Anglers

C

cperry

I've always wanted one of these guys and have been researching them in preparation to get one.

I reaquascaped my 29 gal last night and moved my fish to a different tank. But as I was reading, I found conflicting info about their lifespan. Some say they only live a few months, while others have kept them for years. I know that feeding them too often can lead to early death, but I was just wondering if anyone on the boards has tried them or knows about this. I tend to get pretty attached to my fish, so I wouldn't want to keep it for only a few months.
 
The biggest negative I['ve read about is that they are fed freshwater feeders. So, if that's true, you may want to only feed him marine fish, shrimp, etc.

That's about the only thing I can think of right now.
 
Yeah. Planning on ordering saltwater feeder shrimp.
If I can't get the angler to eat frozen food, I wouldn't mind setting up a 10 gal tank for those shrimp and breeding them. My predator tank would like this, and I've read that they're great for clean up. (until they get eaten) I could also provide these to others, since it doesn't look like there's anyone locally who does.
 
Mine didn't last a month. She got all bloated on the butt-half and stopped eating. Didn't exactly want to poke her with a pin and nobody was sure what exactly was wrong with her.

The key is to find a healthy specimen and feed a proper diet. Mine was eating frozen silverfish without me even trying to wean her off of ghost shrimp.
 
Anglers tend to die from bloat if they were ever removed from the water. They gulp air and can't regurgitate it. So, never ever net it, catch it with a container under water and pull it out with the water, never exposing the fish to air. This is a problem, because you don't know if the employees that handled the fish knew this. I bought one from a LFS and the guy freaked it out, pulled it out of the water. It was dead within hours.

They can be trained onto frozen foods just like lionfish. Just wiggle something in front of them on the end of a stick. Eventually they get the idea. Hispidus are the easiest to train. Mine would follow me from one end of the tank to the other waving his lure at me. Very fun fish if you can manage to keep them long-term.

I've kept 4. One of them lived for 9 months. It was a Lophiocharon trisignatus I moved it to a larger tank, and within days it died. The others didn't live for more than a month, they were Antennarius hispidus, Antennarius pictus, and one was a dwarf Antennatus species. The Antennatus species are very prone to dying due to pressure changes from my understanding.

This is a great website for tons of ID info on them. http://www.starfish.ch/frogfish/Genus.html

Good luck.
 
Ive got an A. commersoni that's for sale right now and I've had him for around 8 months. Hes grown a bit but not nearly to his maximum size. These things live for years. They just get freaked out easily and go on feeding strikes.

Mine has taken frozen silversides from my hand since about a month after I got him. Before that, it was damsels for him. It is amazing to watch these fish eat and all too often people feed them too much (which is more than twice a week)

They get a bad wrap because people don't do thier research before purchase.
 
Thanks for all the input, but I just found out that I have too much light for an angler. :cry:
It's a 29 gal reef with 250 watt halide. I'm super bummed but glad I read about it before I got one.
When I upgrade to my big tank (one day), I think I'll make the 29 into an angler/softie tank though.
Still trying to figure out a cool fish to put in there.
Any ideas?
 
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