Currently I have two "freshwater stonefish" or grunting toadfish (allenbatrachus grunniens is my guess) in my freshwater tank. I am planning on getting another, larger, tank in the near future. I'm thinking a 40 breeder would be nice if I can find one and I have space.
Anyways, so what I'm thinking is that I might go brackish or full marine with my next tank, for the sake of my stonefish. I would have to start it out fresh and slowly acclimate them towards brackish, so I'm guessing I would just start out with marine/crushed coral sand, because that would ultimately be the substrate to use I think. At that point I could either keep it brackish and search for other possible brackish companions (I would search high and low for eel-tailed banjo catfish, and maybe get a g.tile), or I could push it to full marine. I imagine that I would want to leave the tank in brackish for a while first, or at least raise the salinity very slowly. Once it reaches marine levels, I could add some live rock and a protein skimmer. Do you think it would be better ultimately for the stonefish to stay in brackish (high end?) or marine? I've read that when they mature they do best in full marine.
If I went the marine route, do you think that I could keep the stonefish with an anglerfish? Both of these fish are said to have compatibility issues related to feeding, because either they eat their tankmates (if they are smaller) or their tankmates outcompete them for food (if they are bigger and more active). I think that the stonefish are sedentary enough that I would be able to feed the anglerfish pretty easily with a feeding stick. One concern is that the stonefish will eventually grow to 12" and anglerfish are pretty small, a possible meal.
Anybody have any experience with batrachoids asides from the "fw stonefish/lionfish/toadfish" and the prehistoric monster fish (thalassophryne amazonica)? My lfs is trying to order some prehistoric monster fish for me (they had some a while back, but I was still in school and didn't have a tank yet), which if it pans out I would put them in my fw tank. If I acclimated the stonefish to marine and got another kind of marine batrachoid that would be compatible, I would have a pretty awesome, unique collection of a family of fish that don't get much attention in the hobby. Of course, this is all highly hypothetical.
