thalassophryne amazonica

[Erised]

Was looking through the stocklist of a new lfs we found, and happen to come across this fish. I googled, found some information ... but just wondering if anyone has any experience in what they're like to keep

For now, I'm not concidering buying it .. but perhaps in the future

 

[CFC]

Lovely little fish commonly called the monster fish, i had one for a while but could never get it to eat properly and it eventually died They are sedentry predators that bury in the sand and wait for food to swim over their heads and then open their huge mouths and swallow it whole. They pretty much only take live fish which is where my problem came in, the only live feeders i had access too were guppies and they tended to stay up too high for the monster fish to catch them, in hindsight small Cichlids or barbs would have been a better choice.

 

[Erised]

I would have made the same mistake as you, so very glad to know (for future references) that it's better to go with a different type of feeder.

What I read is that you can keep an adult pair in a 15G, is this true or not? It seems like an aweful small tank for such a fish. Small for a predatory fish perhaps, but still not tiny. Also says they're venomous, do you happen to know in which way?

 

[CFC]

A 15g is more than adequate for them, they spend their entire lives pretending to be rocks burried in the sand and only move to find a new ambush spot once theyve been spotted by their prey. Like all members of the toad fish family they have venemous spines in their dorsal fin and around the gill plates which can inflict painfull wounds which are apperently like being stung by a bee/wasp, i didnt fancy finding out myself so stayed well clear of them when doing maintainance

 

[Erised]

well that's fair enough I guess! I won't feel bad about only giving them a 15G then ... I got the feeling this is one of the fish I just *have* to try out ... same for Monocirrhus polyacanthus. Saw them for the first time on monday, and gosh are they lovely! First though ... a house, then some new tanks, and the the fish

 

[CFC]

The Amazon leaf fish are also difficult to feed and usually only take live feeders, they are also very fussy of water conditions and NEED soft acidic water to survive, i found that out the hard way when i lost 4 of 6 that i had before i switched to using R/O water.

 

[Erised]

That I already knew ... I read your advice on that before when searching on this forum I believe these might be used to frozen foods though (the leaf fish, not the other one), that's what he seems to feed them. If so, that would be very nice He had about 10 of them, they differ in colour, but no deaths or obviously diseased onces, so I can only guess they're doing alright I will probably go back some time next week, and will keep an eye on them over the next week to see if they do indeed survive. They don't seem like fast selling fish anyway.

Really wish I had some empty tanks right now, simply for the challenge ... but I'll need a cichlid breeding tank first then, tank to seperate the fry in, then the actual tank ... no room for all that at the moment.

Would you happen to know the min. tank size for Monocirrhus polyacanthus? And in a group of how many do they need to be kept?

 

[CFC]

They can be kept singularly, i had my remaining one for a year on its own after the other one of the two that survived died or they can be kept in groups, either way they dont seem bothered and didnt interact or anything when kept as a group. I had mine in a 30g tank to start with and then moved the pair to a 10g when the other 4 died before finally moving the last one into a 80g with all my other fish to free up the 10g for some fry.

I plan to get some agian one day and keep them with other fish that imitate nature to disguise themselves such as banjo cats and twig catfish to create a wierd "is there really fish in there" type tank

 

[Erised]

I plan to get some agian one day and keep them with other fish that imitate nature to disguise themselves such as banjo cats and twig catfish to create a wierd "is there really fish in there" type tank

Ooohhhh! That sounds like a great tank! Though, my banjo cats are great at actually showing themselfs, not having their head burried properly. That would definatly have the inexperienced eye to fishkeeping very confused for a while though ... fantastic

I think I got all the answer I wanted, so thanks a lot! I'll be waiting till I have more room, and then definatly giving 1 of the species a try