Hyak2
New Member
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2026
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- What state or country do you live in
- Canada
So I know there's already a few different threads about Biota/Bali Aquarich captive bred Regal Angelfish out there, but I figured I would throw my hat in the ring now too!
The preamble...I have wanted a captive bred regal angel for quite some time now. I've attempted regals twice before, both wild caught yellow bellies. The first I acquired was about 3.5 inches long and was received in excellent condition. It did well but I lost it due to equipment failure after about 2 months. The second I got was only around 1.5-2 inches long, and was in good condition when I got it. I did get it eating pellets and frozen fairly well within about 2 weeks, however it continued to lose weight for the entire month or so I had it, and I think attempts to deworm it finally did it in (but it was also very skinny at this point, to be fair). I live in Canada, so the chance to get captive bred regals up here comes up only rarely, and when it does they are usually snapped up swiftly. Additionally, I, up until recently, lived about 7 hours north of the US/Canada border, which made any attempts to bring a fish up from the states myself too time and cost prohibitive to consider.
ANYWAY, fast forward to a few days ago! I've since moved across the country and now live a "mere" hour and a half away from the closest US border crossing. With my e-mail notifications enabled, I was overjoyed to see that Biota had Regal Angelfish in stock. That e-mail came at around 9:30 in the morning. Of course, by the time I noticed it and got home from work to actually sit down and place the order around 4:30pm, they were all sold out. Bummer. Thankfully, after sending an e-mail I knew they were expecting to place a few more WYSIWYG regals up on the website in the next week or so. Watching my e-mails like a hawk and checking their website daily, I didn't want to miss my chance. Finally, about a week and a half later, it was go time. 11:29 am, the e-mail dropped. I was on Biotas website within 3 minutes of getting that e-mail. 5 precious, WYSIWYG regal angelfish posted, 2 of them already sold. I picked out my fish (the least mis-barred, which I prefer, and thankfully the cheapest as well) and pounded that order in as fast as I could! It couldn't have come a moment too soon, I didn't run a timer or anything, but I'm pretty sure all 5 were sold within a half hour.
Two days pass. I take a little trip down to visit our neighbors to the south and pick up my prized regal angel (and a few other biota fish I couldn't find up here as well). Of course when I go to pick them up from the UPS office, the guy working there comes out bouncing the box up and down in his arms asking what sort of animal I'm getting, like the fish stickers on the box and water sloshing around from him shaking it aren't a hint
Didn't love that whole experience, but it is what it is. Once I'm back in my car I tear open the box and thankfully the regal looks perfect, swimming around cozy in his oversized bag! He was by far the smallest fish of the bunch, but his bag was twice the size of the others, lol. You won't hear me complain about that though! That done, I drive back up across the border, declare my fish, pay my taxes and head home. The whole process went about as well as you could have hoped.
Finally it's time to get my little guy situated. This regal is TINY, as captive bred regals are notoriously known to be when they usually come up for sale, just barely bigger than my thumb nail. No way I'm tossing him into one of my display tanks, he'd get eaten, and I'm hesitant to jump straight to QT'ing him or keeping him in an acclimation chamber in one of the displays. The other thing I was nervous about was him eating, as from what I've read from others experience the two biggest causes of failure is either them disappearing into the display or failing to eat properly and starving to death. Obviously I thought about this before he was even shipped, and I ended up deciding to put him into one of my 2.5 gallon tisbe pod culture tanks as his initial home. I basically run my pod cultures as mini fish tanks, so all I needed to do was a big water change a few days prior and not dose any phyto after, and we were in business. I figure being in an all you can eat pod buffet couldn't hurt either. I acclimate him per biota recommendations, place him in his new home, turn off the lights, and leave him overnight, barring a few quick checks to make sure he's still alive.
The next morning, he is alive and well. I have to work, so he gets offered his first feeding with me about 24 hours after he went into the tank. Over the rest of the day and next couple days thereafter I offer TDO Chroma Boost (B2 size), reef nutrition pac pods, frozen BBS, and live white worms. He eats everything except for the white worms, and likes the pellets the best. I've seen him eat a couple tisbe pods off the glass as well, but mostly he seems to ignore them.
And now here we are! I've had the little guy/gal in my care for 4 days now, so I'm going to tempt the fish gods by posting about him. So far he is doing well and has a noticeably plump little belly now, and I think the key factors for his initial success were going into a small, fully mature tank with hiding spots, and not having any other tank mates to potentially stress him out or compete for food during the delicate acclimation phase. He's already showing a bit of angel sass towards me, flaring his fins and swooping along the front of the tank at me, but he's still quick to hide at any sudden movement or shadow. I've attached a couple videos and pictures of him in the bag and shortly after going in the tank, and hope to have many more updates to provide in the months and years to come!
