Setting up angler tank

[mrkalel]

Originally posted by ClownReef®
Yeah, i feel bad for the poor angler..baby mollies?....jeez..

Fish have specific needs.. and this is a rushed, bad set up for an angler.. can we convince you into getting a kitty instead?

[elvn]

There are various frogfish and their size differs. Regardless of the size of a particular frogfish and its mouth, they can eat things too large for their own good. There have been cases where they have half a long fish swallowed and they are stuck with half a fish hanging out of their mouth. Just because they can eat a fish almost as large as themself doesn't mean its not dangerous to their health. They can get damaged from eating something too large, either direct damage or digestion/rot problems. We are trying to advise good practices for keeping this type of fish.

Mollies can be brackish but I'm pretty sure their body fat makeup is that of freshwater fish, which is not recommended as food for an animal that eats saltwater prey in the wild. It is also hard to keep a molly stock/breeding tank clean imo so they can end up getting sick. Using your local pet store as a resupply of mollies to supplement the breeding program and losses/feedings can end up introducing illness to a population as well. I consider them dirty fish.

I highly recommend the feeder shrimp. $50 - $70(total shipped) might seem like a lot, but 150 - 250 shrimp can last over a year if you are feeding 2 shrimp per feeding average(size depending) to a single predator. You just have to keep them well in a good stock tank and keep their water from getting filthy.

[elvn]

As people are saying please listen and read up on keeping frogfish. There is a lot of good info in the large "Frogfish Files" thread here on RC as one source.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/s...threadid=613227


Here is a recap. I hope I got most of the important things in here:

--Don't overfeed in either size or frequency. When young maybe every 3-5 days otherwise about once a week. Generally don't feed any single item that is larger than 1/2 the length of the predator. Don't feed non-saltwater prey items.
-- Live food may somehow intrinsically keep frogfish happier and healthier and thus make them live longer.
-- I recommend using a vitamin supplement if you have to use thawed food, and gut-loading(feeding) live food with vitamin+garlic enriched flake food just before feeding the frogfish.
--If feeding thawed food, be very careful about possible damage to the frogfish internally or his jaw from feeding stick mishaps(stuck on stick/gobbled way up stick frogfish). Live food without a stick is best.
--There are very few tankmates you can safely keep with a frogfish. They are typically kept in their own tank. Many animals will pick at the frogfish and his only defense is camouflage. Frogfish will try to eat many other things that it shouldn't too, even overly large things which could damage it. It can be difficult to assure that the frogfish gets fed in a population of animals and/or a large tank.
--Don't let them injest/gulp air since they can get an air bubble stuck in their gut, which will make them float and be unable to eat, and will ultimately kill them. (You can try 'burping' them by holding them underwater with their face pointing upward and gently rubbing their belly forward, but it doesn't always work and the whole occurrence can be very traumatic to the fish).
--Keep their tank clean. They lay poop that builds up. Also frogfish tanks generally have lower current so that the frogfish doesn't get blown away riding a loop of current, which makes it harder to export filth.
--In a smaller tank any changes are magnified quickly. Salinity, nitrates, temp, etc. You have to really keep up on maintaining it.

[SWaquariast]

This is true I don't know much about frogfish but I am getting the frogfish in a month.

[kar93]

A month should give you plent of time to get to know the basic aspects or keeping Frogfish.

Good luck to y'.

[SWaquariast]

I think I might get a fuge skimmer