Regal Tang setteling in...

I just added a Regal Tang to my 300ltr tank.

How long do they take to settle in and start swimming around happily?

As soon as I added him, he dissapeared under a rock and I didn't see him for a good hour or two. I thought he was dead, so turned the lights on and started digging around, lifted up a rock and he swam out...which was good, I thought he was dead. I've now left him alone and turned the lights back off and will leave them off for another 2 hours or so.

How long do they take to get settled in and swim about? Do they always hide under rocks for ages when they have just moved in?

I do have plenty of hiding places for him (loads of liverock, plus other normal rock, loads of caves etc), as I read they need that...

Also food wise, is there anything else that Tangs like except:

Frozen Prawn, Brine Shirmp and Krill
Algal Pellets

 

Tangs need a diet heavy on seaweed, I would pick up some nori sheets from the supermarket (or asian market if you know of one). I rubberband mine to a pole in my tank for grazing. picking up some formula 1 or 2 flakes and pellets along with some selcon and garlic might not be a bad idea either as regals are notorious for coming down with HLLE if not given a proper and varied diet.

~Will.

 

Regal tangs.. Or i should say tangs in general will hide for the next few days.... maybe comming out to eat then hide again.. This is normal in my experance, the fish is just trying to get use to the new surrounds and will take a lil time for it to swimm around and be happy...



Best of luck...

 

+1 to above. It took my regal tang almost a week to stop hiding and start eating. Yours may do the same, and may also get ich from the stress. Just provide him with lots of things to graze on (especially nori soaked in selcon or garlic juice), and he should be ok.

 

I was going to get some dried seaweed but my fish store said it was better to get the Algal Pellets becuase dried seaweed gives off tons of Ammonia when it breaks away. Is it also worth getting dried seaweed anyway?

Ok cool, i'l keep an eye on him...he still hiding away. Seems to be lying on his side a lot, I think that's normal behaviour for Tangs though, right?

EDIT: Actually that makes no sense, since Algal Pellets are alge, not seaweed...

 

Regal tangs are much more omnivorous than most other tangs and will eat a lot of meaty foods as well as veggies. Not to say that you shouldn't give him the seaweed as well. The more balanced the better. Mine is also very skittish and hides upon the slightest provocation. I'm sure yours will come out eventually.

+1 on the advice about giving garlic. It seems to really help mine as he will start to scratch himself on the rocks if I haven't given him garlic within a few days.

Congrats on getting the fish, they are really beautiful and are active swimmers once they get over the shyness!

 

Also, is it worth treating the tank with a white spot treatment? My fish store recommends a treatment to start 24 hours after the new fish have been introduced.

 

I suppose it wouldn't hurt if you don't have any corals or inverts. Depending on the treatment it might kill these. Are you quarantining your fish before putting them into the display? It's not a bad idea to give them medicinal baths in QT before adding to the display. If you're not quarantining your fish, you should strongly consider doing so. Eventually you'll learn the hard way like I did. I infected my tank water with brooklynella and now I can't keep clowns. They just develop symptoms and die within a few days of me putting them into the display...all because I didn't QT my first fish that I put into the aquarium. I figured...they're the first fish, so if they're sick it won't hurt anything else. Oops.

 

I have some hermits, would a treatment hurt them? Don't have any Corals or any other inverts tho.

I gave the Regal a freshwater bath in a smaller tank before adding him to my big one.

 

From my understanding, copper will kill any invertebrates, so make sure it doesn't have that. Otherwise, I suppose it would be okay, but if you plan to keep corals, you wouldn't want to use any medicines because they can be absorbed by the rocks and slowly leach out. It'd be extremely hard to "un-do." I'd treat them in the smaller tank that you used for your bath if you plan to do it.