The Frogfish Files - Page 23

Reefcherie · #**551** 05/05/2004, 06:36 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Fishy1
Al yur Pal, I don't think a 20H is too small for a 2 inch frog (providing it's not a giant species).

Al yur Pal - I'm with Fishy1 on this one. A 20H will be fine if you have a frogfish that stays small, like A. maculatus, but if you have one that gets to be 6+ inches (remember that these guys don't just grow long and slender - they put on girth at the same time), you are likely to have water quality issues. What goes in, must eventually come out

. They don't usually move around much, but they do seem to want to go for that occasional crazy, hilarious looking swim. If you are good w/ your water changes, you could certainly start with a 20H for that sized frogfish, then move up in size if you need to later.

Fishy1 - love that picture! They almost seem cuddly!

Cheri

Newflee · #**552** 05/08/2004, 03:11 PM

Well Meatball is back on frozen food. I can't figure out why he's so eager one week to eat frozen yet refuses the next. Here are a couple pics of the action. Frozen mackarel a la carte.

I had to photoshop the pics a bit because they are so crappy. Not good pics but you get the idea.

Lee

Before...........

Newflee · #**553** 05/08/2004, 03:12 PM

after.....

Reefcherie · #**554** 05/10/2004, 07:10 AM

Newflee - Cool pictures! I'm amazed you could capture that!

OK... I mentioned to my husband that checking out one of my favorite LFS on Mother's Day would be fun....and here's the result - I think I got Meatball's twin! He/she is hanging out in the clam tank (that now has a temperature controller!) and seems to be doing fine so far. He's about 3.5" long and really chunky!

I hate that the name "Meatball" is already taken

!! I keep looking at him and thinking that is exactly right. Anyone care to suggest a name for him/her?

Cheri

Jow13 · #**555** 05/10/2004, 08:06 AM

Oh wow, he/she is a beaut. What a wonderful mothers day present. As for a name it is too bad meatball is taken he looks like a little meatball. But here are the names of some of my fish Walter, Gizmo, Pudge, Noodles, Tony, and Hyde.

Fishy1 · #**556** 05/10/2004, 09:49 AM

What a sweet Mother's Day present, Cheri

He reminds me of a snickers bar....all chocolaty and full of nuts. Maybe call him snickers?LOL!!

Janey

blackangler · #**557** 05/10/2004, 04:59 PM

how bout nuts

Newflee · #**558** 05/10/2004, 05:00 PM

Looks like he's a Warty eh?

FireEater · #**559** 05/10/2004, 08:22 PM

Tried to delete my other post about this but it wouldn't let me. I wanted to move it here. So here it is.

The sargassum grass is out on full force down here now. I went out collecting yesterday in it.

I picked up lots of sargassum shrimp and nudibranches.

I also picked up a 3 to 4 inch sargassum angler. He is now in my refugium. I had to keep him in the bucket all night and slowly add some salt mix water to it. The Dike water where I caught him tested at 1.012. I slowly brought it up to 1.023 before I went to bed. He was still doing great in the morning and had eaten some of the shrimp that were still in there.

Here is some great info on keeping the anglers

Attached is a pic of mine.

Mark

Reefcherie · #**560** 05/10/2004, 08:39 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Newflee
Looks like he's a Warty eh?

Newflee: That's what they told me and that is certainly what it appears to be. Am I right that its coloring and markings are very similar to yours?

FireEater: What a beautiful frogfish! I envy your ability to go out and see this fish in its natural environment! That is a great article by Scott Michael. It is nearly identical in wording to information he has in his Reef Fishes Vol. 1 book, the Angler chapter. The one fact he has in the book but didn't put in this article, is that Sargassum frogfish can jump. You'll want to make sure your refugium is covered if it isn't already. Best of luck with him/her!

Cheri

Newflee · #**561** 05/10/2004, 08:43 PM

Cool, It must be neat to collect your own marine stuff that close to home. I used to live in Vancouver a long time ago when I was not yet into the hobby. I wish I was into it at the time. A chiller would be a must but the cold water invertibrate life is some of the most colorfull I've seen. When the tide goes out it is like picking strawberries.

ps. Yes the coloring of the new warty is similar to Meatball , but meatballs spots are smooth and look like bullseyes.

Reefcherie · #**562** 05/11/2004, 09:37 AM

I decided that his/her name will be "Jabba"

He's got that fat-bellied alien thing going!

Cheri

BlennyBabe · #**563** 05/11/2004, 02:26 PM

Thats a great name! to go with an awesome fish. Very cool mothers day present.

