The Frogfish Files

[raddogz]

I want to go out and get a frog fish. Okay with more research first, but I still want one. These fish are damn cute. I just busted up with the movie. It's too damn funny and cool at the same time.

Mwa ha ha....

[blkwrxwgn]

I GOT ONE!! Found a nice yellow and black spotted frog fish for $25 at a LFS!! He's only about 2" long at the most and had just eaten a live molly before I got there. Pics will follow later tonight.

[Fishy1]

Glad you could find one, and at such a reasonable price! Looking forward to seeing the pics

Janey

[allimar]

I just picked up a Sargassum Fish a few days ago. He is eating well, just about anything that goes into the tank. He ignores our Yellow Tang, and can't catch the Damsel.
I would like to get ahold of some actual Sargassum, to help him keep his color -and make him feel more "at home".

On a similar note, he occupies a 40g FOWLR tank, I would like to put a Frogfish of similar size in there, but I worry that they will spend all day hunting each other.
I was hoping that I could target feed each one, in different areas of the tank. i.e. Sargassum Fish up high on some Macroalgae, and the Frogfish down on the substrate.

They seem to be relatively "trainable" as far as fish go. Maybe they won't be interested in each other as food items if they are getting fed for free at their own "dinner tables"?

If this is a just plain bad idea, please let me know -especially if you have tried it and it didn't work.

[Fishy1]

Cannibalism is always a risk with these guys from what reading I've done. I have an arc-eye hawkfish in with my painted frogfish and it's working out quite well. If you do try it and it works, let us know Good luck!

Fishy1

[Fishy1]

I just posted about cannibalism risk being high for frogfishes, and just finished bragging about how my frogfish was doing well living with an arc-eye hawkfish........look what just happened! Dudley is now Fat Albert and the arc-eye is history Hope Dudley lives to eat another day!

Keep in mine the arc-eye was at least as big as the frogfish if not a little bigger!

[allimar]

I'm sorry to hear that. I'm working on a new aquascaping layout that will physically isolate the two predators, without interfering too much with the movements of the other fish. Circulation is posing a problem at the moment.

[Fishy1]

Way to go Allimar Keep them separate!

Dudley started extremely heavy breathing and coughing this afternoon. This evening I took action and did "surgery" on him. Scott Michael says that once they eat a too big food item and it starts to decompose it causes gases in their ailementary tract that then causes them to float. Once floating sets in the die within 2 to 3 days. He has tried asperating the tract with sea water to no avail, and tried removal of food item with tweezers usually unsucessfully. He says if you are able to remove it sometimes they may die anyway. Not very good odds are they? Anyway I took action as Dudley was ballooning up and breathing so very hard. I have a pair of my father's watchmaker's needle nose tweezers. One end is very sharp pointed, the other a rounded blunt like a tongue depresser. I tried to hold him in my left hand and insert the blunt end in his pinched open cheeks to trace the food route. A lot of white rotten smelling liquid spewed out. Once the food route was found I used the tweezer end to try and pull out the hawkfish. I got a couple of small pieces and was polluting the tank water terribly. I removed Dudley to a paper towel on the kitchen counter and proceeded to do the same thing with positive results. I pulled a huge hunk of decaying fish from his stomach. He looked dead after the "surgery" but upon closer examination there was a trace of life. I said Lord, you've got me this far I'm going to leave it up to you if he lives or not. I took him back to the tank and after one minute his gills started moving. He could not right himself so I just held him in proper position in my hand. 2 minutes later his tail moved. I reposioned him back beside the toadstool leather (his favorite spot) and he's been sitting there for about a half hour now with respiration not near as labored as before surgery. If he lives I know who to give credit to At least he has a chance now. He had none before. I'll post again sometime tomorrow. Say some prayers for Dudley tonight

Thanks

[dwarfatize]

wow! that must have taken some guts to do. I hope dudley makes a fast recovery.

[Fishy1]

I did take guts ( I asked the Lord to help me)........a move out of desperation. Dudley is still alive this morning Not sure which way he's going to go. Still doing some laboured breathing but definitely hanging in there. His tummy is completely flat now like it should be We will be gone most of the day so hope he's the same/better when I get home. I'm going to leave the lights off and just run the moon light for him. Hopefully that will be less stressful for him........

