Synanceia

Bro Lester, Do you notice if this behaviour affect the froggy's appetite?

Like to find out from anybody who keeps 2 or more frogfish in the same tank - have you observed any behavioural display (rather aggression or not) from one frogfish towards another? There is a stiffening of the body, full extension of fins, brightening of colouration and body jerks, whic may persist for around 15 to 30 minutes.

3 litres of water is very little water if you have 30 pieces of 2 to 3 inch fish. Wonder if the fish are able to survive if cramped in such conditions. Anyway, happy hunting, and please update us on your explorations.

Bro Fuel, Thanks for the info. I experienced the same thing with all my Eurypegasus draconis, including the current pair. They swam at the tank surface for the entire first night (I took peeks until about 2am in the morning). On the second night, one of them did the same thing when disturbed. I expected the worst, but fortunately both settled down on the third day and started to feed. Today, I offered them live shrimp of about 2 to 4mm, numbering a few hundred, caught from local waters. My seahorses love to eat them. The E. draconis cannot seem to reach even the ones just a little above the gravel bed. Hence, live food which are vigorously swimming in the water are no good for these fellows. I think frozen mysis shrimp is still the best bet, unless there are marine worms which wriggle on the gravel.

They are rarely on sale, cos of their almost perfect camouflage on the sea bed. In fact, I have difficulty spotting them in my own tank. Both of my Eurypegasus draconis acquisitions are from Lot 35 Pasir Ris, Ah Beng's LFS. The Pegasus volitans were from Aquamarin.

Hi Everyone, I saw this fish in real life only once, at LCK last year. It was a fascinating fish which unfortunately died a few days later in the supplier's tank. The supplier said that the specimen I saw was the second specimen they had shipped to Singapore. The first shipment did not survive as well. Henry at ML did have one for sale quite some time ago, but it was reserved and taken very fast. I have never seen one again all this while. Like to find out if anyone is keeping this fish, or knows someone who keeps this fish. This is a fascinating fish, and it will be a joy to read the experience. So, if you do know, or will like to share, please post. Thank you.

Bro yellowfin tuna, Just interested to find out, how do you get your 'foreign' fish back to Singapore - do you hand carry them all the way home, or do you airfreight them? Does the supplier or exporter on the other side pack the fish nicely for you?

Hi, Acquired 2 Eurypegasus draconis , common name: little dragonfish or dragon seamoth (bottom right and left pics) and kept them with the seahorses. Fed them with frozen mysis together with my seahorses, and they do eat. Basically I drop a pinch of mysis using a pair of forceps in the direction of the seahorses. The seahorses eat the mysis floating around and above the gravel bed, while the ones deposited on the gravel bed are eaten by the seamoths, the little crayfishes and the bristle worms (which is why I keep a colony of bristle worms in the tank, cos they are very good scavengers, and up till now have not disturbed my fishes). However, the seamoths are not interested in live brine shrimp. This is unlike my previous Pegasus volitans, common name: longtail seamoth (top right pic). This fellow eats mainly live brine shrimp and sometimes frozen mysis. Unfortunately I lost it while away on holiday 4 months ago. (Everytime I go on holiday I lose a few fish, especially those daily feeders, although I arranged for someone to feed my fish once every 3 days). I have bought a Eurypegasus previously, but it died within 3 days because of an infected eye, and it didn't eat at all. If anybody has kept this family of fish before or is still keeping them, please share your experience. Thanks. The top left pic of the batfish is included to provide an update for those who remember it in my previous thread. It has now turned almost completely black in colour and grown to about 4 times its original size. It feeds on frozen mysis and ghost shrimp.

Hi Bro Navigator, What problems do the worms cause when they are big? And how big are they at the trouble stage? Hope you can enlighten me so that I can anticipate the problems. Thanks.

I have a colony of bristle worms in my seahorse tank which I deliberately introduced (it's been a good 9 months now), cos they are such good scavengers. I have a scorpionfish in the tank, 2 seahorses and 2 new seamoths, and some stony corals. The worms up till now have not given me any trouble. In fact, they do a good job of eating the frozen mysis shrimp which gets deposited on the gravel. I wonder if anybody faces problems created by bristle worms and care to share the experience?

Or it will expel the eggs in a raft, just like what my Histrio did (twice in 2 weeks). Sometimes frogfish will bloat/expand themselves up with air, but have not seen this continue for more than a day. If it does expel the eggs, do take a picture of it. My egg raft is shown in the picture below.

