Jagadeesh's Elysian Gills

[thespinningsadhu]

Well, he ate both the chromis. I had put them in another tank but they started teaming up on the goby. I didn't even see the first one - he'd eaten it by the time I'd netted the other one. 

 

It was really neat to watch - I don't know what he was thinking or what his tactics were - the chromis was actually tickling Dump Truck's lips with his tail fin. He has the patience of a saint, I guess, for lack of a better phrase. When he did eat the chromis it's too fast for the eye to see. One second the chromis is there and the next millisecond he's vanished into thin air..er... frogfish stomach. 

 

After he ate it he turned around and looked right at me and was all pleased with himself and dared me to question his methods again. But before he did that the little shit actually TOOK A BOW. 

 

 

[Weetabix7]

He really does look awesome. 

Don't feed him anything else for another 2-3 days so that his digestive system has time to break that big meal down. 

Otherwise, the food can begin to rot in his system and kill him. 

[seabass]

I would think that five minutes would be enough to spread a disease.  Even dumping the water from a sick fish could spread pests or diseases.

 

You might consider a freshwater dip before feeding.  Care should still be taken, even if they are just feeder fish.

 

I wonder if you could breed mollies (acclimated to saltwater) to feed Dumpy.

[samnaz]

On 7/23/2017 at 7:12 AM, Weetabix7 said:

 

These are one of my favorite fish in the whole world, I had a yellow version of this same fish many years ago that I named Daffodil. 

So glad to hear that you got a good one and seem to have a good handle on how to care for it. 

While I'm thinking about it, I learned several years ago that they apparently do better in lower temps so if you can keep your tank closer to 76 that might be helpful for him. 

There was a guy who was doing a lot of work with Frogfish, including breeding them, and I learned that from reading his thread. 

I must find that thread!

[thespinningsadhu]

FTS

 

 

So many micro bubbles. 

[Lugmos12]

That is so colorful!

 

what is all the green stuff on the sand?

what are the two green/blue corals on the top left?

That sponge is a beauty!

[thespinningsadhu]

4 hours ago, Lugmos12 said:

That is so colorful!

 

what is all the green stuff on the sand?

what are the two green/blue corals on the top left?

That sponge is a beauty!

I don't have sand. I have crushed coral. So the green stuff is some sort of algae. It grew on just those shells and nothing else. It hasn't progressed. It also doesn't come off. 

 

Green blue corals are Duncans. They actually have beautiful pink tentacles. 

 

That's a sun coral, not a sponge. One of his arms was crushed in some sort of accident. It's growing back. Still I'm afraid the coral as a whole may not make it because they like high flow and the frogfish doesn't. 

[Lugmos12]

Now I want a duncan. How big is the frogfish?

[thespinningsadhu]

1 hour ago, Lugmos12 said:

Now I want a duncan. How big is the frogfish?

He's three inches. 

[thespinningsadhu]

Here's a video of Dump Truck eating a ghost shrimp. I apologize for the lack of focus - I can't figure out how to make this camera focus the way I want it to. Right before the shrimp disappears you'll seem him use his lure.

 

 

[thespinningsadhu]

17 hours ago, Weetabix7 said:

Don't feed him anything else for another 2-3 days so that his digestive system has time to break that big meal down. 

I won't - even though he's fishing again with his little lure. Bless his heart.

[fishfreak0114]

That's so cool!!! One day I absolutely must keep one of those!  For now, I will live vicariously through you. 

[thespinningsadhu]

9 hours ago, seabass said:

I would think that five minutes would be enough to spread a disease.  Even dumping the water from a sick fish could spread pests or diseases.

 

You might consider a freshwater dip before feeding.  Care should still be taken, even if they are just feeder fish.

 

I wonder if you could breed mollies (acclimated to saltwater) to feed Dumpy.

 

That's what I thought - about the five minutes - but it's a moot point now. I will take care in the future. I didn't dump the water, however, I netted them in there. I want him to associate the net with food. 

 

I've researched (preliminarily) breeding mollies and gut-loading them with what he needs. I have shore shrimp from Florida arriving Wednesday that are healthy for him and they last - or so I've read. 

 

I also thought about just ordering 10 chromis at a time from LA and feeding him two a week. That may wind up being expensive over the long course. If I can catch the free shipping at $99 I can get 20. But they're super cheap at Petco, anyway. $4.99. 
 

I want to spoil him for a while - give him a month to get used to everything in the tank and me and all and then start to train him to take frozen foods. 

 

I think mollies will end up being the easiest and cheapest if I decide to do all live food. 

2 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said:

That's so cool!!! One day I absolutely must keep one of those!  For now, I will live vicariously through you. 

Wait until I post the slow motion one!!! It's processing now. It's still too fast to see!!!

