Darth's Regal Angel Journal

[DarthSimon]

Hello All,
So I wanted to start a thread journalizing my Regal Angel and my experiences with this species.
I have a 5 1/2 inch Red Sea Regal for a while. I have had a few in my life. I think the trick is to let the Retailer QT your fish before you take him home. I bought my current one from a huge retailer that had about 6-7 specimens in a larger pool tank with other fish... He was there for 3-4 weeks and was treated and QT with Kanamycin, Prazi, Nitrofurazin, and copper. When I observed him in this pool tank, all the Regal Specimens were eating aggressively a mixture of foods.... I didn't bother putting him through my QT... I had him acclimated into my tanks water within 2 hours of leaving the retailer. Salinity was very close from retailers tank to my tank..... I had him eating, picking after acclimation with 24 hours. And fully eating all foods within 3-5 days.... After 2 weeks he became an animal with eating... Super aggressively attacking food... Mine devours Reef Frenzy, fish frenzy and will eat as much as I feed him. When he see's me, he rushes up to tank. I also hand feed him Medium Size Pellets. He gets his frozen and about 10-15 pellets twice a day. Other regals I have tried never lasted. I tried one last year, it was barely eating at store, was eating that Masticks algae gell food.... Was a smaller specimen from Indian Ocean grey face. Only thing I saw him pick at was clams on half shell in my tank. He died about 8-10 days after intro.....

As far as picking at corals, I have 2 colonies of acans, few zoos, and mostly SPS in my display. He has been in my display since beginning of January. I have seen him nip a handful of times at my acans. Never did any real damage. Polys closed up, but were back and open within a day. Zoos he hasn't touched.

So 3 months into my journey with this specimen, I am not sure if you call this a success yet, but I am cautiously optimistic to be able to keep him long term....... I have probably owned 5 of these specimens of my 12 years of reefing. Only 2 have lasted, and I was able to get then adapted to home aquarium life. I hope to share my long term experiences with you.... The Regal Angel is one of my two top favorites in fish. Super Male Lineatus is my other favorite. Here are some videos and pics....

Here he is today eating pellets...

 

[Labridaedicted]

Well, no doubt which 2 fish are the show pieces in your reef! It's always a gamble with them in a reef, but they are incredible to see in a reef when they work out.

I think the key to keeping them from nipping is to just feed the absolute bejeezus out of them.

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

Stunning fish!