Hi, If anybody wants to unload any excess froggies, please let me know. Criteria: (1) 1.5 to 3 inches long (2) not A. striatus nor H. histrio (3) not expensive Thanks. My cheap(skate) systems are more or less stabilised and I'm thinking of adding just one or two froggies to my existing population (2 in top tank).

I have kept 2 small frogfishes each under 1 inch long in a 1.5ft tank before, kept with snails and various sedentary invertebrates, no skimmer, just a layer of gravel (about 6cm depth) and a small internal box filter, daily water change of 20 to 30%, 1 feeding every 2 days. They grew quite fast. In 1 month, they grew to 1.5 times their original size and even changed colour. If your 1 ft tank is able to suport your corals, it should be able to support 1 small frogfish - provided your tank does not have any other fishes. As 'illusionist' said, you must take into account the bioload, and the fact that the frogfish will treat other fish as dinner. As for small frogfish, you really have to hunt around the LFS - this can be time consuming. If not, then you can ask the frog fish club brothers to sound you out when they see one.

I have forgotten its species name, or how to search for it on the internet (getting lazy nowadays). You can post the picture on the identification forum. I'm sure someone can identify it for you. Do update us on its progress.

I've kept a similar specimen before, about 5 to 6 years ago. You are right that when it is stressed, it may not feed. But more importantly, you should not tempt it to feed by introducing live shrimps or live fish, cos its instinct is to eat anything that moves and is small enough to fit into its mouth. Go slow in the first week. These are very rarely found. This is the second one I have seen locally. Treasure it.

I think some bros are interested in the black froggy at Aq**m****. One black froggy was bought by someone. Left two. The smallest of the two (a little guy with a brown stripe down its side) is a black variant of the local froggy (the big version can be seen in my pics thread), which is more expensive than the common green/brown variant, and should NOT cost more than $15. The bigger black froggy (the one with the little white 'toes') is the rarer one, and $45 maybe the market price now (used to find them between $28 to $35, but no more such prices these days). This black froggy does NOT look like a warty, and be aware that it may change its colour as it grows. Without looking at its esca and illicium, it is difficult to tell what species it is. And beware that a small froggy has a high chance of being eaten by a larger froggy if placed in the same tank (especially if one is a 1" and the other a 5"). There are other froggies of various colours costing $35 each. I think that is an above average price, but is okay if they are healthy. There seems to be one with a slightly cloudy eye, so look carefully, cos from my experience, a froggy with a cloudy eye(s) seldom recover and will eventually die.

No other way except partial water change (if it is so urgent). You should worry more about the nitrite and ammonia, since they are more toxic to fish than nitrate. In the long run, having an efficient biological filter housing beneficial bacteria should alleviate the need for big water changes.

bro, if you interested, PM me your hp. I sms the two photos to you. Need your comment.

Bro Derek, What a waste to sell away your white and red warty. Not easy to find you know, especially the red one. You don't have any tank to place them? BTW, I feel that some of the equipment they sell on the market are essential if one wants to maintain a reef aquarium (complete with more colourful live rock and corals), and also if one doesn't want to have to change the water so frequently. Just ask bro angry - he only tops up his tank with freshwater and except for the feeding, he doesn't have to do much more than sit back on his chair to enjoy the fish. Unless, of course, you keep the fish density very low. My 2.5ft tank houses 2 seahorses, 2 one-inch scorpions, 1 juvenile mono, some bristle worms, some unidentified corals. The tank is solely for the seahorses, and the fish are in there cos they may be eaten by others if I place them in the 3ft tanks. I have been questioned by my use of undergravel filters - most people feel that they don't work. But they do - provided that they are able to support the load you want. If not, you will know from the deaths which occur in the tank. Like I said, I have few months where the fish are thriving happily - until I decided to add more fish, and then things happen - disease strikes, and some fish die.

Thanks for the offer, bro. I hope the upgrade day will be in the not-so-distant future too.

