Freshwater Stonefish

[Valkyrie]

My father just bought me a freshwater Stonefish for Christmas (I haven't picked it up just yet). I love the way it looks, but unfortunately, I don't know a whole lot about it. What I know is that:
--It is, in fact, brackish
--It prefers live foods
--It has venemous spines
--It gets 12 inches long
--It is nocturnal
--It needs a good place to hide (such as a PVC pipe)

It is 6 inches in length now. I've set up a fully cycled 25 gal long aquarium with heating, lighting, filtration, etc, though I may eventually move it into a 40 gal long tank (I also have a 55 if it becomes necessary). It will have three tankmates: a female Kribensis cichlid and two (large) female swords. All of them like salt, are too big to be eaten, and they themselves shouldn't be tempted to pick on the stonefish (which might the end of them). Plus, I figure any babies the female swords might drop might be good eating for the Stonefish. What I want to know is:
--What temp. the stonefish prefers
--How much space it will eventually need
--What kind of live food should I feed it--I don't like the thought of feeding it feeder fish because they tend to be high in fat and often carry diseases. Would it eat worms? Are ghost shrimp a good idea? Or are fish the only things it WILL eat?

Any answers would be appreciated--I want to take good care of my new baby!!!

Thanks in advance.

 

[CFC]

I dont know where you got the idea that the krib and swords wont get eaten as even at their maximum full grown size they are easy prey for a half grown stone fish which can easily manage prey up to 3/4 its own size, when adult tankmates will need to be well over 6 inches to be considered safe.
The stone fish also needs far higher salinities than kribs and swords, they are high end brackish to marine dwellers which wont be happy in water with a SG below 1.010 where as the kribs and swords wont like anything above 1.005, for tankmates you should really be looking towards things like mono's, scats, morays, archer fish and shark cats but these would require a much bigger tank.

As for feeding they can usually be trained to take frozen foods but most often need to be hand fed, mine takes whole whitebait, prawns, mussels and shelled clams which i push onto a stick and wave in front of the stone fish until it strikes.

 

[Valkyrie]

Believe me, I know darn well the krib and the swords would never be able to stay with the stonefish without eventually getting eaten. But RIGHT NOW in a strictly temporary setting I figured it might be okay, but considering the salt level the Thing will be needing, I'll move them as soon as he gets here.

How much salt (tsp per gallon) should I add? How do I train him onto frozen foods? And just how big of a tank will he need when he's full grown?

 

[CFC]

You cant measure the salt in tsp per gallon, you will need to buy a hydrometer or refractometer to measure the SG adding salt to the water until you reach the required level, somewhere between 1.010 and 1.018 will be fine (i keep mine at 1.014).

They are a fairly sedentry fish spending 99% of their time hidden in rocks waiting for a meal to pass buy but they are still fairly large and being predators will produce a fair ammount of ammonia so the minimum sized tank for this fish to be kept alone would be a 30 gallon, if you have tankmates then anything large enough to not be eaten will require a minimum of a 75 gallon.

To train a fish onto dead foods all i do is push a piece of food onto a long wooden skewer and then wave the food right in front of the fishes face until it takes, it can take a couple of weeks of trying though so make sure the fish is well fed for a couple of weeks first to build up some fat reserves and then start and dont give any live food for at least 2 weeks.