Frogfish long-term success

Draven

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 27, 2024
Messages
83
Reaction score
37
Location
Raleigh
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Been reading about all kinds of things to potentially keep in a 60 I've currently got cycling and starting getting into frogfish but it seems very common that that don't live over 2 years in captivity. Has anyone had one for a long period of time is so whats the secret?
 

James G abc

New Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 10, 2018
Messages
18
Reaction score
7
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So I’m not very active on this forum and I believe my first post ever was about my frog fish which was only my second ever saltwater system. I had my frog fish for 4-4.5 years before I ended up selling him (regretfully so) I can say with certainty he was easily my favourite fish if not even my most favourite fish I’ve ever kept, I unfortunately was going a different direction with my animal room and life started getting in the way so I didn’t have as much time for everything as I used to so I downsized and sold off both my saltwater systems. My frog fish was probably about 2ish inches long and I started him off in a 20gallon long but eventually he was moved to a 40 breeder as he grew pretty quickly, he tank ran on a large HOB, hang on back protein skimmer, 100W heater, I don’t remember the exact lights but the tank was only growing mushrooms and some Xenia like coral, and about 30ish lbs of live rock. I personally believe although risky my reason for success was the fact that 1) the majority of his diet was live saltwater fish and 2) I eventually got him eating F/T, at first I was feeding him 2x a week but eventually dropped it to every 7-10 days (depending on his food item) when I first got him he started off on freshwater mollies and ghost shrimp offering a damsel every once in a while which quickly became offering him a clown, damsel, chromis, cardinal or blenny at just about every feeding. I have to say though my LFS does a decent quarantine system and has a somewhat reputable supplier but I would still do 2-3 week quarantines with some meds myself as a precaution. It was getting pretty expensive feeding him only saltwater fish so I eventually started to train/transition him to Frozen/Thawed and eventually got him eating F/T krill, squid, and silversides that would be soaked in vitachem before feeding as I wanted to also vary his diet as much as possible. As he grew larger and larger I did feeding larger meals but I would also start somewhat spacing out those meals aswell sometimes going up to 2 weeks he would also sometimes go on his own little hunger strikes where he would refuse food which at first somewhat worried me but eventually got used to it. He was probably just about baseball sized when I sold him I also only ever ran dewormers on his system twice as a possible preventative measure, I already greatly miss him and definitely want to get another one in the future when I can.
 

ISpeakForTheSeas

7500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 22, 2021
Messages
8,450
Reaction score
10,304
Location
United States
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So I’m not very active on this forum and I believe my first post ever was about my frog fish which was only my second ever saltwater system. I had my frog fish for 4-4.5 years before I ended up selling him (regretfully so) I can say with certainty he was easily my favourite fish if not even my most favourite fish I’ve ever kept, I unfortunately was going a different direction with my animal room and life started getting in the way so I didn’t have as much time for everything as I used to so I downsized and sold off both my saltwater systems. My frog fish was probably about 2ish inches long and I started him off in a 20gallon long but eventually he was moved to a 40 breeder as he grew pretty quickly, he tank ran on a large HOB, hang on back protein skimmer, 100W heater, I don’t remember the exact lights but the tank was only growing mushrooms and some Xenia like coral, and about 30ish lbs of live rock. I personally believe although risky my reason for success was the fact that 1) the majority of his diet was live saltwater fish and 2) I eventually got him eating F/T, at first I was feeding him 2x a week but eventually dropped it to every 7-10 days (depending on his food item) when I first got him he started off on freshwater mollies and ghost shrimp offering a damsel every once in a while which quickly became offering him a clown, damsel, chromis, cardinal or blenny at just about every feeding. I have to say though my LFS does a decent quarantine system and has a somewhat reputable supplier but I would still do 2-3 week quarantines with some meds myself as a precaution. It was getting pretty expensive feeding him only saltwater fish so I eventually started to train/transition him to Frozen/Thawed and eventually got him eating F/T krill, squid, and silversides that would be soaked in vitachem before feeding as I wanted to also vary his diet as much as possible. As he grew larger and larger I did feeding larger meals but I would also start somewhat spacing out those meals aswell sometimes going up to 2 weeks he would also sometimes go on his own little hunger strikes where he would refuse food which at first somewhat worried me but eventually got used to it. He was probably just about baseball sized when I sold him I also only ever ran dewormers on his system twice as a possible preventative measure, I already greatly miss him and definitely want to get another one in the future when I can.
I could definitely see feeding saltwater fish and spacing out and scaling up the feedings as it grows to better reflect a wild/natural gorge/fast schedule being a great thing for a frogfish's health - though feeding saltwater fish would be prohibitively expensive for most people.

