Wartskin Frogfish Tank

[duberii]

I just bought this system from my LFS- just 13.5 gallons with some nice rock, all for this little guy:

At the moment, the tank is at 76 degrees F, but I may end up lowering it to 72 degrees over time, depending on my confidence in my ability to keep the temperature stable, as that is my main concern. I'm also hoping to get a plating sponge or something along those lines, just as a nice perching place for the frogfish. I may also put in some corals, but I can't find any reasonably priced (cough cough symphyllia wilsoni) temperate corals, or other cool creatures I could add- any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

At the moment, here is a FTS; I couldn't get the rocks exactly as they were at the store, but they're close enough. The rock on the right is usually upright but I laid it down because the feeders I put in were hovering next to it and I wanted them to get closer to the fish. I also took out most of the sand, and I'm seriously considering having this be a barebottom tank, but I've never kept one so I'm gonna have to do some research/playing around with it.

He's only about 1-1.5", so at the moment I'm feeding him amphipods (gammarid) and guppy fry (just because I had them- I don't plan on feeding guppies long term), plus some LRS chunky frozen food once I can get it to take frozen. The diet will be mainly live, but I'll add some variety with the frozen food.

 

[PicassoClown04]

I just bought this system from my LFS- just 13.5 gallons with some nice rock, all for this little guy:

At the moment, the tank is at 76 degrees F, but I may end up lowering it to 72 degrees over time, depending on my confidence in my ability to keep the temperature stable, as that is my main concern. I'm also hoping to get a plating sponge or something along those lines, just as a nice perching place for the frogfish. I may also put in some corals, but I can't find any reasonably priced (cough cough symphyllia wilsoni) temperate corals, or other cool creatures I could add- any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

At the moment, here is a FTS; I couldn't get the rocks exactly as they were at the store, but they're close enough. The rock on the right is usually upright but I laid it down because the feeders I put in were hovering next to it and I wanted them to get closer to the fish. I also took out most of the sand, and I'm seriously considering having this be a barebottom tank, but I've never kept one so I'm gonna have to do some research/playing around with it.

He's only about 1-1.5", so at the moment I'm feeding him amphipods (gammarid) and guppy fry (just because I had them- I don't plan on feeding guppies long term), plus some LRS chunky frozen food once I can get it to take frozen. The diet will be mainly live, but I'll add some variety with the frozen food.

bare bottom tanks are great for keeping things clean, hopefully, you can find some corals that fit the decor needs! Maybe some sympodium, zoas, clove, xenia, setosa, etc would be good? Some nepthea, colt coral, cabbage leather, and toadstools would also be good texture but since the fish tends to take on the colors of the environment you may want to see what's out there in terms of red and orange hues. I'm not sure how any of these corals do in your 74-76 temp range but I was doing some clove trimming and accidentally left a few polyps in the bottom of my collection bowl (full of tank water). A couple of hours later I went to dump out the water and found those polyps, glued em onto a plug and they looked just as healthy as the rest of the frags after a couple of days. That water was probably close to 70 since that's what we keep the house temp at so maybe they're a viable option? GSP also seems tough enough to grow anywhere so I'd look into that as well. Beautiful aquascape and adorable fishy, I'm looking forward to some updates!

 

[samnaz]

Following! Your lil guy is such a cutie.

 

[skydirt]

Very cool fish. I always wanted one

 

[duberii]

bare bottom tanks are great for keeping things clean, hopefully, you can find some corals that fit the decor needs! Maybe some sympodium, zoas, clove, xenia, setosa, etc would be good? Some nepthea, colt coral, cabbage leather, and toadstools would also be good texture but since the fish tends to take on the colors of the environment you may want to see what's out there in terms of red and orange hues. I'm not sure how any of these corals do in your 74-76 temp range but I was doing some clove trimming and accidentally left a few polyps in the bottom of my collection bowl (full of tank water). A couple of hours later I went to dump out the water and found those polyps, glued em onto a plug and they looked just as healthy as the rest of the frags after a couple of days. That water was probably close to 70 since that's what we keep the house temp at so maybe they're a viable option? GSP also seems tough enough to grow anywhere so I'd look into that as well. Beautiful aquascape and adorable fishy, I'm looking forward to some updates!