Wee Man · #**564** 05/14/2004, 05:16 PM

sigh should have named him meatloaf

Reefcherie · #**565** 05/14/2004, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Wee Man
sigh should have named him meatloaf

You are right! That would have worked too!

In case anyone is wondering if that coloration makes good camoflauge, the answer is YES! I almost paniced this morning when I couldn't find him (in a 20-gallon tank no less) - he's put himself in the shadow of a coral, on top of some live rock and he completely blended in!

Cheri

gumbybc · #**566** 05/14/2004, 05:30 PM

that is so awesome. I am currently setting up a new ten gallon, trying to decide if i should venture into the wonderful world of frogfish.

texasreefer · #**567** 05/14/2004, 05:33 PM

They are really good at camoflauge. I have a couple of Sargassum Anglers I collected w/ FireEater and you have to really look to see them. They both picked out spots between the liverock underneath some mushrooms. I have a couple pictures of them posted in my photo gallery. I showed a friend of mine the pictures and her first words were "What is that?". She couldn't believe we caught them locally.

Reefcherie · #**568** 05/16/2004, 09:17 AM

Yesterday Jabba looked completely fine. Every few hours he moved to a new ambush site in the tank - not a hint of a problem. This morning - dead, one week after I got him. He last had a one inch saltwater minnow on Wednesday. The minnow had been properly quarantined and had been in my feeder tank about a month. I had just tested the water quality parameters and had done a large water change on Friday.

The tank the frogfish was in is having a clam pathogen problem...but it seems very implausible to me that a clam pathogen could kill a fish...most things like that are completely host specific.

So all I really know is that he didn't die from overfeeding or a parasite introduced from the feeder fish. I have absolutely no clue and am really, really sad about this.

My other frogfish (had since October '04) appears to still be doing fine.

Cheri

spanker · #**569** 05/16/2004, 09:50 AM

Weak. sorry to hear this Cheri...

Fishy1 · #**570** 05/16/2004, 12:23 PM

Bummer! So sorry to hear this

He was such a cute little guy too......

Fishy1

BlennyBabe · #**571** 05/16/2004, 08:28 PM

How sad. Im really sorry to hear about your loss. He was such a cute little guy. Im glad that your other one is doing alright though.

FireEater · #**572** 05/17/2004, 08:00 AM

Sorry to hear about that.

I have only fed the one I caught about 3 times and he is already associated me with food.

I go near his tank and he comes up to the glass and swims back and forth rapidly. Kinda funny how he did that so quickly.

Mark

Reefcherie · #**573** 05/17/2004, 08:38 AM

Yeah, it is interesting how they make the association so quickly. If I walk into the room and lean close to Fuggly's tank, his lure immediately comes out...it is actually pretty funny to me! Of course the rest of my fish in our other tanks are exactly the same way - without the lure. You'd think I never fed them the way they act!

Thanks for the kind words folks.

Cheri

Reefcherie · #**574** 05/23/2004, 02:06 PM

I finally got some decent pictures of the Fuggly with the banana yellow coloring he's had for several months now. I never got a picture when he was peach color (the phase between the orange/red and the yellow. You can also see the growth. The first picture (red) was last October: red, black, orange/red, yellow.

and then just a mug shot

BlennyBabe · #**575** 05/24/2004, 01:29 PM

I woke up this morning to find Cow, my A. pictus, dead. I'm so sad. I have had him since February of 2003. He looks perfect. No decay or deterioration, nothing protruding from his anus like others have seen. No overly bloated belly from eating too large of prey item. He just looked still this morning. He was up against the filter intake, which is normal for him because thatâ€™s where he hunted for mollies. They eat the food that gets stuck to the filter and then he eats them. Well the two mollies I left in there were still there and there is nothing really that he could have eaten that would have harmed him. Maybe he swallowed the huge bristle worm, but I find this highly unlikely because even when I was starving him he wouldnâ€™t even look at the worm. He doesnâ€™t look like he was distressed either. He looks just like he always did. I only noticed that he was dead because I had to pour about 2 gallons of top off water in to his tank. I was away all weekend and it had evaporated quite a bit. I got home after the lights were off and I added about Â¾ a gallon. Cow got blown around a little but I didnâ€™t think anything of it. Looking back I know he was already dead when I got home. This morning I added some more water and noticed that he didnâ€™t respond. So I stuck my hand in there to discover that he had died. I'm going to donate his body to my schools ichthyology collection of specimens. I doubt that they have any antennarius. I'm going to miss that little weird fish. Reef Cheris, Your angler looks exactly like Cow does. Down to the frilly pink cheeks. Hopefully you can keep yours much longer than I have been able to keep Cow.