Angler Journal

[OOtzie]

I walked into my LFS and noticed this little sucker in the corner in a tiny tank, i noticed upon further examination that it was a juvi that just turned adult and it was mislabeled at $20 (normally sold at $60) so I gave it a shot.

I could tell it was a painted angler (Antennarius Pictus) by its signature 3 spots on it's tail. Right now it's red but its slowly going orange. The fish's stomach was very much caved in and it was instantly throwing its lure around my bi-colored blenny.

I am going to train this fish to accept frozen silversides/whatever I want, I will not take no for an answer, period. That much in mind I am going to document any and all activity regarding this specimen.

This is a picture of the fish just after I noticed harry, my bi-colored blenny, wasn't where he usually hangs and the angler's stomach was very much full.:grumpy:

 

[lfsmarineguy]

I love anglers, he looks good. I've gotten them on silversides before but you might want to invest in a few damsels just to play it safe. After thawing I would use a feeding stick to get the silverside close enough to get it interested while trying to keep it moving like a fish. The after teasing it enough I'd let it grab it and eventually they end up eating them but not all of them go for this. Damsels are good for getting them acclimated to the tank and once they are settled then you can start with the frozen. Eventually I was able to hand feed one of them you just have to be careful and keep enough distance where they can get the fish but not your hand.

I once had two of them almost exactly the same size in a tank and one day we came in to find only one... I'd heard they could cannibalize specimens their own size but never had seen or even really thought they could because their mouthes, while huge, didn't seem big enough to pull that off. I can't believe I don't have any pics of it but it's gut was impressive after that. it looked like a bright red pacman with fins sticking out of it, it couldn't even rest upright. A few days later it was back to normal and got pretty big before someone took it home to a 60ish gal if I remember that was setup just for the angler.

 

[OOtzie]

that bulge in its stomach is my bi-colored blenny:tired:.

Since it just ate!, I am going to wait a week before I feed again or i'll just keep an eye on it's stomach size. Just found this nifty little site about different techniques to train predatory fish to frozen, http://www.lionfishlair.com/feedingtechniques/toolsofthetrade.shtml.

I think the best bet is using the net tech with guppies, to frozen guppies, to frozen silversides. This approach looks promising and I am now excited.

 

[lfsmarineguy]

I can't tell exactly but your angler looks small enough to accept guppies although I personally don't like to feed freshwater to my saltwater fish. Once they get to a certain size they won't be as receptive to the smaller offerings.

 

[Alex]

looks like a great adventure. keep us posted.