toadfish help

oscar83

AC Members
May 21, 2004
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Middletown, NJ
hey everyone, i need some help here. about a week ago i purchased a "freshwater" toadfsih. before purchasing him i did as much research as i could on the fish but didnt really find much. so i decided to ask the owner of the LFS i got him at. i got most of the info i needed to have a basic understanding of the fish and how to care for him. but my problem is he never, and i mean never, comes out of his hide out. im not sure if hes eating, i havent seen him do it yet anyway. from what i can gather they feed mostly on feeders and shrimp (hmm... i'll have to try shrimp tomorrow). i believe the toadfish i have is Batrachus grunniens, but im not 100% sure on that. any help you guys can give me would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance :)
 
According to FishBase, these are brackish/marine water fish. While it will likely survive for a while in FW, you will want to convert it to brackish/marine conditions to ensure long term health.

What have you tried feeding it? These are gulpers, not terribly active fish, that hunt by lurking around and waiting for prey to swim in front of them, so they can 'inhale' the food. It's tough to get them to take prepared foods. Ghost shrimp will likely work, but other small fish should be accepted as well--I would avoid goldfish, as they are a poor choice for feeders, especially for marine/brackish animals.
 
yeah, i realize that they are brackish, which is why i said "freshwater" i plan on eventually converting him over to brackish once he gets a little bigger and i have more money/room for a new tank. but lately ive been attempting to feed him rosies, tomrrow i will have to go to the lfs and get some shrimp, hoepfully that will work
 
ok, so i went and got 15 ghost shrimp yesterday to attempt to get my toadfish to eat. i waited at least 3 or 4 hours after i turned out the light for the nite to throw in the shrimp... only problem is about 2 minutes after i threw them in they were all gone!!!!!!! i dont thin kmy toadfish even had a chance to see the shrimp let alone attempt to eat one. i was thinking about moving him into a 10 gallon tank for a few days and see if he eats. if not then i guess i'll be having a word with the guy whom i purchased him from. any other suggestions???
 
I don't want to be peshy but is all of that stuff in your sig in one tank? How long have you had it running?
 
haha, yeah, its all in 1 tank, but they're all small fish. my biggest one is no more than 2" except my irridescent shark which is like 4. in a few months im "inheriting" a 300 gallon tank, so it should be all good after that.
 
wow 300- very cool. That certainly should make things better :D Although when you say moray eel do you mean one of those snowflake eels? they call them freshwater morays, but I think they are actually brackish.
 
actually its this one http://www.wetwebmedia.com/fwmorayeels.htm secons pic down, they live from fresh all teh way to marine. my tank is freshwater but there is some salt in it, however, i do not know what the salinity of my tank is, but he seems to be very healthy, eats like a pig and is absolutely beautiful. hes actually about 11 inches in length at this current point in time.
 
Have you tried one of those feeding hooks? you could try to give him some beefheart or something on that- Won't the moray need his own tank eventually? So he doesn't eat the other residents?
 
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