 

[thespinningsadhu]

He's not hiding out so much anymore - I caught him like this before I left for work. Sexy devil...

 

 

[thespinningsadhu]

 

[thespinningsadhu]

I'd just done a two gallon water change - I guess he thought I threw some shrimp in? LOL. 

 

 

 

[WV Reefer]

1 minute ago, thespinningsadhu said:

I'd just done a two gallon water change - I guess he thought I threw some shrimp in? LOL. 

 

 

 

 

That is such a good pic!  That sh*t should be in a magazine. For real. 

[thespinningsadhu]

I enjoy photography.

 

Thank you, do you have a magazine? Let's run that shit. Or I guess I can call Southern Living.

[thespinningsadhu]

The one time I don't have my camera and Dump Truck does two yawns and a snap! It's most likely him resetting his jawbones for eating. 

[samnaz]

The color and texture of his skin is almost indistinguishable from that of a sponge. A truly remarkable.genius of camouflage. My absolute favorite fish. Could he be any cuter?!? I think not.  

[thespinningsadhu]

Ya'll. Dump Truck just scared the shit out of me. I turned the lights off (to just the actinics) and maybe he does this every night but ol' boy started swimming laps around the top of the tank. It was almost like he couldn't breathe - and then I got scared because if he gulps in air his fat ass will die. He settled down (he only did this for 30 seconds, maybe 45) and I decided it was time for him to eat. Turns out he was hungry as hell. Two ghost shrimp down, one to go. 

 

I got scared because I thought I was going to kill him. I ordered three corals from DD and was admiring them tonight and saw ####ing bubble algae on them. So I research here how to take care of it and take the corals out, scrape off the algae with an exacto knife and some of the frag underneath it, squirt hydrogen peroxide on the part that I scraped off, rinsed with some squirts of tank water, and placed them back in the tank. The cespitularia slimed and bubbled a bit but the silver and black xenia was fine. So I'm thinking I've done killed my butt ugly fish and I would have had to lay down in a ditch and cry. 

 

He just ate the third ghost shrimp and is fishing for more. Greedy bastard. 

 

 

You know what's kind of amazing? Before I found a store that had ghost shrimp I decided I would have to sacrifice three of my sexy shrimp for him. But they are still in the tank and alive and it's been days. He sees them - he knows they're there, but he can't get at them because of the corals they are on. The big one is getting brave and just swimming about and standing on top of a rock. 

[seabass]

8 hours ago, thespinningsadhu said:

Turns out he was hungry as hell. Two ghost shrimp down, one to go.

I'm not sure how much research you have done on anglers (sounds like you've done a fair amount).  I'll admit that I don't know a lot about them.  However, I believe there is a concern about overfeeding.  If I remember correctly, they are typically fed like two times a week.

 

On 7/24/2017 at 10:14 PM, thespinningsadhu said:

I don't have sand. I have crushed coral.

Crushed coral will trap more detritus than sand.  It requires even more maintenance to prevent eventual problems.

 

 

Everything looks quite impressive.  I'm just pointing out a few things which potentially could become problematic.  I want you to succeed.

[thespinningsadhu]

52 minutes ago, seabass said:

Crushed coral will trap more detritus than sand.  It requires even more maintenance to prevent eventual problems.

 

I'm glad you told me this. I was going to start removing it, anyway. I now have pulsing Australian pompom xenia in my tank and I want it to eventually cover the bottom. I'll leave enough sand around the big rocks to prevent it from crawling up. Now I just have to research how best to remove the sand without killing everything. As spread out as I'll be doing it I think maybe a net is best? I don't know. Research research research. 

 

52 minutes ago, seabass said:

Everything looks quite impressive.  I'm just pointing out a few things which potentially could become problematic.  I want you to succeed.

Thanks so much!!! That means a lot.

[thespinningsadhu]

53 minutes ago, seabass said:

I'm not sure how much research you have done on anglers (sounds like you've done a fair amount).  I'll admit that I don't know a lot about them.  However, I believe there is a concern about overfeeding.  If I remember correctly, they are typically fed like two times a week.

 

From what I've read, they can be fed about three to four times a week depending on the meal size. So, if I do a chromis one day a week, then the other two or three times I would do two gut-loaded shore shrimp.

 

The biggest problem I'm having now is finding a good balance of flow for Dump Truck and my corals that need a bit more. I think I've gotten it - I 'll give it a few days. The blue cespitularia hasn't been happy since I received him. He stretches out but his tentacles stay closed like a fist.

[seabass]

12 minutes ago, thespinningsadhu said:

Now I just have to research how best to remove the sand without killing everything.

I would probably just siphon out some off the top during water changes.  It will take several water changes, but it should be a safe transition.