New Addition

[meschaefer]

Here are some pics of my new addition. A yellow belly Regal Angel from Sumatra. I picked him up from Michael Stern at NY Aquatic and he had it eating spirulina flakes before he put it up for sale. This is a delicate fish that is very hard to keep... alot of research and planning went into this fish before I purchased him.

I took about two hours to acclimate him. I put him in a plastic container with his bag water, and then put that in a five gallon bucket. I slowly filled the bucket up over two hours by dripping tank water into the plastic container, letting that overflow into the bucket.

I intentionally did not QT this fish, and he went straight into the display tank last night. I have tried feeding him mysis shrimp, cyclopese, formula 1 pellets, and spirulina flakes. He has shown no interest in anything other than the spirlina flakes. He has been hiding in the rock, untill I throw some flakes in there which causes him to come out for a look around. If the flake happens to hit him in the face he eats it.... not a bad start for a fish that is difficult to get eating.

 

[crox99]

Matt

congrats on your new fish. Good luck with him.

 

[Jasonanatal]

Very beautiful specimen. Good luck with him.

 

[KathyC]

Planning first..what a concept!! Go you Matt!
Hope it all turns out as you've planned, very pretty fish!

 

[reefman]

thats a beauty. how big is he?

 

[michael stern]

He's about 4"

 

[DevIouS]

Sweet fish!

Is he in a FOWLR tank?

 

[regal]

One of my favorites.

 

[meschaefer]

As of this morning the fish is doing very well. He is still hiding out most of the time in the rock work occasionally coming out and swimming over to the other side of the tank and into another "cave", but he comes out as soon as some food is put into the water.

He has eaten a little bit, but not heartily. He responds to the spirulina flakes as soon as they are put into the water and is now coming out and investigating mysis shrimp. Food still needs to hit him in the face, but his is allot more active when feeding then yesterday.

For those unfamiliar with the care of this fish, getting them to eat is one of the biggest hurdles. The fact that he shows any interest in food at this point is a major plus. Add in the fact that he is nice and plump, gives some leeway in getting him to eat. To often, when the fish is skinny , you just don't have the time to get them used to the food you are offering before they starve. Getting the fish to eat is just one hurdle in a long race. These fish have been known to go south for unexplained reasons, even when they appear to be doing well.

Right know I guess the tank is officially a FOWLR. This is only because the tank is relatively new and I don't have my lights set up over the tank. That will change this week as I was working on the light rack last night. I need to get that finished before this weekend, as I need to take livestock from a friend who needs to break down his tank this weekend .

There are two schools of thought on this fish. One is that he should go into a fully established tank so that he has allot of stuff to pick off of the rock. This is to make sure that he is feeding while you acclimate him to prepared foods.

The other school of thought is that he should be one of the very first fish added to the tank. (that doesn't necessarily mean that the tank isn't fully established, but is usually the case) This way you can assure that he is not getting harassed by the other fish when you are trying to feed him. It also makes sure that he has time to leisurely take food from the water column before it is all eaten by the other fish. I decided to go this route, his only tank mates are a Lammarck's Angel and a male Lyretail Anthias.

 

[BlueSi4]

Awesome looking fish!!!

 

[meschaefer]

I was looking at another thread, and it reminded me that I never updated this thread (Although I did update my posts on the Regal Angel thread on RC)

This fish was doing wonderfully, he was eating like a pig and eating a varied diet of spriulina flakes, formula one pellets, mysis shrimp and I think he was eating cylcopese but it was hard to tell. He had really nice bold coloration and was openly swimming in the tank.

After three weeks, I noticed one day that he was not coming out of the rock. I fed the tank, and he picked at some food that had basically hit him in the face but that was it. The next morning he was dead.

Until the day before he died, there where no warning signs. Every indication was that he was in excellent condition. The few other fish in the tank where all doing very well, and are still doing very well. There where no aggressive fish in the tank that would have caused him stress, he was the largest fish in the tank with plenty of room, and there where no new additions to the tank. I had no obvious problems with my water quality. (I don't know the exact readings as this happened a couple of weeks ago, I could look them up in my log book if you really want them...or don't trust me when I say my water was in good shape)

The reason I wanted to make a point of updating this thread, is that you see allot of people posting success stories on the various boards but very few people come back and tell you when they have had a problem. These are considered (by many) to be a very difficult fish to keep. Most people have a hard time getting them to eat, and they slowly wast away. Even when they are eating, many just go south one day, for no apparent reason. Yellow bellies, supposedly do better than the blue bellies with some talk about collection methods causing problems, but in realty we really don't know why. I thought I had minimized my risk by buying one that had been held for about a week by the dealer and had been eating before I picked it up. But alas, there are no guarantees.

 

[michael stern]

Matt,

I'm really sorry to hear about the loss.
They are beautiful creatures, but sometimes, a mystery.

 

[meschaefer]

Matt,

I'm really sorry to hear about the loss.
They are beautiful creatures, but sometimes, a mystery.

They are a mystery, and you did everything that could be asked of the dealer. You held the fish for a week, and made sure that it was eating before you ever put it up for sale. Most dealers, try to pawn of the fish as fast as they can, so that it doesn't die in their tanks, and forget about them making sure that it eats. If I decide to try another one, I will certainly buy it from you.

 

[Awibrandy]

Matt, I am so sorry to hear of your loss!

 

[regal]

I am lucky so far with my regal. I have him for almost 3 years now. Our fish do get sick like humans and death is unfortunately inevitable. We can only do our best. Did I mention my regal was from fishtown.:shhh: