Pro V food for Regal Angel?

[Maxx]

Hi Lee,
I have a small (4 inch) Indo Pacific Regal Angel that I was told came from Vanuatu. I've had it since the end of November, (almost 4 months) and got it to replace the Red Sea Regal I had for over a year after my Ritteri Anemone wandered into a pump intake and got shredded. The nematocycsts released by the shredded anemone killed all my fish except for my clowns.

Anyway, this Regal will cheerfully eat scallop, mysis, mysid, and uncooked shrimp. In QT it ate Spectrum New Life pellets, but hasnt been fed them since being placed in the display tank in Mid January. The Regal wont touch Nori on the clip. nor will it eat brocolli (Like my Red Sea Regal did), beyond a single bite. I have read of a couple instances where Regal Angels ate Pro V frozen food from Pro-Salt. What are your thoughts on this food? Do you have any other suggestions for some sort of greenery for the Angel to eat? I'm concerned about the long term health of the Angel since it is currently only eating meaty foods. It used to eat Angel Formula by Ocean Nutrition, (while in QT),but has recently ignored it.

Anythoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

Nick

 

[leebca]

A meaty-foods diet isn't a big problem for these fishes providing you are feeding whole foods. Most on your list are whole foods. If you don't have any shrimp in your display, you may include ocean plankton and krill to its diet.

Pro V and other foods that contain Spirulina should be your choice. Try some of the foods claiming to be for herbivores. They are not for herbivores, but they are really for omnivores. Prefer gelled and frozen above any other types of foods.

 

[Maxx]

Thanks Lee. I'll look for some other foods to try w/ spirulina. The angel has shown no interest in Formula 2. Do know anywhere online where I could find Pro V? None of the local stores carry it.

BTW, The shrimp are uncooked, but have been shelled. Is a problem?

Nick

 

[csababubbles]

I am having difficulty similar to you with my regal. In the beginning he used to eat anything that was white (clam, shrimp, etc). Then he stopped eating from the water column for a few weeks and only ate clams on the shell that I dropped in the tank. Then he stopped eating that and only accepted sponge. Then he refused that and started eating only Formula 2 frozen cubes and nothing else. Now he's starting to eat clams on the shell again out of nowhere. He just randomly keeps stopping eating foods that he has eaten for a while, almost like he gets sick of it after a while. Its real tough keeping up with this fish's feeding nuances.

Maxx, uncooked shrimp should be the only kind of shrimp you feed them. Cooked shrimp is for us people to enjoy.

 

[leebca]

Unshelled uncooked is okay. Is it with heads still on or just tails?

Check Reef Frontiers sponsors for online sources. You might also do an Internet search for the product and/or manufacturer for where they outlet the product.

 

[Maxx]

Lee, its just the tails of shrimp.

I've looked all over for online vendors of Pro V, but havent found any as of yet. I can however become a vendor of Pro-salt foods if I purchase $350 worth of product from them....

I'll keep looking.

Nick

 

[DonW]

You can also try nutrimar ova. Break off big frozen chuncks and finiky big fish love it and the rest of the tank gets the left overs.

Don

 

[NC2WA]

Nick,

Who is the maker of Pro-V. I've been checking myself for the last 15 mins and found nothing except Pantene Pro-V shampoo.

Kirk

 

[Maxx]

Soory Csabba, somehow I missed your post....I've been keeping up with your thread on your Regal. This one just doesnt eat as well/strongly/as varied a diet as my last one...which sucks. I knew about the uncooked part as thats how you get the most nutrients/protein to the fish. I just wasnt sure if Lee was under the impression that the shells were still on these shrimp.

Don, thanks for that heads up. I'll have to look for Nutrimar Ova. Is there an online vendor that you know of that sells it?

NC2WA,

LOL....Pro-Salt makes it. Google Pro-Salt, and you'll find their homepage....which so far is the only place online I've found it for sale.....dont need $350 worth tho....

