"freshwater lionfish" talk about misinformation

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Prometheus

Prometheus

Candiru
MFK Member
Jun 9, 2008
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so iv spent the last hour or so trying to research these guys and basically there is pretty much no hard and fast proven information on them anywhere... fantastic. (...i will try not to rant too much) so what iv gathered so far is something like this: there are ppl who claim to have kept them for years in FW, there are ppl who claim to have kept them for years in BW, and there are ppl who have never kept them but swear that they are neither FW or BW. :angryfire gee, thanks, that does me a lot of good (sarcasm). a resolution to this problem, assuming all accounts are true and not made up, is a report that states that there is actually a large number of different subspecies of this fish found all around the world with different traits for each one... some can do ok in FW, some cant. so, what do i do?

i dont want to buy one without at least having some confidence that i can keep it alive for a minimum of a few years. can ya help me out? all the standard care sheet info would be appreciated.
 
i know this isnt really your question but why would you want to give a fish such a lingering death...?
it came across to me that you just want the fish to survive a few years and not thrive in something somewhat close to a "natural" life
 
ooops. that would be unfortunate wouldnt it?... giving it a lingering death. no, i want to keep it as long as it can be kept in a healthy manner... that being said... and moved out of the way as it is a stupid question (seriously, why the heck would i keep a fish in certain conditions knowing that it will kill it long before its time, and do it ON PURPOSE) lets move on to the heart of the subject: does anyone actually know how to keep this fish alive properly? because from what iv researched the longest anyone has been able to maintain one is 4 years.

this is really annoying me... the fact that there is a fish that has been sold in the hobby for decades and still after all this time no one has come up with a proper care sheet for it. is it just to turn a profit for the lfs? do they not care about the health of the fish or the emotional attachment the owner will get to it? seriously. wth. so, that being said can someone please help me out... and help out the rest of the aqua hobby community too.
 
I keep a pair of Thalassophryne Amazonica in tottally FW. They are doing pretty okay. Eat small shrimp which they pick up during the dark. They spend the day borrowed with only the top of their eyes out.

I keep a pair of Allenbatrachus Grunniens in slightly brackish water ( they fared rather poorly in FW and were giving "bad " signs, They stay put all day long, only budge for shrimp. They swim and eat heartily in the dark.
( having said this, MFKer Cichla keeps a Grunniens in totally FW for quite some time )

You are right in that there is little info on these guys; we'll just have to navigate ourselves in their keeping and learn from it.
 
ok so tell me more about the care of Allenbatrachus Grunniens please.

oh and cnoel08, i owe you an apology. im sorry i snapped at you like that in that earlier post. you didnt deserve that. it wasnt a stupid thing to say what you did and i can see how someone could think what you thought.
 
I think the problem really comes from the fact not many people have studied it in the wild, therefore it's hard for us to know what to replicate in the home aquarium.

I personally keep one in slightly brackish water, and even while he was in fresh he was ok.

I've also gathered a whole host of research that states a little of everything, however most of their time is spent (that we know of) in brackish estuaries of mangrove swamps as well as fringes of reefs.

95% of the information I've found to be most accurate says that they are a brackish fish, and while I think them hardy enough to survive no problem in fresh water for years perhaps, to keep them their full life expectancy - a brackish tank is best.
 
I've kept my Allenbatrachus Grunniens in FW for a few days. They were dying, getting that whitish stuff all over their body. Salt addition turned them around in minutes. Now they act normal, and are starting to feed with the lights on....
 
all right, well iv got a "freshwater lionfish" on hold at a lfs. i think iv got enough info now to feel confident that i can take proper care of it. i think ill go ahead and make the purchase and have them hold it for a bit till i get the tank set up.

just to make sure iv got everything in order, here's what iv got in mind for the tank layout: the fish is only 4" right now so it'll go into a 20 long to start off with. the substrate will be crushed coral at 1.5" to 2" deep, decor will be simply a few semi large smooth rocks or perhaps some "coral rocks" (former live rock that has been dried out to be used for looks rather than biological filtration), i forget what the filter name is but its one of those large ones that is completely submersible with an adjustable out flow nozzle, heater and thermometer of course for a temperature of about 78F, some type of simple lighting just to illuminate things (i might put some live plants in there), and a salt of course for a SG of about 1.012. feed it on ghost shrimp and maybe earth worms.

sound good? am i missing anything?
 
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