Looking for information about making painted or warty frogfish biotope.
Apart from it should be low flow, low light, with zoanthids and ricordea, no stinging corals or anemones, species tank for a single fish with heavy duty filtration, what else? Anyone kept 2-3 in the same tank or in a separate tanks next to each other? Any examples to show?
Does red painted frogfish require red corals to keep red color, will the plain red mushrooms be OK?

heavy duty filtration isn't always a necessity (but don't get me wrong, it always helps)... just wait a few minutes after you feed him and siphon out the poo poo... Frogfish are awesome.

Hey non-photosynt,

My red pictus was cherry red until he began to think the powerhead was a black sponge. Guess what? I have a black pictus now. Just waiting for my LFS to get a vibrant red ball sponge. The pictus pays no mind to the reddish orange shrooms I have.

BTW, if you're going having the frogfish to be the main attraction in there, live rock and a CUC as filtration will suffice.

You also don't need to limit yourself to just softies. You can totally turn your tank into a full nano reef emulation - SPS, LPS and bivalves are in your reach and still be able to keep the frogfish.

I'm sure everyone has warned you about their legendary appetite, and their ability to swallow their own kind whole, but look up handle "eklikewhoa". He's got a 30 long (I think) with a 2-3 frogfish, lionfish, AND decorative shrimp all in one tank. He certainly broke the status quo. I also have a Hawaiian Pygmy. Afraid of one swallowing the other, I threw him into the 55 gal where, to this day, is...somewhere.

Hope that helps you. Sorry, can't find my camera. I'll post you a pic when I do.

Thank you for responses, more information is very welcome!

Here is mine, should be painted frogfish:


I have it only for two days, the good thing is that it already started to eat frozen food by itself. When it sees food, it starts moving its lure, then eats food so fast, that process of eating is not visible: food was there - and there are no food aymore. Except the last piece, when it's not hungry anymore.
It is ~4 cm (<2") long, including tail. Are these fuzzy patches on the body normal?

My information if from "Frogfish Files" thread at RC. No personal experience yet.
Can you specify, what light and flow tolerance is? I don't want force it to spend life in cave

Current tank, 15g, has Emperor 400 HOB filter (400 gph) with 50 micron pads and carbon, Tunze Nano DOC 9082 (two video cassette sized in-tank skimmer), heater, LR, and 27W only light (I have 2x36W PC, can replace). Flow is a bit strong - or frogfish is avoiding light or exposed space - it hides behind the rock on the right.

Keeping red color, your thoughts:
- could red background or decoration work,
- I have red mushrooms:

Will they be acceptable? (No harm to a fish, I mean). Or buy red cynarina or blastomussa welsii.
- Or a sponge is absolutely necessary?
The problem is, while hitchhiking sponges are growing well in my tank, none of them is red, and large decorative sponges - only orange are available, and I don't want an orange fish - are not living long in my tanks:


Any photos or links to tank setups (not only a photo of frogfish itself) will be appreciated, I should have an idea of environment, that already worked for others.

the fuzzy patches are normal

Same fish for others went through color transformation: red - black - orange - yellow in one case, to brown - even with red mushrooms in the tank - in another.

My tank has painted black background, have to either move fish after quarantine, or move tank from the wall and scratch off background
Ordered two plastic replicas of red corals, just in case.

I have no opinions in Coral color
Since my Frog Tank has a brown frog in it,
But they love Ghost Shrimp
And any kind of feeder fish,
They are amazing fish and i hope you enjoy yours.
also yes slow current mine sometimes has a problem swimming,
which can lead to stress.

I'll post some pics later
Of Baccaus Maximus
(Frog Fish i guess always get Greek names)
Props to hxcaquaman and Socrates, Nice Froggy

Can you post tank's photo? So far I found very few photos, and in none of them fish kept its color.

Mine started to change color to much darker, muddy color (within 10 days, BTW) - tank had black background and equipment. Moved all in anther, unpainted tank, with background of red mylar and two plastic red corals, later will add corals, it still QT:

Low light for a couple of days to let it become familiar with new surroundings.
Fish tries to move either away from light, or prefers black plastic of equipment. Swims time from time, a lot, catching water by opening mouth and expelling it through the gill openings, that positioned behind back "legs" and look like jets of airplane. Mechanism could be different, but impression is very strong.