That said, I do know someone asked a while ago about potentially breeding clownfish (since they're one of the easiest saltwater fish to breed) to feed sharks (my apologies to any who find the idea of that distasteful).

I doubted it would be plausible to do that and produce enough young to provide a primary food source for sharks, but it could potentially be possible to do something like that and provide enough food for a small to medium-sized frogfish species that's only fed like once or twice a week.

Making that more appealing, captive breeding the feeders would also allow you to treat the broodstock to ensure they're not carrying disease (or infecting the feeders - their young - with anything) which could harm the frogfish; so it would allow for a safe food chain for the frogfish.
 
OP
OP
Draven

Draven

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 27, 2024
Messages
83
Reaction score
37
Location
Raleigh
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So I’m not very active on this forum and I believe my first post ever was about my frog fish which was only my second ever saltwater system. I had my frog fish for 4-4.5 years before I ended up selling him (regretfully so) I can say with certainty he was easily my favourite fish if not even my most favourite fish I’ve ever kept, I unfortunately was going a different direction with my animal room and life started getting in the way so I didn’t have as much time for everything as I used to so I downsized and sold off both my saltwater systems. My frog fish was probably about 2ish inches long and I started him off in a 20gallon long but eventually he was moved to a 40 breeder as he grew pretty quickly, he tank ran on a large HOB, hang on back protein skimmer, 100W heater, I don’t remember the exact lights but the tank was only growing mushrooms and some Xenia like coral, and about 30ish lbs of live rock. I personally believe although risky my reason for success was the fact that 1) the majority of his diet was live saltwater fish and 2) I eventually got him eating F/T, at first I was feeding him 2x a week but eventually dropped it to every 7-10 days (depending on his food item) when I first got him he started off on freshwater mollies and ghost shrimp offering a damsel every once in a while which quickly became offering him a clown, damsel, chromis, cardinal or blenny at just about every feeding. I have to say though my LFS does a decent quarantine system and has a somewhat reputable supplier but I would still do 2-3 week quarantines with some meds myself as a precaution. It was getting pretty expensive feeding him only saltwater fish so I eventually started to train/transition him to Frozen/Thawed and eventually got him eating F/T krill, squid, and silversides that would be soaked in vitachem before feeding as I wanted to also vary his diet as much as possible. As he grew larger and larger I did feeding larger meals but I would also start somewhat spacing out those meals aswell sometimes going up to 2 weeks he would also sometimes go on his own little hunger strikes where he would refuse food which at first somewhat worried me but eventually got used to it. He was probably just about baseball sized when I sold him I also only ever ran dewormers on his system twice as a possible preventative measure, I already greatly miss him and definitely want to get another one in the future when I can.
Well the best I would be able to do would be mollies acclimated to saltwater but that doesn't seem to works long term for most people it unfortunately seems like it's another thing better off left in the ocean
 

James G abc

New Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 10, 2018
Messages
18
Reaction score
7
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I could definitely see feeding saltwater fish and spacing out and scaling up the feedings as it grows to better reflect a wild/natural gorge/fast schedule being a great thing for a frogfish's health - though feeding saltwater fish would be prohibitively expensive for most people.

That said, I do know someone asked a while ago about potentially breeding clownfish (since they're one of the easiest saltwater fish to breed) to feed sharks (my apologies to any who find the idea of that distasteful).

I doubted it would be plausible to do that and produce enough young to provide a primary food source for sharks, but it could potentially be possible to do something like that and provide enough food for a small to medium-sized frogfish species that's only fed like once or twice a week.

Making that more appealing, captive breeding the feeders would also allow you to treat the broodstock to ensure they're not carrying disease (or infecting the feeders - their young - with anything) which could harm the frogfish; so it would allow for a safe food chain for the frogfish.
I was lucky enough that a good friend worked at my LFS so I got 30% discounts on fish which helped ALOT but even still it was pretty expensive which was one of the big reasons I ended up selling my frog
 
OP
OP
Draven

Draven

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 27, 2024
Messages
83
Reaction score
37
Location
Raleigh
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I was lucky enough that a good friend worked at my LFS so I got 30% discounts on fish which helped ALOT but even still it was pretty expensive which was one of the big reasons I ended up selling my frog
The main the for me is even just the nearest Petco is about 45 mins away so having to buy fish every 2 weeks would be annoying. I also fear the frogfish could get boring on top of that.
 

