Regal anglefish nor eating

[atnayab]

I got a blue/grey belly regal anglefish around 4.5/5 inch. It was very healthy and fat when I got it. It is in qurrantine tank. Still not bad but its been 8 days now and it has not eaten anything. I have tried, half shell clam, mussels, ocean nutrition prime and formula 2 flake, mysis, shrimp, hikari marine s, blood worm. Reef nutrition tdo pellet, ON red and green algae, live baby brine shrimp. But he looks oblivious to anything I give. It is not shy always swimming around but just doesn't want to even look at food. I have not even seen it to neep at anything. I am from India here I am not able to get any angel formula or reef frenzy. Also trying to medicate it with fritz prazicleanse.
Kindly provide any suggestions.

 

[bluemon]

First of all, was it eating at the store?

Secondly, I would not use paracleanse, it is quite ineffective to useless. I would use copper.

Thirdly, many medications will suppress appetite in fish. Did you try soaking the food in salon or garlic? Or leaving the tank after feeding?

 

[atnayab]

Hi, thanks for your reply.
No I didn't see it eating as it came just a day before. Here we don't get many regal anglefish. It is like you either buy or you loose the chance. So I had to take in a hurry.
I am using Prazicleanse and it has worked for me before for outer parasite. I am not using copper as there is no sign of ich or velvet. But I am going use fritz expel-p for inner parasite tomorrow. We don't have much options for medication either.
I don't have selcon, but tried garlic guard but no effect. It is just not afraid of me, but yes I tried leaving it after giving food.
I saw another regal in lfs started eating nls thera A, A+. So I have bought it and it will come in 2 days

 

[atnayab]

Update
I treated with Fritz expel-p and saw white translucent stringy poop coming out.
Can this be the cause of it not eating?
Hopefully he starts eating now.

 

[W31Olds]

Fritz Prazicleanse will work for flukes but will suppress appetite. I also have a Regal and they are finicky, shy fish that are sometimes tough to get feeding. Consensus is the larger ones are more difficult. They are a lot like copperbands in some respect as they like to size up a food item before eating it. My eats mostly eat clam in the 1/2 shell. A couple of suggestions that helped me. I had a 40G breeder for Quarantine with multiple hiding spots and the Regal was the only fish in it. It was in a very quiet area with no external commotion. I would put 1/2 a clam in the tank and sometimes he would attack it other times not so much but I would just leave it in overnight and by the next morning it would all be eaten. I had a cycled QT tank so I could do that without ammonia problems so you would need to monitor closely.

 

[atnayab]

Fritz Prazicleanse will work for flukes but will suppress appetite. I also have a Regal and they are finicky, shy fish that are sometimes tough to get feeding. Consensus is the larger ones are more difficult. They are a lot like copperbands in some respect as they like to size up a food item before eating it. My eats mostly eat clam in the 1/2 shell. A couple of suggestions that helped me. I had a 40G breeder for Quarantine with multiple hiding spots and the Regal was the only fish in it. It was in a very quiet area with no external commotion. I would put 1/2 a clam in the tank and sometimes he would attack it other times not so much but I would just leave it in overnight and by the next morning it would all be eaten. I had a cycled QT tank so I could do that without ammonia problems so you would need to monitor closely.

Thanks for your reply.
At this point I have tried everything. I also have a 20G cycled tank, as mentioned above half clam and all kinds of food. But it is just not interested. As I said above today after using expel-p I saw translucent stringy poop coming out. Can this be the cause of him not eating?
I will get NLS thera A+ tomorrow, may be it will eat that.
Should I move him to my display tank, maybe he will start eating after seeing others, but then qurrantine won't be enough.
So I don't know what to do...

 

[W31Olds]

I'm not familiar with Fritz expel-P that contains Levamisole HCl but I would imagine it suppresses appetite. If your adult fish has not eaten in 8 days and does not look thin I would not add him to your DT yet. You should post something to Jay H. to see what he knows about the expel-P

 

[atnayab]

@Jay Hemdal kindly help here

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I got a blue/grey belly regal anglefish around 4.5/5 inch. It was very healthy and fat when I got it. It is in qurrantine tank. Still not bad but its been 8 days now and it has not eaten anything. I have tried, half shell clam, mussels, ocean nutrition prime and formula 2 flake, mysis, shrimp, hikari marine s, blood worm. Reef nutrition tdo pellet, ON red and green algae, live baby brine shrimp. But he looks oblivious to anything I give. It is not shy always swimming around but just doesn't want to even look at food. I have not even seen it to neep at anything. I am from India here I am not able to get any angel formula or reef frenzy. Also trying to medicate it with fritz prazicleanse.
Kindly provide any suggestions.

