I've kept Regals in my display tank for years. I've been thru 4 (2 pairs) in the last 14 years. They don't like to eat what you feed the tank, they like to find their own food. I had one for over 7 years and short of live black worms never saw it eat any other kind of food.
The Regals are very slow growers. I have never started with a tiny juvenile. But starting at 3.5" they "Maybe" grow an inch a year if that. I had one for 5+ years that never grew at all. (This was in 400g tank).
I've kept all kind of corals and other than blastos randomly they never damaged corals or clams.
For the past 5 years I have been growing out Imperators in one of my 180g outdoor frag tanks. The imperators will eat anything that you put in the tank. The imperators grow ridiculously fast.
I had a 2.5" regal that I moved into a 560g display tank after the corals were wiped out. When I upgraded to a 750g in August I moved the Imperator in to see how he would do with corals. Between April and August the 2.5" fish grew to .5.5" plus. Now after 6 weeks in 750g the imperator is over 6".
As I have been adding corals to the 750g I have kept an eye on the imperator. I put in 5 large rocks of Vietnam Zoas. He decimiated 2.5 rocks. He didn't eat the zoas, he just ripped the zoas off the rocks to get to the sponge underneath. There are now 100's of zoas spread all around the tank... Which is kind of nice.
The Imperator has also terrorized a small elegance coral. There is something growing on the base of the elegance that he likes. He knocks the Elegance out of any location and then bashes it across the bottom of the tank to nip on the coral base on the bottom of the coral. So, he's not actually nipping at the elegance tissue but has brutalized it nonetheless.
Dave B
You can find both on my website as well.....cheers!