Hi bro, It's not that I don't want to, or that I cannot afford to. The amount of $ I have spent so far can easily buy 3 of your kind of system, or even more. Hear me out. I grew up in a humble family where money is tight, where even a fish costing 60 cents is expensive to me. From young, I either keep fish which I caught myself in the drains, or fish that cost equal to or less than 30 cents a piece (that was in the 1980s). My fish tanks were plastic containers that were translucent at the sides, hence the only view was from the top. I don't even have an airpump, since I can't afford one, and the electricity consumption will add to the burden of my family. I stopped keeping fish when I was in JC, and briefly kept some while in NS. That was when I came across marine fish, and I bought my first glass tank on a stand (the money came from my NS pay and private tuition). However, whichever article or book I read, the recommended setup is always prohibitively expensive. I read all the fish magazines and articles I could find, and decided to start with lionfishes (because they are simply beautiful). I also decided that I will try my best to use a system which requires the miminum amount of money. Call me stubborn or stupid (or both), but I decided then that being poor does not forbid a person to own a marine aquarium and beatiful marine fish. I only started to realise my goal after I returned from my overseas study. The effort was intensified after I got married and have my own flat. I tried for 5 years, and eventually came up with a system which is cheap, but rather labour intensive. One cannot have the best of both worlds. However, if the bioload is small, it is still possible to have a cheap system with reduced labour, which I have found in my 2.5 ft tank. This tank is also able to support some corals, because the fish density is very low. The choice of my first fish also helped considerably. Ambush predators require less frequent feeding, and target feeding means that little uneaten food is left to rot in the tank. I found out about scorpionfishes and froggies, and they became part of my stable colony. So, this is how I started, and I can say that I am near to my goal. Eventually, I will also buy the optimum system which most aquarists should have.

Big is anything from 4 inches upwards. I definitely won't be buying any of those anymore. Equipment setup cost for each tank = cost of tank + stand + $20 skimmer + $10 filter + $10 coral chips. All 5 tanks (four 3ft + one 2.5ft) are run by a common airpump (around $70). 2 lights in the lower tanks (ocean sun) cos they don't get much sunlight in the day. Upper tanks have additional submersible powerhead turned on for only 8 hours a day. Strict regime of only 2 feeds a week for all ambush predators (scorpions + froggies + stonies). Daily frozen mysis for daily feeders (gurnards + eels + batfish + porcupinefish + cardinalfish + seahorse). 10 to 20% water change fortnightly. Skimmer box cleaned fortnightly. Scavengers (snails + starfish) to eat leftover food. No corals cos system not able to support them. But orange sponges seem to be thriving. Salinity maintained at around 27 to 30 o/oo. Liquid mineral/vitamin supplements fortnightly. For this type of system, bioload is important (which I pushed over the limit in the recent episode). Once balance is achieved, should not add livestock in anymore (I must stick to that). Having said that, my dream is to eventually upgrade all my tanks to at least 5ft with sump filters/refugium. Dream and dream...

Well, at least I won't be getting anymore big froggies, and I think I am quite done with the smaller froggies (although I am looking for one more orange and red warty or pictus). So, I won't be crowding anybody out of the froggies market anymore...

I guess its my fault for pushing my tanks to the limit. All my tanks have been stable for some months already, and then I have to challenge the balance by adding one or two more fish. Like my small specimens tank - all well and happy until I placed this cute trunkfish into the tank - and ich appeared. I promptly removed the trunkfish but damage has been done - two of my beloved leaf scorpions and one yellow-spotted scorpion died. I lowered the salinity from 2.8 to 2.2 in 2 days (surprisingly the starfishes and snails do not seem to be affected by the salinity drop), and no casualties after that. So the lesson to me is - I need to remember that my tanks are not sophisticated systems, and enough is enough.

No lah, not expert, still trying to learn. I have my ups and downs too. Talking to bro angry today really made me feel better after a very sad week. Still haven't quite recovered from it. My colleague gave me a big stonefish, which I placed in my big froggies tank. Within a week, all 5 of my froggies died. The black one (which have been with me since I shifted house), the green one, the red one, the yellowish white one (bought from bro angry - sorry bro) the orangy red one. Financially wise, they cost around $300 to $400 in total. Psychologically, it was a big blow. I decided not to buy anymore big froggies. This is the second time a big stonefish has caused a total tank wipe-out. The first time it happened (a year ago), my whole tank of stonefishes (about 5 palm-sized ones) were dead within a week too. I don't know why this is so. But froggy and stony fans beware of placing big stonies in your tanks. Best to leave them alone. I guess I'll be wiser after these 2 episodes. Bro angry is right - I probably need bigger tanks. Or maybe I should just not keep big fishes for the time being.