how long will angel survive without eating?...

[thebigblue]

i put a 4" regal angel in my 125 gal reef 12 days ago...

i know the success rate with these fish is low in captivity...

i ordered this fish online from jeff's exotic fish...he looked really good with no signs of stress in the shipping process...

i havent seen him eat anything ive offered the tank...frozen mysis, frozen life-line (herbivore and carnivore), and prime reef flake, all soaked in selcon and/or garlic...i also put seaweed selects on a clip for my tang...

when i first introduced him my small purple tang (3-4") was chasing him a bit...but after several days they seem to get along...although i rarely see the angel at all, he spends most of the time behind the 150#s of LR...

how long could this fish survive with no food?....since hes still alive does that mean hes eating something?...ive never really even observed him pick at the LR...

i thought these fish had a real short digestive track and couldnt go long without something...?

thanks

brad

 

[JeremyR]

Someone donated us a regal angel recently. He had it for 2 months, it never ate cept for live rock picking. It now eats form I, II, HBH pellets, pretty much whatever. What it boils down to I think is how it was collected... if they aren't messed up from cyanide, they can live off rock long enough to switch over. Mine was a hider too, but now he begs and nearly eats out of my hand.
Having said that, this is a fish I don't stock due to it's heavily drug caught nature and difficulty getting them to eat, especially in a non-live rock environment.

 

[Anonymous]

I think most fish can go a couple of weeks (some a month) without eating. I am not sure about your specific species.

I had a blue tang that wouldn't eat when I got him. I do have plenty of macro-algae in the tank. Every time I would try to feed it, it would hide in the rocks, and the food would land on the ground, and the hermit crabs and shrimp would go after it. But it would come out eventually and nip at the caleurpa macro-algae which I think sustained him until he became more comfortable with his environment. (Which took about two weeks)

Now he eats voraciously everything I put in the tank.

I would recommend that you go to your local fish store and look for a product called Seaweed selects. (Strips of dried seaweed) Angels seem to like the "red" variety the best, tangs the "green". Clip it down so it's visible from the part of the rocks where your fish normally hides. Then give it time to come out on it's own and try it. Your other fish might nibble on it, but it should last long enough for him to be curious if he is hungry. If he doesn't try it for several hours, your snails will likely find it and munch it down, so it won't be wasted regardless.

On the other hand, if you have a cyanide caught fish or if something else is seriously wrong with it, there might not be anything you can do.

 

[thebigblue]

supercow

i tried the green seaweed selects, but i will try the red tonite...

i need to also try some live brine shrimp i think...

thanks

brad

 

[jamesw]

With a regal angel, it's best to start him out in his own quiet tank until you get him eating.

Check this month's article about regal angels in Advanced Aquarist.

Cheers
James Wiseman

 

[tomheo]

Hey Brad,

I got my Regal Angel (Pygoplites diacanthus) about 1.5 months ago. Mine refused to eat at first too, but after about 10 days, he finally started eating what I was trying to feed him.

I tried any and all foods I could think of: Tetra Marine Flake, Spirulina, OSI algae pellets, frozen mysis, frozen brine, Ocean Nutrition Red Algae, and Angel Formula. He didn't eat any of it (though he did look at the red flakes of the Tetra Flake).

He didn't start picking at the rocks 'til about day 5, and I thought for sure he was doomed since he wasn't eating anything I was giving him. I finally decided to rubberband the Red Algae to some live rock and stuck it in the tank, and on about day 8, he started eating it. After a couple days of rubberbanding to the rock, I moved it over to a feeding clip. He's now a voracious eater and is always hanging around that clip.

Here's what I've noticed about mine and his behaviour:

-likes red things
-doesn't like things that are floating around (even if he tears off a piece of algae, he won't eat it if it's floating around).
-can be shy at times, whereas at other times, he'll swim right up to the front of the tank when I look in
-prefers to pick at shorter pieces of algae than longer pieces (e.g., when you place the algae on the clip, make sure only about 1/2" is sticking out of the clip)

I'll keep trying to feed him a variety of foods, but for now, he's plumped up quite a bit off of the red algae.

Hope this helps, and good luck with it.

Thomas

P.S. This guy's the only fish in a 120g reef.

 

[jamesw]

Cool Tom, how big is yours?

I had luck with the Nori/Red algae on a rock trick too.

As a LAST DITCH effort to get him eating, purchase a live clam or mussal and break it open. Put that in and everything and I mean everything will want to eat it!

That's why you have to have the regal in a separate tank to get it started eating.

