regal angel eggs

[ka34579]

hey my father and i have been in the marine trade for bout 10 years now with our big reef system and my 75-gal fowlr that we mess around with . Anyway we live in the Boston area and have some regal angel eggs every so often and out of the thousand or so that have been released in our tank, we've only been able to raise 5 beyond a month. If anyone wants to try their hand contact me. ....ps - please avoid the comments like "you cant put regals in a reef tank" or "regals dont breed in captivity" cuz if theres one thing i learned at the beginning of the system 5 years ago its that the normal aquarium rules do not apply to this tank. My father is computer illiterate and i figured i'd try the board since it has been of great help w/ my 75. And does anyone know the conversions to find out how many gallons a tank is? It's 144" L x 48" H x 40" W.....Yes it is a monster, its basically our entire basement but its been sorta a father-son lifes work for two fish freaks. He's wetting himself as I head off a marine bio major next year, thinks im gonna be sending him rare stuff from the lab. Again any questions about the eggs or whatever its no charge or anything lol we're just sick of seeing Saturday night feeding frenzy, it's like discovery channel.

[yardboy]

According to my calculations thats a 1200 gallon tank. I don't know anything about how to raise regal angels from eggs. I was asking about them recently and they are apparently very hard to raise from adults! How are you doing it, as I'd love to have one or two myself!?

[Geoff]

that one month time frame i think is when the fry are undergoing a metamorphosis stage. they usually change food sources around that time and getting the correct food to them is pretty much the battle. their little bodies undergo a pretty dramatic physical change.

just what i have read.

G~

[ka34579]

I dunno my dad runs the show, I just do what he tells me, the guys an animal. My tank has an algae blenny, some clowns, a bluehead and a copperband. The Ocean, as we like to call it, had one regal 3 years ago, about 6 inch long. We were offered the opportunity to take on an 8 inch regal a year later, and figured we had nothing to lose but one of them from fighting. They were vicious towards each other for a good 2 weeks, then one disappeared, im assuming during its sex change? I dunno but It came out of the woodwork after being assumed dead for a week and they paired off. The tank is all acropora i believe? I'm not good with the reef action i only know fish and the maintenance and the equipment. They spawn pretty often at dusk while the moon lamps are on. Eggs arwe released and float to the surface. We power down almost everything and fish them out, aerate them in a 20 gal with just a sandy bottom and live rock...after that I let the master take over. Before i get asked for the tank specs heres what i know.....1200 gal? ....i know theres 350 lbs of tonga LR, but its almost completely siwmming room with two reefs at either end, some grasses in the middle, runs on a 100 gallon sump, as well as a large refugium and a mangrove sump. the base is concret the walls are 2.2 inch thick glass. livestock is mostly acropora. very few inverts, maybe 2 cleaner shrimp, about 20 snails, 7-9 hermit crabs. Fish that we know are living and always visible...2 regals, achilles tang, hippo tang, desjardin tang, atlantic blue tang, 11 green chromis, 13 sunburst anthias, 7 bicolor angels, 5 yellow coris wrasses, 2 pearly jawfish, Johnny Sr., the algae blenny, 3 diamondback sleeper gobies......fish i havent seen in a while (usually just because they never come out of the reef) a marine betta, royal gramma, flame cardinal, clown goby.......now you know why we call it the ocean lol.....any other inquiries ill check back

[JennM]

Wow! That's quite an accomplishment.

I know what that tank looks like size -wise, I just helped a customer buy one from another customer who was downsizing. He also sold me a 1000 gallon. The seller just ordered his new, more manageable, 210 g today

There is someone breeding Centropyge sp. angels, I can't remember the name off the top of my head, I want to say Frank Baensch (sp?) but I am not sure. I remember reading some articles recently about their progress with flame angels breeding in captivity, but I don't recall specifics.

What are you feeding the babies? I would think that planktonic matter would be best, zooplankton, rotifers, artemia, copepods and etc. I've had a bit of experience breeding seahorses but they don't metamorpohsize, they are what they are at birth and just grow. Geoff is right, angel fry change as they progress from larvae to fry and then to juveniles and adults, and it's a very complicated process.

I know many are successful with clownfishes and dottybacks, not sure how much their breeding might resemble that of the regals but it might be a good place to look for ideas.

In my experience, seahorse fry did better when kept in greenwater - water containing microalgae suspended in the water column, and the rotifers and artemia that I was feeding the fry, would gut-load on the microalgae, and thus be a bit more nutritious.

Maybe somebody else will chime in with the name of the person(s) making progress with the Centropyge species angels - I am sure that their breeding info would be more appropriate to the regals.

Good luck, please keep us posted, this is VERY interesting.

Cheers,

Jenn