Angler input wanted

[Fly Guy]

Ok...im shopping for a cool carnivore to put in a lps only tank. Im trying to show willpower by NOT dropping a bunch of money on a rhino.

Howabout this fish??? Anyone have any experience with them??

It says they eat snails. Thats bad. If i keep him fed will he leave them alone??? Howabout featherdusters and such?

thanks

-its a Colored Angler - Antennarius species

[Geoff]

they eat everything. they just need to move near them.

do not spend extra for a red one. they change colour. if you buy a red one and you do not have any red sponges in the tank than you will soon have a yellow angler.

feeding them something you want them to eat can be tricky. they will gladly eat anything else in the tank, but it may not be what you want them to eat. they will also eat anything that is slightly larger than they are and smaller. so any critter is fair game for these guys. they will also eat their own kind if they get close enough and are of appropriate size.

G~

[Fly Guy]

Like i said im looking for a carnivorous fish for a lps only tank. I am perfectly ok with it being the only fish in the 80 gallon.

I am into this for the corals for way more than the fish so even though he looks cool.......sounds like he isnt going to be the fish for me. I dont want to have to keep replenishing my cleanup crew. I like feather dusters a lot too and i assume he will chow on them as well. Thanks geoff.

Any other input or suggestions for really odd/ cool looking carnivorous fish? The crazier looking the better. Dont want a lion. Ive had them in the past and want something diferent.
Too bad the rhinos cost so much. Their behavior and looks are exactly what i want. I would have no problem spending 1-$200 on the right fish......but $450 is over the top.

Thanks for any other suggestions

[Geoff]

i think an angler would be fine for your tank. they can eat snails, but it really is not what they really want to eat.

ok, lets start this way.

what would you like to feed your carnivorous fish? lets see if we can fine tune coming from that direction.

G~

[Fly Guy]

Thanks Geoff, I appreciate you volunteering to be my underpaid private purchasing consultant!!!!!

I would like to feed my unchosen crazy looking carnivorous fish Formula 1.(if you have healthier suggestions as far as frozen food im open to them) Thats what i finally was able to feed my lions after some effort(yes, fishing line and even some fly tying was involved) in weening them off of live fish.
Thats why i would like to get them small and if they dont take readily to it i did come up with a procedure in which i think i can get most difficult carnivorous fish to begin to accept frozen foods. This is of course based on my VAST experience of twice, but i am batting 1000 so far. Both of these lions fyi were at least 2-3 years old when i got them to change over to frozen. Regardless...for the right fish i would be willing to feed them anything i had to if i wasnt successful on the frozen thing.

thanks

[Twitterbait]

I have a sargassum and he is totally cool. keep in mind that the anglers can eat fish and shrimp up to 1/2 their own size and smetimes even more!

[Fly Guy]

How about feather dusters........do anglers bother them?? Or better put, has anyone ever heard of a angler eating their 5-7 inch featherdusters

[Twitterbait]

not that i have heard

[garvondavis14]

i would be surprised if an angler ate a featehr duster

[volitanking]

how about some kind of grouper? try and find a gold coney or if you want to spend the money get a pollini grouper theyre awsome look!!
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...UTF-8%26sa%3DX

[Fly Guy]

Originally Posted by volitanking

how about some kind of grouper? try and find a gold coney or if you want to spend the money get a pollini grouper theyre awsome look!!
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...UTF-8%26sa%3DX

THANKS for the suggestion. That IS a cool fish but i really want something more on the REALLY odd looking side. All input appreciated though.

For that much money i could buy my rhinopius. Im looking to spend definitely less than $200. Im not counting the angler out yet, and i can get him for $55, and he defintely qualifies as ODD looking.

[Geoff]

i feel fish that eat blender mush/ frozen cube foods are more planktonivore than true carnivores. it will always be difficult to get a true large carnivorous fish to eat small food stuff like that. if you are wanting a true carnivorous fish than you really need to expect to feed live or even frozen large foodstuff.

most of these predators can be taught to eat frozen large food stuff by using the net method. use a very small net to always feed them live foods in the beginning. over time they associate the small net with food. you can then use thawed foodstuff falling off of the net and they will snarf it up.

you can get frozen Krill and silversides. these are both good foods for nearly all carnivorous large foodstuff fish.

just get the silly frogfish.

G~

[tdwyatt]

Originally Posted by Fly Guy

...I would like to feed my unchosen crazy looking carnivorous fish Formula 1.(if you have healthier suggestions as far as frozen food im open to them) ...i did come up with a procedure in which i think i can get most difficult carnivorous fish to begin to accept frozen foods. This is of course based on my VAST experience of twice, but i am batting 1000 so far. Both of these lions fyi were at least 2-3 years old when i got them to change over to frozen. Regardless...for the right fish i would be willing to feed them anything i had to if i wasnt successful on the frozen thing.

You can forget this with the frogfishes and similar ambush feeders. They will require some type of live food. I have heard of some owners training them with a piece of frozen silversides on a long thin rod with some motion to mimic a live fish, but that is hit or miss. This will be your best method of training if you can get them to eat these as whole and frozen. As ambush feeders, I personally think that ovserving this behavior on occasion is part of the allure of these fishes, and I would not want tot take the time to attempt the training. You can prolly feed them with live mollies acclimitized to the full strength ASW, just leave them in the system, the fish will feed itself at its own schedule. If you keep the mollies in a heavily planted FW tank, they will multiply on their own for a self-replenishing source of the foodstock, or just pick them up from a FW shop as the fish eats them, although I personally would like being able to control the food source myself were I you.


HTH

[volitanking]

i came up with my own method of traning groupers to eat frozen food like krill and silversides. you just get a little bit of that scent in there and drag the piece of fish across the surface and let it go so it kinda sinks think of it like fishing fish bite dumb looking lures thinking its real and what your feeding them IS real so just make them think its alive

[tdwyatt]

groupers are one thing, training the frogfish and similar ambush hunters is another... although the stick method seems to work somewhat, there are a lot of folks that end up feeding live food because they cannot train their fishes to consume the frozen stuff.