Nick

 

[csababubbles]

i found a bunch of places that sell them online, including one in long island in ny. just did a quick google search. but the makers of this food, pro-salt, seem sketchy. they do not list any ingredients in all of there foods on their website, just say it has plant, crustacean, and fish ingredients. i emailed them but no response after a few days yet. i'm not going to get it until i get some sort of answer.

on a side topic, my regal must have been drunk last night, cause he was loose as a goose.....he was eating so much different kinds of food right from the water column out of nowhere. hopefully it may have finally kicked in for him? on top of formula 2 he ate formula 1, marine plankton, little bit of seaweed, and some other pieces of some stuff in my homemade food i could not recognize. yay! keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[csababubbles]

Alright guys, well I got a response from the ProSalt guys and it seems like they got a pretty good product going here. I'm not too happy with some of the terrestrial vegetables they use, but otherwise it seems like a good mix. Here is what they sent me:

Pro V - 100% Vegetable. For all Herbivore Tropical Fish. Contains 11
different aquatic & terrestial vegetables and algae chopped and blended
and bound together by a seaweed gelatin. Pro V contains natural color
enhancers and fortified with vitamins and minerals and is nutritionally
complete for all Herbivore.

INGREDIENTS: Wakame, Ulva, Culepra, Spiriluna Algae, Spinach, Collard
Greens, Kale, Peas, Carrots,
Zucchini, Alfalfa Meal, Agar, Zeaxanthin, Beta Carotene.
Vitamins: A, C, D3, E, K, B1, B2, B3, B6, B12, Folic Acid, Biotin,
Pantothenic Acid.
Minerals: Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Iron, Zinc, Copper,
Manganese, Chromium,
Sodium, Potassium.
Amino Acids: Alanine, Arginine, Aspartic Acid, Cystine, Gltamic Acid,
Glysine, Histidine,
Isoleucine, Leucine, Lysine, Methionine, Phenylalanine, Proline,
Serine, Threonine,
Tryptophan, Tyrosine, Valine.

PRO GREEN Pro Green Plus - Herbivore/Omnivore- same great ingredients
as our original Pro Green, improved with the addition of Vitamins &
Minerals, Krill, Romaine Lettuce and Kelp bound together with water stable
binders to provide ample time for your
Tropical Fish to pick and graze on their food without losing the
vitamins & nutrients to the filtration system.

INGREDIENTS: Fish, Shrimp, Krill , Clams, Kelp, Green Algae, Spiriluna
Algae, Romaine Lettuce, Gelatin,
Casein, Water, Omega 3, Omega 6, Fatty Acid.
Vitamins: A, C, D3, K, E (alphatocopherol) B1, B2, B3, B6, B12, Folic
Acid, Biotin, Pantothenic Acid.
Minerals: Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Iron, Zinc, Copper,
Manganese, Chromium,Sodium, Potassium.
Amino Acids: Arginine, Glycine, Histidine, Isoleucine, Lysine,
Methionine, Cystine, Phenylalanine, Tyrosine, Serine, Threonine,
Tryptophan, Valine.

 

[Maxx]

Okay Csabba......google must work differently for you, cause I just got nuthin.....again. What search terms are you using? Cause Pro V Fish Food, Pro V frozen fish food, and Pro salt fish food is not getting anywhere.

What places did you find online?

Nick

 

[csababubbles]

http://www.bio-aquatics.com/frozen4.html
http://www.pets-warehouse.com/aquariumfish.html

theres more but that should get you started

 

[NC2WA]

Nick,

http://www.bio-aquatics.com/frozen4.html was the first place I found but was not sure it was the company that made Pro-V.

Now I know it is. Thanks Csabubbles.

I assume Pro-V would be good for any large angel and not just the Regal angel ??

I plan on having 3-4 large angels in my tank one day; maybe a group buy might be the way to go??