Here's what I'm thinking- I could get one of those scrolling blue plating sponges, plus maybe a devil's hand? Both are unkillable in the right tank, so perhaps I'd have good luck. Maybe also some mushrooms- I have a mushroom rock that I could probably get a mushroom or two from to throw in there- it wouldn't help with the perching locations, but it would certainly doll up the tank a bit. I really like the sponge idea, since it would be the closest thing to its natural environment, but I also think a toadstool or the devilds had would be great- maybe those common pink ones would be close enough to red? I think it's going to be extremely tricky to get it to keep its color, so I'm not holding onto any hope about it staying white (as much as I'd like it to).

 

[PicassoClown04]

Here's what I'm thinking- I could get one of those scrolling blue plating sponges, plus maybe a devil's hand? Both are unkillable in the right tank, so perhaps I'd have good luck. Maybe also some mushrooms- I have a mushroom rock that I could probably get a mushroom or two from to throw in there- it wouldn't help with the perching locations, but it would certainly doll up the tank a bit. I really like the sponge idea, since it would be the closest thing to its natural environment, but I also think a toadstool or the devilds had would be great- maybe those common pink ones would be close enough to red? I think it's going to be extremely tricky to get it to keep its color, so I'm not holding onto any hope about it staying white (as much as I'd like it to).

If you like it white, many LFS are probably willing to hang onto any acro skeletons they lose during shipping so you can use those as decor in the 1990s FOWLR style.

If you’re looking for red, there’s red-tipped clove, plenty of red zoas, red plating Monti (not sure about temp with this one), and reddish pulsing Xenia. If you’ve got some zoas in your other tank just take 1-2 polyps and put em in the frog tank just to see how they do

 

[duberii]

If you like it white, many LFS are probably willing to hang onto any acro skeletons they lose during shipping so you can use those as decor in the 1990s FOWLR style.

If you’re looking for red, there’s red-tipped clove, plenty of red zoas, red plating Monti (not sure about temp with this one), and reddish pulsing Xenia. If you’ve got some zoas in your other tank just take 1-2 polyps and put em in the frog tank just to see how they do

Good ideas- I can pick up a red monti from my LFS; as for the concern with temperature, I will probably turn the temperature down to maybe 74 (or whatever I feel I can maintain)- that is still in the range of tropical corals, though they may grow a bit slower (which isn't the worst in a tank as small as this one). I'll definitely do that- it's the perfect combination of coloration and perching spots. I can't seem to find the red-tipped clove you're talking about, but the red xenia isn't a bad idea either- I just am not sure if it's worth buying since i doubt I could find it locally and I'm not planning on paying $40 shipping on a $20-30 coral. I'm gonna get banned from R2R for saying this, but I'm not a fan of zoas. Their color is amazing, but I don't really see the appeal of their shape or growth. Also, they seem to be extremely hitchhiker prone.

The red xenia also got me thinking that a red goniopora would be perfect for this- the frogfish would probably hang out in it, it looks great, and is red, but I still haven't heard any stories of long term success with them. I have seen some huge colonies at my LFS which make me wonder since I'd assume they're too large to be wild caught...

 

[PicassoClown04]

Good ideas- I can pick up a red monti from my LFS; as for the concern with temperature, I will probably turn the temperature down to maybe 74 (or whatever I feel I can maintain)- that is still in the range of tropical corals, though they may grow a bit slower (which isn't the worst in a tank as small as this one). I'll definitely do that- it's the perfect combination of coloration and perching spots. I can't seem to find the red-tipped clove you're talking about, but the red xenia isn't a bad idea either- I just am not sure if it's worth buying since i doubt I could find it locally and I'm not planning on paying $40 shipping on a $20-30 coral. I'm gonna get banned from R2R for saying this, but I'm not a fan of zoas. Their color is amazing, but I don't really see the appeal of their shape or growth. Also, they seem to be extremely hitchhiker prone.

The red xenia also got me thinking that a red goniopora would be perfect for this- the frogfish would probably hang out in it, it looks great, and is red, but I still haven't heard any stories of long term success with them. I have seen some huge colonies at my LFS which make me wonder since I'd assume they're too large to be wild caught...

The ORA red goni seems to be the best for first-time goni people. It’s pretty common in my area and my LFS has some frags pretty often.

