# tankmates



## Nicole85 (Aug 17, 2009)

what would you put with a frogfish and we were wondering if it would eat clowns?


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## drhank (Aug 3, 2009)

It would absolutely eat your clownfish. Possibly not immediately but as soon as they would fit in it's mouth. They are predators and will eat any fish that will fit in their huge mouth, that swims near enough for them to strike.

You may want to take a look at this compatibility chart to get some idea of what fish are compatible with others.

Marine Compatability Chart


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## Imaexpat2 (Jun 17, 2009)

I had one for a few years and it was probably one of the most interesting and enjoyable fish I have ever had.

Here is a pic of Fat Bast#$%. He was named after a Character in one of those 007 spoof movies for a good reason...he ate a couple of fish that were about the same size as he was!










Beautiful fish, interesting fish, but dont under estimate its ability to eat something unless its much bigger than it is!!! Otherwise its potentially on the menu! This will include any decrorative shrimp that might be residing in your tank. If it moves and will partially fit in its mouth its dinner time! Another thing you will need to keep in mind with these fish is that dont eat until they are full, they will continue to eat until there is no more food, so feed it an appropriate amount and no more beyond that and allow it to go a couple of days before feeding again. Another thing to keep in mind is to feed it a varied diet. If fed a diet heavy in shrimp they can develope a desiase refered to as "Lock Jaw" which will result in them not being able to open and close thier mouth and the fish will slowly starve and die as a result. Some here may not have herd of this syndrome but I assure you its not a myth. I have seen this occur in Lion Fish and it was the reason I lost my Angler Fish, so do take heed.

Oh and one other thing you need to be aware of when it comes to these fish...never lift them out of the water. If they injest air they can not clear it as they cant "burp" and dont have gills that will allow them to clear air traped in their mouth. Your LFS should capture them in a specimen container and enpty this in a bag of water when bagging them up for you. If they dont do this refuse to buy it unless they are going to guarentee it. You should be careful when adding it to your tank as well. Submerge the bag and enpty your new fish into the tank to avoid this problem thats unique to this fish. Normally I wouldnt suggest such a technique but with this fish I do not know any other way around this.

Additionally, these fish need to be kept in tanks with moderate lighting. Kept in a tank with halides will cuase blister like leasions to occur just under the skin and this will result in death of the fish in most cases.

Many species of fish in this catagory also have a number of appendages. If kept in a community type tank (I DONT RECOMMEND THIS...they are best in a single fish species only tank) many fish will pick at these appendages and harass and stress this fish until it dies so do keep this in mind should you choose to keep one of these fish.

Also do make sure that you have positively identified beyond a doubt what species you are buying as many of these are sold under a variety of vaugue and over lapping names. Some of these speices will grow to an adult size of 6 inches or so and can be kept in fairly small enclosures and other can get to be quiet large, much like the Lion Fish Species.

While not the most knowledgable reefer here at this forum, this has just been my experieces with this species. I suspect that advice from other sources may vary considerably so research this thoroughly for yourelf before you make a purchase. I found some great sources of information on this species out there before I bought my fish, so take advantage of them and use them!


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## Nicole85 (Aug 17, 2009)

beautiful awesome fish...so glad you let me know this though because if we do get one..it will be another tank another time. this is my first saltwater and would like to get many different small community fish. so it`s a rainbow of different colors in my tank. no matter how much i`d love to have a frogfish...i don`t need him eating up my fishes. the three books we have on different marine fish don`t even mention these beautiful creatures. i actually saw a photo online and thought awww he is sooo ugly that he`s cute. lol


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## drhank (Aug 3, 2009)

Nicole, I know that you are used to freshwater I just wanted to make sure that you know you can't have anywhere near as many fish in saltwater. If you will stay with the 1" per 5 gallons of saltwater (that's full grown fish) until you have a year or more of experience you will save yourself a lot of regret.

Take your time and check compatability, add on fish at a time. Some nice smaller fish with a lot of color that I can think of are royal gramma, yellow watchman goby, pseudochromis, hawkfish, six line wrasse, flasher wrasse, spotted cardinalfish, bi colored blennies, dwarf angelfish, and fire fish. I'd recommend that you stay away from Tangs, Butterflyfish, mandarin goby, and anything which gets large or aggressive.

Take your time, check compatability and go slowly.


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## salth2o (Aug 3, 2009)

drhank said:


> It would absolutely eat your clownfish. Possibly not immediately but as soon as they would fit in it's mouth. They are predators and will eat any fish that will fit in their huge mouth, that swims near enough for them to strike.
> 
> You may want to take a look at this compatibility chart to get some idea of what fish are compatible with others.
> 
> Marine Compatability Chart


Not saying it is always possible, but I have a quite large angler that is in the same tank as a smaller tomato clown, and has been for months not without an issue. Videos posted in the pic section to prove it!


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