H. histrio Sagassum Fish tank

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Micco28

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Nearly all macroalgae comes from shallow water and receive immense amounts of light rarely achieved in an aquarium. You'll want to give them as much light as you can, especially if you want seagrass. If your tank is a standard 35g, 36"x12"x18", then lighting it with LEDs is going to be around $330 at the minimum (Reefbreeders Photon 24). A single, typical Chinese LED panel is around 12" long and will not properly light a 36" tank, or else you could get that down to around $130-150.

A pair of Tunze 6020 (one of their newest) would be easily hid behind rockwork and provide excellent flow, cost is around $43 each.

Unfortunately $330 for lights alone is definitely out of my budget. If I could find a cheaper LED fixture that had white, blue, and red LEDs would that be at least a step in the right direction to you?
 

jedimasterben

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Unfortunately $330 for lights alone is definitely out of my budget. If I could find a cheaper LED fixture that had white, blue, and red LEDs would that be at least a step in the right direction to you?
Depends on a lot of factors, but realistically adding red LEDs doesn't do a whole lot, you'll want some with warmer whites on them as the primary white.
 

KingOfPain86

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Hi, I have had several of these fish. I live Ft. Lauderdale, FL. We have plenty of sargassum weed here. I have gone out in a boat and caught several of them with each scoop of the net. The ones that I have kept in my tank did very well. The most important thing I can tell you to do is DO NOT OVER FEED. They are capable of eating food twice their body size. The problem is they will eat everything that will fit in their mouth. They can't digest the food fast enough and it starts to decompose in their gut. This will kill the fish. The first one that I had died this way. The second best advice is don't feed any fresh water feeders. The fresh water feeders have high fat content and this will eventually kill the fish (there is a name for this but I forgot).
 
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Micco28

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Hi, I have had several of these fish. I live Ft. Lauderdale, FL. We have plenty of sargassum weed here. I have gone out in a boat and caught several of them with each scoop of the net. The ones that I have kept in my tank did very well. The most important thing I can tell you to do is DO NOT OVER FEED. They are capable of eating food twice their body size. The problem is they will eat everything that will fit in their mouth. They can't digest the food fast enough and it starts to decompose in their gut. This will kill the fish. The first one that I had died this way. The second best advice is don't feed any fresh water feeders. The fresh water feeders have high fat content and this will eventually kill the fish (there is a name for this but I forgot).

I too am from South FL and when I was a kid I was actually on a sandbar in the St Lucie Inlet and put some of the sargassum in a 5 gal bucket, shook it gently, let it sit, and then pulled the sargassum out and there was at the bottom was a little sargassum frogfish about 2" long at the bottom. After watching it for a few minutes it was set afloat on the sargassum. Ever since I've wanted to own one.

When ever I mention to anyone in the hobby that I'm getting a frogfish one of the first things they say is don't over feed :)

How did you have yours setup?
 

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The first one I had was about 3". He was in a 55 with some other fish and live rock. He didn't have any problems at all. He would peach in the live rock and just wait till he saw food. Like a lion fish they will stalk their prey around the tank. He died because of the fresh water feeders. The second one I caught just like you did with the sargassum weed. He was less then an inch when I caught him, so I bought one of the little plastic rat cages and put him in their with a piece of LR. He would just sit around till feeding time. I fed him live brine shrimp. I always used live feeders, that way the fish had some stimulation as far as hunting goes. He died because I tried feeding him some ghost shrimp and accidentally dropped 2 in his little tank. He woofed them down and couldn't digest them quick enough. They are pretty hardy fish for the most part as long as you don't over feed and don't feed fresh water feeders. Also from what I remember I think you can get them to breed in captivity. I think, don't hold me to that.
 
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Micco28

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I'm thinking about using an Eheim 200w Jager heater, anyone have experience with these?


Also for lighting I'm thinking about using Finnex FugeRay Planted+ Aquarium LED Light Plus Moonlights, anyone have experience with these?
 
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Micco28

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What do you think about this aquascape? I've not epoxied it together yet
AQSC1.jpg
 

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