Regal Angel Primer

[Inklinkerman]

My new regal angel... now attempting to pair it with my resident fish. picture originally taken by lfs

[flying53brian]

You have an incredible looking Regal and I am so envious. Good luck with the pairing too

[ellendarnay27]

Originally Posted by Inklinkerman

My new regal angel... now attempting to pair it with my resident fish. picture originally taken by lfs

I totally agree with flying53brian. What a very nice looking Regal Angel. I wonder how big this fish is? I do hope your breeding comes out fine...

[Inklinkerman]

it is approx 4-5".

Both fish are still separated by eggcrate atm

[RegalAngel]

Only had this Yellow Belly about a month. A Divers Den order @ 5 1/4".
So far only eating oyster in the shell but surviving.

[bskiba]

Just picked up a tiny Regal last night.(never seen one this small) he is about the size of a quarter at most and looks like a copperband Angelfish. This will be my 3rd regal and i bought some clams and misc live and frozen seafood to get him going. i will post a pic if I can.

[Ostara]

I thought I'd bump this up again since there has been a bit of discussion about regals lately in the Reef Fishes section. Any updates? Bskiba, how is your tiny specimen doing?

After a few weeks of looking, I picked mine up yesterday. He looks great! He was very alert and curious, and kept coming up to the surface on his side in the bucket to stare at me while I watched him adoringly. He is clearly hungry and very interested in what I'm feeding, just not quite ready to give it a taste yet. I've never had a fish so freshly caught before and it's interesting to watch him. I hadn't seen a fish look confused until now, but he certainly does when pieces of frozen food drift into him.

In the last few minutes he's just started to get into the fresh clam I bought and cracked open for him within the last hour. He seems to like it. One thing I noticed about him right away once he got into the quarantine tank is that he clearly has an issue with flukes. He does a lot of head shaking, so I dosed praziquantel (in the form of PraziPro) on the first night even though I usually wait about three days to add the first med.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I don't usually get attached to my fish in the same way that I am to my dog and cat, but this guy has so much personality that I can't help it.

[bskiba]

Little guy didn't last two days. I have the same store checking the wholesalers weekly for a smaller one again but haven't been able to find one. I have had two in the past and never seen a little one like this.

[Ostara]

I'm sorry to hear that, Bskiba. Did you happen to get a picture before he passed? I'd love to see a tiny regal. Are you looking for a smaller one because they seem easier to acclimate, or is it just a personal preference?

[mikid]

mine was like he said about the size of a quarter,now 1 1/2year later and is 2 1/2inches,healtly, red sea regal,doesnt pick at anything/zoas/chalices...just wants food....started with chopped mysis,then to small pellets,clams on th half shell for a treat at times,doing great..............

[bskiba]

I want small but maybe not quite that small. they are really cool looking at that size but hard to even find pictures of. I didn't get any pictures because he hid. in my Qt and at the shop.

[Chicago]

Tagging. Is there a preference for yellow belly . Does the yellow belly have more of the wow factor

[maxxII]

Just a personal one these days.
I prefer the appearance of a yellow chest but that's just me.
I'm not getting rid of my grey chested Regal over that though.

The preferance comes from the past when Red Sea fish were collected with better care and had a shorter turn around time and consequently were in better shape overall by the time they hit the LFS.

Since Red Sea Regal angels have a yellow chest, the preference was for yellow chested Regal's since they were in better shape and the average hobbyist had a better chance at keeping them then the Indo/Pacific blue/grey chested Regals.

These days its almost a moot point since the Indo/Pacific collectors have gotten much better at taking care of their fish and at shortening the turn around time that the fish are in transit.

Buy what you want...just get a healthy one.

Nick

[Chicago]

I had the yellow belly I the past. Just wondering if the grey chest with blue looks nice also

[RegalAngel]

Grey belly or Indo Regals can look very nice.........

[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]

Originally Posted by jroovers

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