Frogfish Bloated

[Tiwo]

Woke up today to my frogfish floating around and bloated. He has his arms out like he’s trying to cling to a rock or something. I’ve had him about 7 weeks and he’s been doing fine until today. I’ve been feeding him ghost shrimp every other day sometimes every two days if it was a big shrimp. I’m not sure if he can be saved but it’s worth a shot. He still moves or I guess you could call it twitching every once in a while.

One possibility for why this happened: on Thursday I fed him normally however the shrimp got stuck in a rock. So I fed him again on Friday but he had no interest and the shrimp once again hid in a rock before I could catch it again. I’m thinking maybe he somehow ate both?

Another possibility: I had my carpets steam cleaned on Thursday and the stairs were not drying so he had to come back to put something on the stairs to make them dry. It smelled quite strong. However ,All the corals look to be doing good and even the clam is looking great. Maybe the thing he put on the stairs somehow got into the tank? The tank is directly downwards from the stairs so that’s why I thought this.

 

[Ranjib]

#reefsquad

 

[JoshH]

Possibly eating too much... I'll have to double check where I read they only needed to be fed once a week or so, I could be wrong though @melypr1985 any thoughts?

 

[lion king]

One of 2 things; he could have gulped some air, they are not to suppose to be exposed out of the water. I've even known people while doing a water change managed to gulp air. I have burped them before, just like it sounds, massage his belly to elicit a burping response. 2nd thing could be overfed, what happens is an abundance of food in his belly sort of starts to spoil and form gases that get trapped. It doesn't really sound like you overfed that badly, I use to feed twice a week and after consideration I'm going to once a week. Sometimes they do recover on their own, again if you could elicit a burp it would help.

Maybe the stuff that was used on the stairs lowered the O2 in the tank and he gulped air from the top. As far as feeding goes; they gorge and fast in the wild so less frequent feeding in probably best.

 

[Tiwo]

One of 2 things; he could have gulped some air, they are not to suppose to be exposed out of the water. I've even known people while doing a water change managed to gulp air. I have burped them before, just like it sounds, massage his belly to elicit a burping response. 2nd thing could be overfed, what happens is an abundance of food in his belly sort of starts to spoil and form gases that get trapped. It doesn't really sound like you overfed that badly, I use to feed twice a week and after consideration I'm going to once a week. Sometimes they do recover on their own, again if you could elicit a burp it would help.

Maybe the stuff that was used on the stairs lowered the O2 in the tank and he gulped air from the top. As far as feeding goes; they gorge and fast in the wild so less frequent feeding in probably best.

Huh, forgot they could gulp air. I did massage his stomach a bit but I think it was to late. Unfortunately he passed a couple hours after I made this post :/

 

[lion king]

Huh, forgot they could gulp air. I did massage his stomach a bit but I think it was to late. Unfortunately he passed a couple hours after I made this post :/

Sorry for your loss, they are tricky to keep, anymore I try to discourage people more than not. If you plan to get another one and have some questions, please post.

 

[Tiwo]

Sorry for your loss, they are tricky to keep, anymore I try to discourage people more than not. If you plan to get another one and have some questions, please post.

Thanks for your help! I’m going to hold off for now, maybe get one in a few weeks. I’ll be sure to post whenever I have a question.

 

[Ellery]

I had the same happen to mine last December after having him for a few months, he ate 2 blue chromis at once while never touching the 2 other damsels that have been in his tank for 2 weeks. I found out afterwards that they can be burped manually by inserting a straw into their gill holes to release the gases. Unfortunately the frogfish was kool but required too many special care requirements to try again.