It seems, that it will be a problem: swimming from top to bottom and back again, facing own reflection in the glass, not covered by background. Have no idea how to prevent this, apart from adding photo background with print on it, and they are not available in reds. Textured aerosol paint, stone-like, again is not available in red colors, and tank is already set - no aerosols inside this room.

Apart from fighting with keeping color vivid, so far it is very interesting, low maintenance fish: feed once a day from fishline in rigid airline tube, change filter pad every second day, siphon bottom weekly during partial water change - it's all. Poop is a compact piece, less than astrea snail makes.

When wave the food before it (still "It", no name yet), it waves the lure, attracting prey. Family members add, that each of us thinks than fooled each other

As I understand, I was lucky with this fish, that did not require weaning at all and started to eat frozen food (PE mysis) by itself. Most posts about frogfish say about their - especially wartskin and dwarf tuberculatus - refuse to accept dead food.

Is your brown fish painted frogfish too or hispidus? I have seen them once in LFS, but they said that it will grow to 1 ft/30cm size

I still curious, how the multiple frogrishes are kept: Rene and Uberfugu have them, LisaD too, if I remember right, but no photos of how the tanks are arranged for convenient access for maintenance. If you will see something on the web, post a link, OK?

Will Do and ill get the tank shots ASAP
Hes actually grown to like a pink coral i have,
I hope he turns colors, that would be awesome.

I feed him every other day,
Usually some ghost shrimp and a guppy or two

Hes an awesome fish unfortunately im only holding him for a friend until
his tank is setup, maybe ill try and keep him lol

i would also like to do this, i have a empty 15g, and i would like to use it for a frogfish, or a leafish?

Looking forward to see pictures and hopefully one day you will have a colorful own one (or 2-3, that what I'm intended to do right now, only store has them rarely and lack of space, tanks have to be organized in more compact unit).

15g should be good for a small varieties: wartskin, painted, coinbearing, dwarf frogfish, the giant one - Commerson - will be too big.

WetWebMedia mentioned, that Scott Michaels keeps one in a small Eclipse on the desk, and he knows what he is doing
Mine, 4 cm / <2" long (including tail) was in 15g QT, and it was easier to find it than now in 20g long tank. I used it solely because established biofilter (Emperor 400) is too big for 6g Nano-Cube, and I don't have another ready to use filter right now.

I prefer frogfishes, they are like miniature dinosaurs and their use of lure is astonishing. Leaf fish, unless this is a hairy kind (or am I mistaking it for a scorpionfish?) looks to me more plain, in appearance and behavior. But both could hide most of the time and tank may look empty, you know that.

My next problem will be aiptasia control in frogfish tank

The reference website about frogfish is Frogfish. First hands experiences - in The Frogfish Files, but not much answers there lately.

ok thanks!

my lfs has a wartskin frogfish i think



is that different to a frog fish?
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no there a type of frogfish.

The second is just like mine, red painted frigfish, first - what it tries to become, when sitting on black equipment.
The difference between warty and painted frogfish, A maculatus and A pictus, is here. The first on this page is last your link. Painted has more uniform color, warty is also named clown frogfish, has two contrast colors and looks more bright.

Better photo of sargassum frogfish is here. They are larger, than warty (4") and painted (6") frogfishes, 8", require 30g tank and can jump out, so tank has to be covered. No first hands experience, I'm citing Frofish Files.

here's my tank and froggie. hes still small but eats like a pig. i never see him eat, but his belly is always fat with a shrimp in it. hes just in a 10gal right now connected to my 125. I'll be transferring him over once hes a little bigger.

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Now here's a topic I can get in to. I've really been considering a wart skin for my tank. Of course the resident fish would have to be a form of sacrifice since they refuse to be captured...Other than a dwarf golden moray eel ($$$) I don't know of a cooler nano-sized fish. Out of curiousity, does any one else have either a wart skin or a painted frog fish? There fun to look at.