ISpeakForTheSeas

7500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 22, 2021
Messages
8,450
Reaction score
10,304
Location
United States
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
The main the for me is even just the nearest Petco is about 45 mins away so having to buy fish every 2 weeks would be annoying. I also fear the frogfish could get boring on top of that.
Yeah, a lot of people find frogfish boring because they're ambush predators, not active predators - so they don't typically move much.

Honestly, I'd personally say that unless you're trying to breed your own feeders for it, it's probably not worth trying to keep a frogfish for most people (sad but true, as they're amazing little fish).
 
OP
OP
Draven

Draven

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 27, 2024
Messages
83
Reaction score
37
Location
Raleigh
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Yeah, a lot of people find frogfish boring because they're ambush predators, not active predators - so they don't typically move much.

Honestly, I'd personally say that unless you're trying to breed your own feeders for it, it's probably not worth trying to keep a frogfish for most people (sad but true, as they're amazing little fish).
I've also been reading a lot about dwarf lions and it seems like almost the same problem the need live to live longer than 3 years which I dont fully understand still but it seems to be true in most cases
 

ISpeakForTheSeas

7500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 22, 2021
Messages
8,450
Reaction score
10,304
Location
United States
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I've also been reading a lot about dwarf lions and it seems like almost the same problem the need live to live longer than 3 years which I dont fully understand still but it seems to be true in most cases
It's at least in large part a diet thing - most aquarium feeds aren't great even for regular fish, and predators have largely specialized diets by comparison; I'd imagine there's an aspect of exercise/stimulation involved to it as well, but that's much harder to prove.

For lions, these threads may help (my post in the first; lion king has a ton of great threads on predators, including lionfish, that are good reads as well - they cover a lot of the same info, but go more into a discussion of why):
 
OP
OP
Draven

Draven

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 27, 2024
Messages
83
Reaction score
37
Location
Raleigh
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
It's at least in large part a diet thing - most aquarium feeds aren't great even for regular fish, and predators have largely specialized diets by comparison; I'd imagine there's an aspect of exercise/stimulation involved to it as well, but that's much harder to prove.

For lions, these threads may help (my post in the first; lion king has a ton of great threads on predators, including lionfish, that are good reads as well - they cover a lot of the same info, but go more into a discussion of why):
I've read these threads all before there honestly what's been making me reconsider, I just don't know of many other predators good for a 60 gal
 

James G abc

New Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 10, 2018
Messages
18
Reaction score
7
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
It's at least in large part a diet thing - most aquarium feeds aren't great even for regular fish, and predators have largely specialized diets by comparison; I'd imagine there's an aspect of exercise/stimulation involved to it as well, but that's much harder to prove.

For lions, these threads may help (my post in the first; lion king has a ton of great threads on predators, including lionfish, that are good reads as well - they cover a lot of the same info, but go more into a discussion of why):
I think there also has something to do with fat content and different things being in saltwater fish compared to freshwater. There was an old thread of MonsterFishKeepers comparing and analyzing different feeders and a section/part about saltwater feeders being a lot more lean and less fatty than freshwater fish which feeding a large portion of freshwater fish correlated to fatty livers and such. Not sure about frogfish I don’t know many people dissecting their frogfish and doing necropsies after they pass to figure out what they died from.
 

ISpeakForTheSeas

7500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 22, 2021
Messages
8,450
Reaction score
10,304
Location
United States
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I think there also has something to do with fat content and different things being in saltwater fish compared to freshwater. There was an old thread of MonsterFishKeepers comparing and analyzing different feeders and a section/part about saltwater feeders being a lot more lean and less fatty than freshwater fish which feeding a large portion of freshwater fish correlated to fatty livers and such. Not sure about frogfish I don’t know many people dissecting their frogfish and doing necropsies after they pass to figure out what they died from.
Yeah, the nutritional profile of freshwater fish is different from saltwater fish - mollies, guppies, and ghost/grass shrimp are the go-to recommendations for feeders because they're brackish species, and their nutritional profile is substantially better than freshwater species (though they may not be as good as true saltwater species).

