictures. Again I saw mine eat more and sample mysis shrimp not sure if it was eatten or split back out. In some ways I like that they command a high price since it does limit some people from buying them and not how to take care of them. I still wish there are more information about them tho because I got some misinformation like "yes, its a hardly angel" "they are easy to take care of" etc. Mine is in a 120gal with LR but still making it into a reef. My Regal is the biggest in the tank along with blue hippo, flame angel, hawk, yellow coris wrasse, and snowflake eel.

Man do I like my Regal hehehe open swimmer already and knows that Im the food provider.

[Rook]

Glad to hear your Regal is still going strong DJPB, and that you started this thread. I hope my Regal will get over its shyness pretty quick and start swimming more in the open. If he does not by the end of the week I was considering adding my other fish, which are very open swimmers to try and entice the Regal out into the open.

You state that your Regal started eating the first feeding, yet it was several days before he would stay out when you approched the tank. How did you feed him then? Just feed and leave and hope he ate?

[Aquaduck]

In time your Regal will lose it's shyness. Mine has learned that the funny looking guy staring at him through the glass is the guy with the food. My Regal will eat right from my fingers. It will attack the veggie clip with Nori as soon as it touches the water.

[Rook]

I suspect he will. He came from a large cube tank viewible from three sides with several good sized tangs, and he used to swim in the open and eat everything offered. It'll just take a little time.


Also: when you guys feed formula 1 and 2 do you feed the pellets, or the frozen cubes? Is one better than the other?

[MrMongoose]

Yeah I feed mine right out of my hands....sometimes a fork HAHAHA.