Baby Painted Frogfish (Antennarius Pictus)

[iamwjv]

I'm trying to introduce a baby frogfish to my tank. small breeder box in a 50 gallon tank. There are other fish in the tank, that is one of the reasons why I don't want him roaming freely. The other reason is ease of eating. I have had my current tank for somewhere around 5 years. When I turn on the lights in the morning I see plenty of copepods or amphiopods diving from the top of the tank, so my tank is very biodiverse. In fact when I put a little cave into the little breeder tank with the frogfish a copepod fell out and started swimming around. My first thought was to try to get it out of my nice little frog fish enclosure. My second thought was what an idiot I was because that could be the perfect prey for the frog fish. So I left it in there. Although afterward I replaced it with a nice dying orange piece ball sponge. I couldn't find the copepod, I think it might have just abandoned the breeder box and swam out.

The local reef store told me to get ghost shrimp from the Pet Smart. I went to Petsmart and got some ghost shrimp, but they looked gigantic, although they were still smaller than the frog fish. (I had an experience in which I had a much bigger frog fish die after it ate a smaller chromis. But after reading some of the hazards of shipping frog fish, I found out that this one might have been doomed from the start. Also, awhile ago I had an issue of Coral Magazine in which it showed a giant frogfish trying to eat a shark that was much bigger than it--i don't think either one made it).

Anyways, I decided what the heck and put one ghost shrimp in. Of course they are freshwater and I have a saltwater tank, and I didn't really acclimate it at all. Really wanting to give the frogfish the advantage of pouncing on a groggy, unacclimated prey item.

The ghost shrimp got along just fine after I let it go into the breeder box. It was actually really interested in the frog fish. It actually pounced on the frog fish. Poking it around the mouth and climbing on the head. I took this as a sign of the frog fish not being interested in ghost shrimp. Last time I got ghost shrimp, they died pretty quickly in the salt water tank. So I thought all was lost. I only bought three ghost shrimp. I decided to put the other two in to see if I could stimulate feeding.

The second one missed the small cube and fell into the main tank. I saw the purple dottyback look at it with interest. Decided to see how much interest. I let the last one in the tank right in front of the dottyback. It went wild, zipping here and there, and disappearing under a bunch of rocks. Leaving the poor confused dottyback way behind (I can't feel too bad for the dotty back because it was probably responsible for a hermit crabs death that very morning. Interestingly enough, the other ghost shrimp swam back into the cube with the curious ghost shrimp and the Frog Fish.

After the adventure of the day I decided to take my kids to the park. When I got back, I did not see the ghost shrimp, suction cuffs for the cube slipped, or rather one did. The angler was still present. Or is that incorrect? I think I read that not all frog fishes are anglers. I am not sure.

Short story long. The frog fish is a very patient fisherfish. I have seen one ignore a sure dinner many times letting it swim back and forth. Not sure what it was waiting for. So the frog fish might of had the opportunity to eat the ghost shrimp. they might have died. Or they might have just swam away.

My question is what do i feed baby frog fishes. Are ghost fish the tried and true method? Should I let him loose into the 50 G to hunt copepods himself? I am worried about aggression from a Maroon Clown, a Blue Devil Damsel, and of course the dottyback that already took a chunk from the damsel. The Petsmart lady said I might try minnows, but that place was closed by the time I got there. The experts at my local reef shop told me it should be fine until it gets bigger. I ultimately want to set up a separate 28 gallon tank for it.

Any comments suggestions?

[rpritch]

Just how big is your frogfish?

Sometimes it takes a few days to settle in before they will eat. Unfortunately, they are known as finicky eaters and tend not to eat anything processed. Your best bet will be gutloaded ghost shrimp.

In terms of putting him into your main tank, that would be dangerous. I would wait as much as a week before I did that. Like I said, they are finicky and may not eat right away. But I wouldn't want him to face competition from any of your other fish. While he occupies a different part of the water column than your other fish, the maroon clown certainly remains an concern.

Besides, if the ghost shrimp swam back into the box, can't the copepods?

[nirvanaandtool]

Small ghost shrimp or guppy fry are the best for getting a small angler to eat. When I got my old painted angler he was barely an inch long. I first net fed him guppy fry and ghost shrimp until he was eating and then I moved to stick feeding live ghosts until he was comfortable with the feeding stick. Once this happened I switched to frozen ghost shrimp and then ultimately frozen food like pieces of squid, shrimp, salmon & whatever other seafood I had in.
Definitely keep him separate from the other fish. Anglers have eyes bigger than their stomachs and wont hesistate to attempt to eat a fish larger than them only to die in the process.

[SOCOMMike]

Definitely don't put him in the tank. You might think he is small but his stomach can expand and he will eat as much as he can. I have a 6 inch Histrio histrio. Right now he looks pregnant because he decided to eat every fiddler crab that was in his tank. I figured he'd pick them off one by one over a week's time -- took him all of five minutes to fulfill his gluttony.