Cheers
James

 

[thebigblue]

jamesw

thanks for the heads up on the AA article...i hadnt seen that yet...yea i should have probably setup a q-tank until i got him eating...i will next time...(but i hope there isnt a next time! :? )

thomas

thats GREAT info... ...thanks

 

[tomheo]

Hey James,

Mine's around that 3.5" to 4" range also. He has an interesting pattern...I don't know if it's cuz he's transitioning into an adult pattern but on his right side, there's 2 stripes that cross making an "X" and on the other side, his stripes all run parallel to each other.

Don't know if this is normal or not, but the crossing lines are pretty cool.

I'll try that clam/mussel trick sometime.

Thomas

 

[Lynn]

thebigblue, is your regal eating anything yet??

 

[thebigblue]

lynn

thanks for the concern...some bad news to report...

i took out the body of my angel tonite...in fact i think he had been dead for a while as he was picked on pretty good and starting to decompose...i was not home last nite to check the tank before the lights went out, so he could have died sometime yesterday...

although i did research this fish, i should have made sure to get a red sea regal rather than the cheaper indian ocean variety...lesson learned...at the expense of a beautiful fish...

i had begun to offer angel formula frozen food, along with seaweed selects red algae...along with all the foods listed above...

i never once saw him eat a thing...

so i guess the answer to my post is...about 15 days...

thanks

brad

 

[jamesw]

Brad, sorry to hear about the loss. Unfortunately, you're going to hear some "I told you so's" on this board concerning this fish.

How many of them are you willing to buy before you get one that lives? Will you set up a special tank to acclimate the fish next time round? Please let us know as I'm sure there are others here who need to read this info.

Cheers
James Wiseman

 

[Tremelle]

Sorry to hear about the lost of your Regal Angel. My Indian Ocean Regal Angel has been with me for over a year now. It was eating from day one. I guess I got lucky with one of the "cheaper" regals.

I did not quarantine my fish when I bought it. It did hide behind the rocks for about 4 days, but ate all the time. When I fed the tank it would get food that drifted behind the rocks or passed close to a cave entrance.

 

[thebigblue]

jamesw

did i not make it clear enough how sorry i was about this fish?...thanks for being there for me to tell me what a dumbsh*t i am...

im not sure "how many more i'll buy"...

yes i would setup a Q-tank for a fish like this down the road, especially if i was buying mail order again (which i wouldnt do, at least with this fish)...i think with a hard to keep fish like this you really need to see them eat at a LFS...

tremelle

glad to hear your indian ocean regal is doing so well...what do you feed it?...and do you have any aggresive tankmates?...was he the first or last fish introduced?...

thanks again

brad

 

[Tremelle]

I feed it mysis shrimp, seaweed select algea sheets (green and red), spirulina flake, Formula 2 flake and an omnivore mix frozen food. It has eaten everything I have fed the tank.

It is housed with a Blonde Naso Tang, a Desjardinii Tang, and an African Flameback Dwarf Angel. The Regal was added after the Tangs. The Desjardinii chased it for about 2 days then paid it no mind.

The only problem I have had with the Regal is it killed a blood shrimp after being in the tank for about a month. I have other blood shrimp and skunk cleaner shrimp that it pays no mind to. It was just something about that one shrimp it did not like I guess.

If you are considering buying a mail order Regal, checkout www.themarinecenter.com . They have Regals from the Red Sea and Indian Ocean that are eating. I would have bought mine from them, but ran across mine in a LFS and it was eating in the store.

I wish you luck in the future with this pretty fish.

 

[jamesw]

Hi Brad,

Maybe you didn't read where I said:

Brad, sorry to hear about the loss.

The rest of the message is to raise some important questions that we hobbyists ALL need to think about. It was not just directed at you.

Cheers
James Wiseman

 

[thebigblue]

jamesw

yea, sorry i kinda went off on ya there...i had just thrown my angel out in the trash and was still kinda mad...

didnt mean to take it out on you...

brad

 

[clowntank10]

thebigblue
sorry bout your loss. but ill be visiting jeffs exotic fish store its by me. kewl i know. the one you got was it orange bellied or blue.

 

[Anonymous]

i put a 4" regal angel in my 125 gal reef 12 days ago...

Big, BIG mistake. Why on earth would you order such a delicate fish and not quarantine it? Frankly if you lack the common sense to do at least this much, you have no business keeping this species. Sorry for my bluntness, but I'm not in the mood to sugar coat things today.
This species is one of the last that can suffer an inept, careless, misinformed or lazy aquarist. They don't adapt well to glass boxes for the most part, they don't ship well, and they can be problematic feeders. Not only will practices such as yours needlesly endanger, (and in your case, kill) the fish in question, but you have also endangered your entire system by not quarantining.
Please quarantine ALL new arrivals to your system, let alone delicate species such as this.

Regards
Jim

 

[Anonymous]

Uh, Jim, check the date of his posts....