Frogfish concerns?

[Tmm87]

Cool. They ARE very similar.
I guess you are feeding yours shrimp?
All i have are molly babies but they are gut loaded and healthy.

He gets ghosties/grass shrimp. I've caught him eating large pods as well which surprised me.

 

[William Buchanan]

When you ordered from live aquaria, is that a wartskin or an assorted frog fish?

Like Tmm87 said, it’s a wartskin. It did come from California which is why it surprised me he was so small. The one it described was 1.5 inches but he was as small as the last digit on my little finger. The divers den specimens come out of Wisconsin and he looks just like a couple of those they had. I dunno, maybe he just needed to eat something. He already looks bigger to me now.

 

[mcpeachy]

WOW! Mine is .75" and looks just like your's! I FINALLY got him to eat a ghost shrimp but OH MAN i spent all day working on that! Putting him in another smaller container made him nervous and not want to eat at all! I finally gave up and then when I was cleaning up dead shrimp in his tank I saw one was actually alive and jump next to him! I was like 'this is it...if its going to happen..." and it DID! My kids and I celebrated! It had been 4 days since he had eaten and we were getting nervous. I think I am going to order mollys to live in his tank until he captures something. He needs opportunity and the ghosts die too easily on him. Any other suggestions for what to keep in the tank.. it says snails somewhere but I can't imagine that! Do they eat the shell??? I've got small snails I could put in there....

 

[lion king]

WOW! Mine is .75" and looks just like your's! I FINALLY got him to eat a ghost shrimp but OH MAN i spent all day working on that! Putting him in another smaller container made him nervous and not want to eat at all! I finally gave up and then when I was cleaning up dead shrimp in his tank I saw one was actually alive and jump next to him! I was like 'this is it...if its going to happen..." and it DID! My kids and I celebrated! It had been 4 days since he had eaten and we were getting nervous. I think I am going to order mollys to live in his tank until he captures something. He needs opportunity and the ghosts die too easily on him. Any other suggestions for what to keep in the tank.. it says snails somewhere but I can't imagine that! Do they eat the shell??? I've got small snails I could put in there....

No they dont eat snails, use the trick I explained getting the itty bitty ones to eat. Turn off the pumps and use a rigid airline to herd the ghosty toward him. Okce he starts eating he wont stop.

 

[mcpeachy]

I did something like that. But I'm afraid they will die before they get close enough to him. that was something like 3 dead ghost shrimps and 4 hours later that that happened! I was exhausted! I am considering mollies as they apparently can live in salt water??

 

[mcpeachy]

The ghost shrimp would die and he would lose interest! IT WAS SOOOOO FRUSTRATING!!!

 

[William Buchanan]

Mollies and gambusia minnows(original plain guppies) can thrive in saltwater but they’ll need to be acclimated. Plus, you’ll need some babies along with some pregnant mommies to keep the supply going. An adult molly will have about sixty babies every 2 months, so it doesn’t take many. It will be a long time before your warty will be big enough to eat the adults so you can just put them all into the one tank with him.
The acclimation is the “hard” part. To do it right takes about 5 to ten days. OR you can just float them, dump them in and hope for the best. My lfs guy has told me that many times he has had mollies jump out of their tank into a saltwater tank next to it and never miss a beat. (Its a gamble though). You might lose a few that way so buy extra and get the sailfin variety.
I spent the previous weeks building my food supply (I plan on having several predators). BUT honestly? If I were in your shoes I would go this route:
1. Buy this package of gambusia off ebay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/25-Live-Ga...Aquarium-Feeder-Fish-Hardy-Guppy/113584883468

2. Float the bag for 15 minutes and put them in.

3. By the time he has eaten all the small ones, the larger ones should get pregnant and be close to having more. If not you can buy 25 more.
The package will be really small and put in your mailbox. All 25 should be alive. They are very hardy. Most of the 25 will be pretty tiny and good eating size for your little buddy. A few should be close to breeding age.

 

[William Buchanan]

Adding a separate ten gallon tank with a sponge bubbler would be the best route. Then you could start with freshwater and slowly bring the salinity up over several days.
And lastly, there was s a company that already has them in saltwater. I don’t know the details or their shipping methods but they would have to be put on a separate ten gallon in case of parasites, etc. Their website is:
http://www.gulfspecimen.org/specimen/aquarium-food-and-supplies/

 

[lion king]

The ghost shrimp would die and he would lose interest! IT WAS SOOOOO FRUSTRATING!!!

I keep my ghosties in a seperate fresh water tank and feed as needed, as you should anyway to manage feeding. I would drop a ghostie in and herd him and after he ate it, drop another. Now everything I drop in is eaten so fast that nothing dies. Ones that may get away I still see alive for days of he eventually catches them.

No matter how you keep the ghosties, they have a short life and die easily. I never acclimate my ghosties and feed 4 predator tank, I cant remember the last time I found a dead one in one of my tanks.

 

[mcpeachy]

I keep my ghosties in a seperate fresh water tank and feed as needed, as you should anyway to manage feeding. I would drop a ghostie in and herd him and after he ate it, drop another. Now everything I drop in is eaten so fast that nothing dies. Ones that may get away I still see alive for days of he eventually catches them.

No matter how you keep the ghosties, they have a short life and die easily. I never acclimate my ghosties and feed 4 predator tank, I cant remember the last time I found a dead one in one of my tanks.

THANKS EVERYONE FOR THE ADVICE. I'm going to follow several things....i bought ghosties (more) today. my local guy was nice enough to sell them to me 12 for $3 (got 36), successfully avoiding petco and their parasites. I got like 8 guppies to start a steady supply of guppies for the frogfish and right now have them in a tank with a balloon molly so i will have to figure out if she should go with my goldfish instead or what. there is a spanish ribbed newt in that tank (kids' tank) so i'll have to see if they eat the guppies. oh and one zebra danio. i figure that many guppies should make that many more guppies and some could be eaten without affecting my goal of having enough for the baby frogfish. i guess i would acclimate a few at a time into the frogfish marine tank. would the baby guppies not be a good idea to acclimate? and i would have to do it over DAYS??? not just drip acclimate over a few hours??