Yeah, freshwater fish (especially feeders like goldfish and rosie red minnow) are known to cause problems for predators (saltwater predators too) including fatty liver disease.
 
OP
OP
Draven

Draven

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 27, 2024
Messages
83
Reaction score
37
Location
Raleigh
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Yeah, the nutritional profile of freshwater fish is different from saltwater fish - mollies, guppies, and ghost/grass shrimp are the go-to recommendations for feeders because they're brackish species, and their nutritional profile is substantially better than freshwater species (though they may not be as good as true saltwater species).

Yeah, freshwater fish (especially feeders like goldfish and rosie red minnow) are known to cause problems for predators (saltwater predators too) including fatty liver disease.
So gut loaded ghost shrimp and brackish guppies are a good staple? Should I do the occasional chunk of salmon and muscles as well? I still haven't heard of them living a full life in a tank which is annoying because I bet there is some guy out there who's probably had one for 20 years and he's just like "yeah it eats whatever I throw in"
 

ISpeakForTheSeas

7500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 22, 2021
Messages
8,450
Reaction score
10,304
Location
United States
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So gut loaded ghost shrimp and brackish guppies are a good staple? Should I do the occasional chunk of salmon and muscles as well? I still haven't heard of them living a full life in a tank which is annoying because I bet there is some guy out there who's probably had one for 20 years and he's just like "yeah it eats whatever I throw in"
It's better than freshwater feeders and the average dead diet, yes - is it adequate to sustain a frogfish long-term? I honestly don't know (though I would assume it's not as good as a saltwater fish diet).

It does have me thinking that I should probably take a closer look at the nutritional profiles of the various fish a wild frogfish might encounter/eat regularly (assuming I can find nutrition info on them).

Anyway, yeah, at this point, I'd toss in the occasional salmon and clam or mussel. If you get it feeding on prepared foods, then I'd personally also say to occasionally feed an algae rich food - either actual macroalgae (things like Ulva, Halymenia, and Nori would be my first picks for this; things like Porphyra and Spirulina could be good too), or an algae pellet like NLS Marine Fish Pellets. I wouldn't expect it to take macroalgae by itself, but you could do something like stuff it in the meat or wrap it around the meat if you decide to use actual macroalgae.
 
OP
OP
Draven

Draven

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 27, 2024
Messages
83
Reaction score
37
Location
Raleigh
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
It's better than freshwater feeders and the average dead diet, yes - is it adequate to sustain a frogfish long-term? I honestly don't know (though I would assume it's not as good as a saltwater fish diet).

It does have me thinking that I should probably take a closer look at the nutritional profiles of the various fish a wild frogfish might encounter/eat regularly (assuming I can find nutrition info on them).

Anyway, yeah, at this point, I'd toss in the occasional salmon and clam or mussel. If you get it feeding on prepared foods, then I'd personally also say to occasionally feed an algae rich food - either actual macroalgae (things like Ulva, Halymenia, and Nori would be my first picks for this; things like Porphyra and Spirulina could be good too), or an algae pellet like NLS Marine Fish Pellets. I wouldn't expect it to take macroalgae by itself, but you could do something like stuff it in the meat or wrap it around the meat if you decide to use actual macroalgae.
Couldn't I gut load the shrimp with the algae? I feel like it's important to do but they probably don't need very much at all
 

ISpeakForTheSeas

7500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 22, 2021
Messages
8,450
Reaction score
10,304
Location
United States
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Couldn't I gut load the shrimp with the algae? I feel like it's important to do but they probably don't need very much at all
Yeah, you should be able to gutload the feeders with the algae - I would just add a bit more or a bit of variety with it to be safe (probably not necessary though).
 
OP
OP
Draven

Draven

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 27, 2024
Messages
83
Reaction score
37
Location
Raleigh
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Yeah, you should be able to gutload the feeders with the algae - I would just add a bit more or a bit of variety with it to be safe (probably not necessary though).
Ive also been contemplating a dwarf lion probably a fuzzy because they seem to be more successful. But if I were to go with a lion I'd want to try tank mates like maroon clowns, halichoeres wrasse, and goby but I'm not a fan of the "he might eat it he might not"
 

HAVE YOU EVER KEPT A RARE/UNCOMMON FISH, CORAL, OR INVERT? SHOW IT OFF IN THE THREAD!

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
Back
Top