The red clove I’m taking about is “flame tipped clove” and I believe this one specifically originates from WWC but I’m not positive. Here’s a pic of mine (behind the ones with green centers- those are fireworks clove)

There’s also plenty of red/orange mushrooms if you’re interested in those. Forest fire Rhodactis, iron man (these are more yellow), and super man discosomas are some that I have. They’re super cheap and hardy, I think they look good but I also absolutely adore zoas so maybe your opinion is different from mine.

We get a lot of orangey scrolling montis around here as well. A lot of people put the orange and green ones together so they scroll intertwined with each other and it looks awesome, here’s an example from a friend’s tank.

I think it would look super cool to do this with red and orange montis or just any two scrolling montis, a grafted monti as one of them would be extra super cool!

RFA are often found in really cold water on the coasts in tide pools. They would be happy in a cooler tank but I’m not sure how big your frog fish is. I wouldn’t put a fish less than 1/2 the size of the anemone with an RFA, especially a mostly sedentary perching fish like a frog.

Scolys come in a million colors. I have a beautiful pink one that I’ve managed to get super super fat so it looks like an acanthophyllia (meat coral) I love these things and I’ve seen them while diving in 70ish degree water so I know they should be okay

There are also lots of acans with red in them, I think they look really nice and they’re super vibrant so if I were to get a coral for a frog to imprint on, acans would be pretty up there

 

[duberii]

The ORA red goni seems to be the best for first-time goni people. It’s pretty common in my area and my LFS has some frags pretty often.

The red clove I’m taking about is “flame tipped clove” and I believe this one specifically originates from WWC but I’m not positive. Here’s a pic of mine (behind the ones with green centers- those are fireworks clove)

There’s also plenty of red/orange mushrooms if you’re interested in those. Forest fire Rhodactis, iron man (these are more yellow), and super man discosomas are some that I have. They’re super cheap and hardy, I think they look good but I also absolutely adore zoas so maybe your opinion is different from mine.

We get a lot of orangey scrolling montis around here as well. A lot of people put the orange and green ones together so they scroll intertwined with each other and it looks awesome, here’s an example from a friend’s tank.

I think it would look super cool to do this with red and orange montis or just any two scrolling montis, a grafted monti as one of them would be extra super cool!

RFA are often found in really cold water on the coasts in tide pools. They would be happy in a cooler tank but I’m not sure how big your frog fish is. I wouldn’t put a fish less than 1/2 the size of the anemone with an RFA, especially a mostly sedentary perching fish like a frog.

Scolys come in a million colors. I have a beautiful pink one that I’ve managed to get super super fat so it looks like an acanthophyllia (meat coral) I love these things and I’ve seen them while diving in 70ish degree water so I know they should be okay

There are also lots of acans with red in them, I think they look really nice and they’re super vibrant so if I were to get a coral for a frog to imprint on, acans would be pretty up there

Those clove polyps are really cool- the ones I have are pretty much white with some faint pink and blue colors, but you can hardly tell they're not white. I would LOVE a red goni, but I'm just not confident at all in my ability to keep it, and with the price tag being pretty hefty from what I've seen at my LFS. I'll do a bit more research and make a decision after that.

I've never had any success with a monti, but this is a pretty mature system, so I guess it's worth a shot. I saw some red ones at a LFS the other day, and I'm probably going to pick it up there. I also saw some nice red blastos and acans, which I wanted to buy for my other tank anyways- that tank is having some bacterial issues, so into the tiny tank it is! I have a RFA in my main tank, but it grew decently fast and I'm concerned that even if it was as big as the frogfish, it would soon be able to eat it... I love the look of them and I could certainly get a red one, but it is not touching my frogfish. If scolies weren't so expensive I would certainly get one for this tank- I got a mini one at my LFS for $75- that was the cheapest I had ever seen it so I caved. It's a pastel green with some pink highlights.

I've got a nice list of corals going-
-Acan
-Monti
-Blastos
-Clove Polyps (I'll probably take the ones from my other tank, since that will provide some variety and some white)
-Maybe some mushrooms?
-Devil's hand
-Plating sponge

 

[PicassoClown04]

Those clove polyps are really cool- the ones I have are pretty much white with some faint pink and blue colors, but you can hardly tell they're not white. I would LOVE a red goni, but I'm just not confident at all in my ability to keep it, and with the price tag being pretty hefty from what I've seen at my LFS. I'll do a bit more research and make a decision after that.