The preamble...I have wanted a captive bred regal angel for quite some time now. I've attempted regals twice before, both wild caught yellow bellies. The first I acquired was about 3.5 inches long and was received in excellent condition. It did well but I lost it due to equipment failure after about 2 months. The second I got was only around 1.5-2 inches long, and was in good condition when I got it. I did get it eating pellets and frozen fairly well within about 2 weeks, however it continued to lose weight for the entire month or so I had it, and I think attempts to deworm it finally did it in (but it was also very skinny at this point, to be fair). I live in Canada, so the chance to get captive bred regals up here comes up only rarely, and when it does they are usually snapped up swiftly. Additionally, I, up until recently, lived about 7 hours north of the US/Canada border, which made any attempts to bring a fish up from the states myself too time and cost prohibitive to consider.
ANYWAY, fast forward to a few days ago! I've since moved across the country and now live a "mere" hour and a half away from the closest US border crossing. With my e-mail notifications enabled, I was overjoyed to see that Biota had Regal Angelfish in stock. That e-mail came at around 9:30 in the morning. Of course, by the time I noticed it and got home from work to actually sit down and place the order around 4:30pm, they were all sold out. Bummer. Thankfully, after sending an e-mail I knew they were expecting to place a few more WYSIWYG regals up on the website in the next week or so. Watching my e-mails like a hawk and checking their website daily, I didn't want to miss my chance. Finally, about a week and a half later, it was go time. 11:29 am, the e-mail dropped. I was on Biotas website within 3 minutes of getting that e-mail. 5 precious, WYSIWYG regal angelfish posted, 2 of them already sold. I picked out my fish (the least mis-barred, which I prefer, and thankfully the cheapest as well) and pounded that order in as fast as I could! It couldn't have come a moment too soon, I didn't run a timer or anything, but I'm pretty sure all 5 were sold within a half hour.
Two days pass. I take a little trip down to visit our neighbors to the south and pick up my prized regal angel (and a few other biota fish I couldn't find up here as well). Of course when I go to pick them up from the UPS office, the guy working there comes out bouncing the box up and down in his arms asking what sort of animal I'm getting, like the fish stickers on the box and water sloshing around from him shaking it aren't a hint
Didn't love that whole experience, but it is what it is. Once I'm back in my car I tear open the box and thankfully the regal looks perfect, swimming around cozy in his oversized bag! He was by far the smallest fish of the bunch, but his bag was twice the size of the others, lol. You won't hear me complain about that though! That done, I drive back up across the border, declare my fish, pay my taxes and head home. The whole process went about as well as you could have hoped.Finally it's time to get my little guy situated. This regal is TINY, as captive bred regals are notoriously known to be when they usually come up for sale, just barely bigger than my thumb nail. No way I'm tossing him into one of my display tanks, he'd get eaten, and I'm hesitant to jump straight to QT'ing him or keeping him in an acclimation chamber in one of the displays. The other thing I was nervous about was him eating, as from what I've read from others experience the two biggest causes of failure is either them disappearing into the display or failing to eat properly and starving to death. Obviously I thought about this before he was even shipped, and I ended up deciding to put him into one of my 2.5 gallon tisbe pod culture tanks as his initial home. I basically run my pod cultures as mini fish tanks, so all I needed to do was a big water change a few days prior and not dose any phyto after, and we were in business. I figure being in an all you can eat pod buffet couldn't hurt either. I acclimate him per biota recommendations, place him in his new home, turn off the lights, and leave him overnight, barring a few quick checks to make sure he's still alive.
The next morning, he is alive and well. I have to work, so he gets offered his first feeding with me about 24 hours after he went into the tank. Over the rest of the day and next couple days thereafter I offer TDO Chroma Boost (B2 size), reef nutrition pac pods, frozen BBS, and live white worms. He eats everything except for the white worms, and likes the pellets the best. I've seen him eat a couple tisbe pods off the glass as well, but mostly he seems to ignore them.
And now here we are! I've had the little guy/gal in my care for 4 days now, so I'm going to tempt the fish gods by posting about him. So far he is doing well and has a noticeably plump little belly now, and I think the key factors for his initial success were going into a small, fully mature tank with hiding spots, and not having any other tank mates to potentially stress him out or compete for food during the delicate acclimation phase. He's already showing a bit of angel sass towards me, flaring his fins and swooping along the front of the tank at me, but he's still quick to hide at any sudden movement or shadow. I've attached a couple videos and pictures of him in the bag and shortly after going in the tank, and hope to have many more updates to provide in the months and years to come!