Kirk

 

[csababubbles]

In the past week or two that I have been feeding my Regal Angel this new food, he has completly switched personality. He is now feeding on this food aggressively and has tripled his food intake. I can see a noticeable difference in size and girth in him in the past few weeks. And another benefit is that he is ingesting other pieces of food in his feeding frenzy. I have new hope for him. I highly recommend you guys who are having difficult getting your regal to eat anything that you try the ProV from ProSalt. It has the same composition as Formula 2 by ON that I have gotton to eat in the past but this new stuff is incredible in how its changed his desire to eat. And the ingredients are very herbivorous and when coupled with the Formula 2 which is mostly krill, shrimp and other meaty foods, i think its provided a decent diet for the time being and to get him into the habit of feeding from the water column.

 

[leebca]

You are advanced enough in this hobby to realize it wasn't the food that began the fish's eating response you now see. You see, the fish was still acclimating and until now, was not acclimated enough to begin its characteristic feeding habits. That is why their survival rate is about 1 in 25 within the first 6 months of captivity. The majority never fully acclimate and there is nothing we can do to make it happen.

It is a common anecdotal observation to assign the response to the food being offered at the time. That is why there are so many 'testimonials' as to what food will work best. Few foods are more enticing than others. An acclimated fish will eat fish poop with enthusiasm not because of the value of the excrement, but because the fish is acclimated and hungry.

 

[csababubbles]

I guess my experience in this hobby did not teach me to come to that conclusion. I had assumed it was the food. And I am usually a critic of people saying a certain food is the secret to keeping a fish, similar to the Moorish Idol and those pellets. But at least I had a perfectly good reason I thought up for the sudden increase of a feeding response. I had assumed it was the food because he immediately went specifically after the green solid piece with such enthusiasm that I have not seen in him except for the very similar but tough-to-chew Formula 2. This was much softer but still looked very similar. As soon as he tasted the first one, he swam to the top of the water column where I was standing and stood there waiting for another piece. It made my day!

You mentioned that is was not acclimated enough to begin its characteristic feeding habits. But aren't a regal angel's feeding characteristics of the type that yanks off of sponges from the substrate versus eating from the water column?

A final question for you if you don't mind offering your opinion. The tank is still very sparely populated. I had wanted to bring in a panda puffer and moorish idol to this tank as the final inhabitants but is it too soon now since the angel just started feeding well and becoming acclimated? What would the appropriate amount of time to wait be? The puffer and idol are both well acclimated and living in another smaller tank at the moment that I want to get them out of. Do you think the combo of a panda puffer, Idol, regal & potter angel, and copperband bf would be ok for a 220 display?

 

[leebca]

Acclimation comes in stages, often taking weeks, months or years and then for some, never. Even I mis-stated the change in eating behavior you've reported. The fish hasn't become acclimated, it has just moved on to another step in the acclimation process. The more one type of food is offered now, the more that fish will refuse other foods, later.

I know the feeling when a fish begins to enthusiastically eat!

Most hobbyists come to the conclusion you have, but it's connecting the wrong dots. The picture is much bigger. No one ever mentions that their fish began to eat by coincidence, it has to be for a reason they can see. Abstract reasons to the hobbyist are usually out of reach. It's one of the differences between hobbyist and aquarist.

I think the combo of the group you mentioned sounds good. There are always some reservations based upon individual personalities which usually don't manifest until put together with the other fishes. But by general guidelines, those fish have similar temperaments and should get along well. It would be best to put them together sooner than later. As time goes by, like feeding the same type of food, the fish will get into a habit or rut and think its tank belongs to it. Although this often leads to territorial issues, the subtlety of the matter is that some fish withdraw and give up fighting for food when faced with a 'bully' or another 'enthusiastic' fish. Keep an eye out for any of the group that is too pushy for the rest. Like I wrote above, in general terms, they are of good temperament and should get along.

 

[NC2WA]

csabubbles,

are you able to find this food? It appears prosalt is out of business??

 

[csababubbles]

i dunno, i just checked their website and it looks like its shutdown. Going to have to call them monday to find out. I bought about $400 worth of food a few months back from them so I am good to go for a while. there are online vendors that still sell it though.