Frogfish Bowfront

tomtom2245 · Jul 6, 2016

Ever since we moved into the new house, the finished basement has always been a little empty as we didn't have the furniture to fill it out. Well now that it's mostly furnished and we use the space, we setup a 26gal bowfront that I got for free a while ago. The plan is to have it be a frogfish tank with some softies, lps, gorgonians, macro, and maybe a clam or two. I had the stand custom built by my coworker who does woodworking on the side as I wanted a nice wood stand that had some extra shelf space around the perimeter of the tank. As far as equipment I have a Jabao PP-4, Tunze ATO, eheim jager heater, oversized HOB filter to act as a mini fuge and to hold the temp and pH probe, generic black box LED fixture, and a RKL. The overall look is to hopefully resemble the Lembeh Straits in Indonesia. My wife and I went diving there for a week and fell in love with the place. Frogfish everywhere and black volcanic sand bottoms. Currently the cycle is pretty much finished and once that is complete I'll start adding in some snails and a few corals. Holding off on the frogfish until I'm sure everything is stable.

Now for some pics starting with the stand construction!

Aquascape for now:

Lionfish Lair · Jul 6, 2016

That's a beautiful stand!

tomtom2245 · Jul 6, 2016

Lionfish Lair said:
That's a beautiful stand!

Yeah, I'm super excited about how it turned out!

jsker · Jul 6, 2016

Nice work on the whole project, Like the black sand have the same thing in my 72 bowfront. FYI the sand sticks to you magnetic glass cleaner so be careful down low in the tank.

mmw64 · Jul 6, 2016

Following, great start.

tomtom2245 · Jul 6, 2016

jsker said:
Nice work on the whole project, Like the black sand have the same thing in my 72 bowfront. FYI the sand sticks to you magnetic glass cleaner so be careful down low in the tank.

Thanks for the heads up. I've actually stopped using the magnetic cleaners and just use the ones on a long handle.

Baby Ray · Jul 6, 2016

What type of frogfish are you planning to get?

tomtom2245 · Jul 6, 2016

Baby Ray said:
What type of frogfish are you planning to get?

Most likely a wartskin or painted. A LFS near me has a nice red wartskin in right now so I might grab that one.

Baby Ray · Jul 6, 2016

I love those!!

tomtom2245 · Aug 29, 2016

Time for an update! I got some corals added from a local reefer, toadstool, mushrooms, purple gorgonian, cabbage leather, and some Devils hand. I also picked up an orange tree sponge so we'll see how that does. And.... I got a wartskin angler in the other day from Divers Den!!!

And him with a big mouth after just eating a shrimp:

tomtom2245 · Aug 29, 2016

I also lucked out with this guy because he took a frozen krill first time! Hopefully it stays that way.

tomtom2245 · Sep 6, 2016

Tried my hand out with the Gopro and slowing down the video afterward. I don't think it came out too bad. Excuse all of the floating particles, sand got stirred up while trying to place the camera.

tomtom2245 · Nov 27, 2016

Still going strong and he readily takes any frozen food I give. Feeding about once every 3days, much to his chagrin as every time I go near the tank he starts angling. Battling the new tank algae blooms right now. Just got rid of the cyano but still have hair algae everywhere. Ordered an Aquamaxx HOB-1 skimmer from Marine Depot during their half off Black Friday deal so should get that in soon and installed. Here's a pic of one of his latest antics, spreading out to touch the glass and lounging there.

Maddlesrain · Nov 27, 2016

Very cute!!

tomtom2245 · Dec 7, 2016

The Aquamaxx HOB-1 came in the other day and man is that thing a beast so far! It took about 24hrs for the insane amount of bubbles to finally calm down but after that it immediately started producing some very dark skimmate! I'm still undecided as to which HOB I prefer, the Aquamaxx or the Reef Octopus that I have running on my 20gal. The in tank footprint of the Aquamaxx is smaller, as is the collection cup, but startup is quieter and it already has a drain hole in the cup. The RO is clear acrylic so it goes better with other equipment IMO, has the larger cup, and the pump is external of the main body making it easier to get to. The verdict is still out!

tomtom2245 · Dec 14, 2016

Goofball went and ate his lure today! He eventually spit it back out and all was well.

Maddlesrain · Dec 14, 2016

tomtom2245 said:
Goofball went and ate his lure today! He eventually spit it back out and all was well.

Lol I love how grumpy and huggable he looks! What a neat little dude.

tomtom2245 · Dec 14, 2016

Maddlesrain said:
Lol I love how grumpy and huggable he looks! What a neat little dude.

He is quite the character!

philfree · Dec 15, 2016

still cant get mine to eat frozen consistently...

tomtom2245 · Dec 15, 2016

philfree said:
still cant get mine to eat frozen consistently...

If it's any help, here is what I did. I started with live ghost shrimp and frozen krill (something that looked like the live food). It initially took a good amount of dancing it around in front of him to get him to eat it. I also found letting it sink or float up to him that way the feeding stick wasn't near helped as well. Also a few extra days between feedings to get him good and hungry helps. If that fails, you could also use fishing line barely attached to the food so you can jiggle it around from a good distance. Don't tie the line around the food, just cut a small hole or slit in the food that way you can lightly thread the line in. You want to be able to pull the line away once they take the food. Try different foods as well. I do a mixture of krill, silversides, squid, cod, and mackerel. You're best luck may be with krill, silversides, or squid. Mine is a little more gung-ho with those.

Best of luck to you! And post up a pic of your guy!