Getting these angels to eat is often impossible. You’ve tried everything that I would have suggested and then some.
It is probable that the ones from SE Asia are collected with cyanide and that causes many of them to not feed properly. Heartbreaking, but seeing them eat in the store first is the only solution.

So - in the stupidest marketing move ever, Fritz made Paracleanse and then came out with Prazicleanse - and they kept both on the market. Massive confusion! Paracleanse is a copy of general cure and it is metronidazole and praziquantel. Prazicleanse is just praziquantel.

 

[atnayab]

Getting these angels to eat is often impossible. You’ve tried everything that I would have suggested and then some.
It is probable that the ones from SE Asia are collected with cyanide and that causes many of them to not feed properly. Heartbreaking, but seeing them eat in the store first is the only solution.

So - in the stupidest marketing move ever, Fritz made Paracleanse and then came out with Prazicleanse - and they kept both on the market. Massive confusion! Paracleanse is a copy of general cure and it is metronidazole and praziquantel. Prazicleanse is just praziquantel.

Hi, Thanks for your reply.
Yeah, I guess so. May be it's a case of cyanide catch. But I will keep on trying.
Can you also provide your comment on fritz expel-p? I used it today and fish pooped stringy translucent substance. I jave heard this is how it works, it expels out worm. Can it also be internal parasite which is not letting it eat?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hi, Thanks for your reply.
Yeah, I guess so. May be it's a case of cyanide catch. But I will keep on trying.
Can you also provide your comment on fritz expel-p? I used it today and fish pooped stringy translucent substance. I jave heard this is how it works, it expels out worm. Can it also be internal parasite which is not letting it eat?

Expel-P is levamisole. That kills non-encysted nematodes. Those can be internal parasites of fish.
However, translucent material being expelled is more likely mucus - that is commonly seen in fish that haven’t been eating.

 

[atnayab]

Expel-P is levamisole. That kills non-encysted nematodes. Those can be internal parasites of fish.
However, translucent material being expelled is more likely mucus - that is commonly seen in fish that haven’t been eating.

 

[bluemon]

Hi, Thanks for your reply.
Yeah, I guess so. May be it's a case of cyanide catch. But I will keep on trying.
Can you also provide your comment on fritz expel-p? I used it today and fish pooped stringy translucent substance. I jave heard this is how it works, it expels out worm. Can it also be internal parasite which is not letting it eat?

The whit stringy poop is probably from starvation.

Prazi and metro should cover most internal parasites you can treat.

Did you try sponge diet?

 

[atnayab]

I won't get it here. I wanted to try hikari or ON angel mix. But nobody keeps these in India.

 

[skey44]

I would add hikari marine A and PE mysis to the feeding Attempts. I have had great luck getting angels to eat both of these in the past when they wouldn’t eat anything else. They especially like to pick at the marine A pellets when they’re on the bottom of the tank.
I’ve also seen them be attracted to this algae. https://www.saltwateraquarium.com/s...MI-8Xb68SPjQMVdjHUAR39zDmPEAQYAyABEgJdg_D_BwE
Good luck they are great fish with cool personalities when they thrive!

 

[atnayab]

I would add hikari marine A and PE mysis to the feeding Attempts. I have had great luck getting angels to eat both of these in the past when they wouldn’t eat anything else. They especially like to pick at the marine A pellets when they’re on the bottom of the tank.
I’ve also seen them be attracted to this algae. https://www.saltwateraquarium.com/s...MI-8Xb68SPjQMVdjHUAR39zDmPEAQYAyABEgJdg_D_BwE
Good luck they are great fish with cool personalities when they thrive!

Thanks for yours suggestions, I have tried algae with no success. Will definitely try Marine A.

 

[W31Olds]

Agree with Jay, always see them eat before you buy. Maybe mine has done better because it's a yellowbelly and I had the local fish guy I bought him from feed him for me. He must have had a good source as he had 6 or 7 all eating but only clam. I'm still concerned about mine long term as I've only had him about 2.5 months. Is he pecking at anything even if not food? Mine never really ignores a clam, just will inspect it thoroughly before eating and if there are other fish around sometimes will be put off that's why I suggest he be the only fish in quarantine. Mine never eats Nori but did nibble on the live algae in my QT Tank. Mine was also super shy and would retreat to or stay in his cave until he started to recognize me. Jay could say but cyanide may cause excessive boldness.

 

[skey44]

My previous experience with the regal was they don’t eat nori to be clear. They prefer the purple raw stuff I linked to from two little fishies.

 

[atnayab]

Sad update, it died today morning.

 

[bluemon]

Sad update, it died today morning.

I’m sorry to hear.

Even if a fish might be rare in your area, might be worth asking the store owner to feed it in front of you.

A dead rare fish is worse than no fish at all