Anyone know anything on anglers?

[Afishperson]

I'm getting a 120g fowlr
I really love the freakiness of anglers
Anyone know anything at all on them
Would be a great help thanks

[rayn]

I just went through the same thing. 120 will be big for them. They are able to eat fish bigger then them too. I forget the thread, do a search for frogfish and read up on them. There is a big thread on them.

[rayn]

Can't get the link to copy, but it is

Frogfish files

[ashtree68]

They belong in a species only tank, they will (try to) eat anything they can, even up to a bit bigger than themselves, and then usually die due to a slow metabolism. I'm not sure if there's the link for the video in the above mentioned link but there's a video of one eating a sailfin tankg without much problem.

Make sure you get a healthy specimen and your parameters are on check, I got a really nice one from DD awhile back, looked great, my parameters were spot on, didn't transfer him out of water (If they gasp during the transfer from bag to tank they can get air inside of their stomach and cause buoyancy issues, also if you feed to much and the food starts to break down in their GI track gas can be produced also causing buoyancy issues), and fed him a good diet.

A couple days after getting him he was swimming around and active, which I just thought he was stressed out due to being in a new home and everything, turned black (which can be a thing, don't buy an angler on their colour as they change as they feel like it/their surroundings), and I just figured my tank is darker the sand is black, he was just blending in. Ultimately he died. Still not sure why, could have just been SAD (sudden angler death) but still it sucks. I want to get another one down the road, but right now still bummed about it so not sure.

There are people who have kept them successfully don't get me wrong, but they just require special attention.

[SecretiveFish]

We have been keeping a dwarf angler in a 20 gallon tank for the last 5 months. With our experiences with him, I agree that a species tank is best for them for multiple reasons: it can be hard to train them to eat frozen, as in our will still not eat frozen (we made a mistake trying to string a silverside with some thread and he still remembers getting 'caught'), so you may have to provide them live food of some sort for an undefined amount of time; from assorted reading they will attempt to eat fish they should not (no direct experience with this as ours been a tank by himself); and also from assorted reading they may get picked at by fish larger than themselves.

Funny story with ours, for whatever reason all of the pet stores were out of ghost shrimp for an extended amount of time. We had to feed him so we got some chromis (sorry guys), and as luck would have it 2 of the chromis are smarter than the angler. The 2 chromis have been in the tank with angler for 2 months!?!. Not so funny story, we gave him ick from the freshwater ghost shrimp.

IMO these guys are like aquatic reptiles. With reptiles, there really aren't many that can be successfully housed with another species. Nearly all of the reptiles available for pets have to go in a tank by themselves...

In with the our angler are mushrooms, leathers, macro algeas, hermit crabs, snails, a clam, zoanthids, and 2 chromis (not intentional tank mates though).

[Kengaroo131]

i had a giant frogfish in one of my old tanks and man was that thing cool. weaning mine wasnt to bad it took me about 3 weeks i know its not the best technique but feed him live feeder fish to get him used to your tank and comfortable then dont feed him for a week or so you will see him start to "fish" for food at that time go in with the frozen good and thawed and wave it right in his face.

[namxas]

IME/IMHO, anglers belong in species tanks.

Not so funny story, we gave him ick from the freshwater ghost shrimp.

Not to derail the thread, but Crypto won't even live in FW, and there are very few pathogens that are transmitted from crustaceans to fish. How can this have happened? In a pinch, FW ghosties are about the best live substitute there is for SW predators.

[Wolverine]

I agree on both of Greg's points.

A 120g is quite a bit bigger than you need for an angler. It's nicer to keep them in a small tank where they're easy for you to find to enjoy, and they just don't need a lot of room.

[olemiss reb]

I had a large one in a 150. I added a trigger thinking it was too big to be eaten, wrong. Angler died shortly thereafter, pretty sure the trigger rotted in it's stomach. If I ever do another it will be a species tank.

http://i934.photobucket.com/albums/ad181/jstari78/DSC_22232.jpg

[carterd]

I got an angler once even though I knew they were a challenge to keep. Made a point of feeding it live saltwater feeders. Seemed to be doing well but then died suddenly.

[namxas]

One of the issues with anglers is that they can die due to a little-understood phenomenon known as SAD (Sudden Angler Death), where a seemingly thriving fish will simply up and die, but more often, they dart around the tank, bloat, and die. We lost our first 3 anglers that way, and didn't try again for a couple of years.

Anglers aren't really hard to keep if you get one that "sticks around".