I've never had any success with a monti, but this is a pretty mature system, so I guess it's worth a shot. I saw some red ones at a LFS the other day, and I'm probably going to pick it up there. I also saw some nice red blastos and acans, which I wanted to buy for my other tank anyways- that tank is having some bacterial issues, so into the tiny tank it is! I have a RFA in my main tank, but it grew decently fast and I'm concerned that even if it was as big as the frogfish, it would soon be able to eat it... I love the look of them and I could certainly get a red one, but it is not touching my frogfish. If scolies weren't so expensive I would certainly get one for this tank- I got a mini one at my LFS for $75- that was the cheapest I had ever seen it so I caved. It's a pastel green with some pink highlights.

I've got a nice list of corals going-
-Acan
-Monti
-Blastos
-Clove Polyps (I'll probably take the ones from my other tank, since that will provide some variety and some white)
-Maybe some mushrooms?
-Devil's hand
-Plating sponge

If you can’t find any locally, I’d be happy to ship you some cloves I have fireworks, yellow tipped, and red tipped. I also have red and green plating montis, mushrooms, and my red acan is getting big enough to frag now. I also have Xenia but it’s just the white pom pom Xenia.

I wonder if you keep the red setting on the light higher if the frog will start turning red because of that?

 

[duberii]

If you can’t find any locally, I’d be happy to ship you some cloves I have fireworks, yellow tipped, and red tipped. I also have red and green plating montis, mushrooms, and my red acan is getting big enough to frag now. I also have Xenia but it’s just the white pom pom Xenia.

I wonder if you keep the red setting on the light higher if the frog will start turning red because of that?

Unfortunately I can't test this out- the fluval stock lighting only has a blue mode and a white mode, and that's it. There aren't even any intensity settings. I do have a hypothesis though; Most fish can't see red light, or at least they react minimally to it (mostly because water absorbs red light more so than blue light), which is why if you want to look at your tank at night you can get a red flashlight. If I only used red light on the tank, and the only color possible to see is red, then I'm sure that it would turn red in response. However, with any reasonable mix of colors I doubt it would make any difference. I actually just picked up a few corals, so i'll let you keep your corals for now- thank you for the offer though!

 

[duberii]

Here is a few videos from feeding today! It sucked down 3 guppy fry today, but I could only record 2.

 

[lion king]

You can probably find some pics of my orange painted's tank, you can get orange and red acans as well as brain corals and mushrooms. There's also some of a warty tank that I used fake corals, I didn't like it but many did. The computer I had the pics on crashed so I can't repost right now.

 

[UnderwaterGamer]

Did you end up finding the Anger at the LFS or did you buy it online?

 

[duberii]

Did you end up finding the Anger at the LFS or did you buy it online?

I found mine at my LFS, though I have been checking divers den and they seem to have them pretty frequently, so that's where I would check if you're looking for one.

 

[rimlessreefer954]

Man thats a cool fish.

 

[UnderwaterGamer]

I found mine at my LFS, though I have been checking divers den and they seem to have them pretty frequently, so that's where I would check if you're looking for one.

He picked up a really cool pattern in the tank! I'm about to set up a 20g and strongly leaning towards a warty angler so I'm trying to start looking around for where to get one. The only issue I have with Diver's Den is I cant see it before I buy it, and since this will be the only fish in the tank, I'd like to be a little picky about it

 

[duberii]

Man thats a cool fish.

Thanks! I have always been interested in more... niche fish/corals/inverts. I should have another tank update soon- I got some new corals that I'm ready to show off (as soon as I can get some nice pics and all)

 

[duberii]

He picked up a really cool pattern in the tank! I'm about to set up a 20g and strongly leaning towards a warty angler so I'm trying to start looking around for where to get one. The only issue I have with Diver's Den is I cant see it before I buy it, and since this will be the only fish in the tank, I'd like to be a little picky about it

Divers den is actually the opposite- the main liveaquaria site is not WYSIWYG, but divers den is. You can't watch its behavior, but you will be seeing the exact fish you're getting

 

[UnderwaterGamer]

Divers den is actually the opposite- the main liveaquaria site is not WYSIWYG, but divers den is. You can't watch its behavior, but you will be seeing the exact fish you're getting

Wow, didn't know that thank you!