brooklyn johnny
Active Member
Well, it's been about six months since I've had my regal angel and he continues to show what a wonderful specimen he is. This fish was always one of the "unkeepables" when I got in the saltwater hobby 15 years ago in middle school. Better collection practices, husbandry, technology and other factors have shown that this delicate fish could thrive if given the right conditions. I should add that this is by far an endorsement to keep this fish, but rather encouragement that this species should not be grouped as it so often is with the true "unkeepables", like many of the strict polyp eatering butterflies like Chaetodon meyeri and Chaetodon larvatus (both of which are unfortunately sold on this site). A quick search shows that my experience is not abnormal... while the majority of these (and many other species) are bought by inexperienced uninformed hobbyists, there are many of these guys thriving in reef tanks out there. This is not to say they benefit from having corals around, but rather they benefit from the more pristine water conditions we generally keep in our reefs as opposed to fish only tanks.
A little background on my guy... I had seen many regals come in from the Red Sea to a local wholesaler/retailer that ships direct from around the world. They always sell very fast, and so I'd always try and feed them after they arrived with most showing justifiably little to no interest. This day they had gotten in three, and one showed no interest while the second looked but didn't touch. The third not only ate, but attacked the frozen Formula one I was feeding and I got a bit excited. He was wrapped up for a relatively cheap price of $85.
He went into my sps system, which also contains ricordea, clams, and fungia. I had removed all zoanthids to another system in preparation, as these guys love them. The others I would take a chance with (a relatively good chance though). Interestingly, within hours he had found every remaining patch of zoanthids left in the tank and mowed them clean... everything else was and continues to be left alone.
I feed him a variety of things, including Spectrum pellets, frozen gel angel preparations made with sponges, algae based frozen foods, plankton, mysis, squid (he gets noticibly excited with this), and other things. There's no doubt he benefits from these foods, but it's tough to quantify how much from any one food. He eats straight from the turkey baster by necessity, because he has to "outfeed" swarming cardinals and a peppermint hog among other things... down the road in my larger system I may try to pair it up, as this has been done with success to the point of nightly breeding dances in this tank .
As I said above, this is not a fish for everyone. Please do not buy one unless you could provide it with the care it needs. With that said, my friend who was over about a month ago e-mailed me these two pics he took of my guy... I made one my avatar...
A little background on my guy... I had seen many regals come in from the Red Sea to a local wholesaler/retailer that ships direct from around the world. They always sell very fast, and so I'd always try and feed them after they arrived with most showing justifiably little to no interest. This day they had gotten in three, and one showed no interest while the second looked but didn't touch. The third not only ate, but attacked the frozen Formula one I was feeding and I got a bit excited. He was wrapped up for a relatively cheap price of $85.
He went into my sps system, which also contains ricordea, clams, and fungia. I had removed all zoanthids to another system in preparation, as these guys love them. The others I would take a chance with (a relatively good chance though). Interestingly, within hours he had found every remaining patch of zoanthids left in the tank and mowed them clean... everything else was and continues to be left alone.
I feed him a variety of things, including Spectrum pellets, frozen gel angel preparations made with sponges, algae based frozen foods, plankton, mysis, squid (he gets noticibly excited with this), and other things. There's no doubt he benefits from these foods, but it's tough to quantify how much from any one food. He eats straight from the turkey baster by necessity, because he has to "outfeed" swarming cardinals and a peppermint hog among other things... down the road in my larger system I may try to pair it up, as this has been done with success to the point of nightly breeding dances in this tank .
As I said above, this is not a fish for everyone. Please do not buy one unless you could provide it with the care it needs. With that said, my friend who was over about a month ago e-mailed me these two pics he took of my guy... I made one my avatar...
... this fish is on my short list for most beautiful fishes in the ocean...