[Fishy1]

Sad news to report......just got home and Dudley had passed away I feel terrible right now but glad he's not suffering anymore......I tried to save him but it just wasn't meant to be.

[Thales]

So sad.
I have lost two in the last 4 months to the same kind of thing you were discribing. Fast breating, darting and then dying. I feel terrible, and don't know if I will get another one.

[allimar]

Knock on wood, we won't have to do the same thing. I'm going to start watching Elmer very closely from now on.

Maybe a more conservative feeding routine for him. 4-5 small guppies a week, or 2 Silversides a week.

Curious, what's the longest anyone has managed to keep an Angler?

[Bio-Mass]

What I have done is buy a bunch of rosie reds from the LFS and freeze them and the soak them with vita-chem. Then dangle them in front of the anglers and they gobble them up. I only feed my anglers one fish three times a week. That's about all they need. Anglers can go without food for a long time since they have a low metabolic rate and are efficient at assimilating nutrients from their foods.

[Reefcherie]

Fishy1 - so sorry to hear about your loss! I know you must be sad, but thank you for sharing your story...perhaps the rest of us will have learned something that can help us. When Bumpkin died (the fish at the very start of this thread) with similar symptoms, I didn't make a connection with the two small fish I'd put in with him - I saw the heavy breathing and thought gill parasites. Now I suspect he ate both fish one right after the other and even though they were less than an inch each, two together was probably too much. From now on, Fuggly gets one small fish or ghost shrimp every 3 days or so and that is all!

Cheri

[Fishy1]

That's the good thing about this forum......we can learn from the mistakes of others and avoid so much heartache! Everytime I walk by Dudleys tank I cringe.......now I have the uncertainty of trying to find another healthy speicman. I'll post again when/if I do. Thanks for being there.....

[BlennyBabe]

Wow thats terrible to hear. I hope my frog is alright. I had to leave him up at school while Im home for Christmas. I usually put in 4 fish a week, but ne normally doesnt eat them all. I still havent been successful with frozen. Sometimes if Cow is really really hungry he'll go for it. He isnt that big of a pig. I have one Molly that has been in there for a few months. Im going to take her out soon because she is getting too big. I cant do ghostshrimp like i can Mollies. He goes after them until there are none left. but with mollies he just picks one off every few days. Anyway, my condolences, Fishy. Hope you can find another frogfish to love.

[Stix]

WoW those frogfish are cool!!! I have just plumbed a 75 gallon prop tank to my 300 gallon main system. I wanted to put something in the prop tank that I can't keep with the other fish but is safe with corals. A Frogfish seems like the perfect idea. The tank is bare bottom with eggcrate. Maybe I'll put a couple rocks in there for the frogfish? Also, is a frogfish safe with all kinds of corals and anemones? And what about people-safe? I will have my hands in the tank often working on stuff. Is it dangerous to have a frogfish in a tank which my hands will often be in?
Thanks in Advance,
-Nick

[Fishy1]

Frogfish are people/reef safe. The only potential problem would be if they decide to perch on one of your corals. This would stop the polyps from extending and possibly irritate the coral. Even that can be solved by a gentle nudge when encountered. I would not, however, put one in with anemones. They aren't very smart and would probably end up getting stung.......HTH

[Fishy1]

Thanks for the condolences, Blennybabe Good idea about removing the big mollie. You don't want to go through what I just did! Hope you have yours for a long, long time!

[Fishy1]

Cherie, when I get my new frog I'm going to name him Bumpkin after the one you had......such a cute name

[mantisshrimp]

I just got a 2.5" brown frogfish today for 40.00.He already ate 12 ghost shrimp.My LFS has like 13 frogfish all different kinds and size from 9" to 1.5".

[Fishy1]

Congratulations Mantisshrimp......welcome to the world of frogfish fanatics Glad he's eating for you but please don't let him overeat.......12 ghost shrimp sound like a bit much! You don't want to lose him like I did Dudley from overeating......wish our LFS had so many to choose from.....you got lucky and the price was awesome too

[mantisshrimp]

Yeah they ordered like five a few weeks ago and they sold so fast ,so I guess they had to order more.

[mantisshrimp]

Golly,I sure hope he doesn't die.