bmcelhinn
Premium Member
Well, to start. I would like to suggest yet another specialty forum that would help out the RC community here. We need a special section for frogfish... they have enough issues that I think need attended to and enough members are keeping them that a forum section would be justified.
To add to that, I think if that is possible this thread should be a sticky for people who can't search. Yes, I think they should pay the $24 for that luxury but that's not the point.
About a month ago I built a 7 gallon tank out of acrylic for keeping seahorses. My parameters finally balanced and yesterday I bought some sea horses and luckily picked up a "Sea Squirt Feeder"
I think this tool or anything similar is a must have for anybody attempting to keep frogfish.
Now to the story, PART 1
I had to move a Giant Frogfish last night from a 125 gallon tank to a 45 gallon tank all to his own because the damsels he primarily eats had too many places to hide and I feel he needed a smaller area to hunt in. He is about the size of a large basketball.
Of course I always attempt to keep him away from the air when I can, I catch him with a net face first to keep his mouth pressed against it so he can't injest air before putting him back in water after only a second or so. But this time I slipped up and he injested a huge amount of air.
Part 2
I put him in the tank and I was horrified about the huge amount of air that was trapped in him, about the size of a grapefruit. He was floating upside down and couldn't expel the air. I let him sit for 5-10 minutes while I frantically tried to search on reefcentral for a method to get the air out. I read about holding them upside down with their face up, massaging the air bubble, squeezing, everything.
I tried all of it, even putting an airline tube down his throat until I could see it poking the inside of the air bubble, all it did was squirt water out with each breath he took. Most of the stuff I read in my search told me he was going to die.
Part 3
I started to panic because he looked like he was beginning to die. His breaths were further and further apart and I didn't know what else to do after trying everything. I was so desperate I took a needle and pulled the skin away from his belly where the air was and tried to stab the needle into his skin. No such luck, the needle wasn't penetrating the skin at all no matter how hard I pushed, twisted, etc I couldn't pierce the skin it was like kevlar!
So in trying to think of everything I could, and almost ready to give up I told my wife to run out and grab that package with the feeder in it while I held the fish down. She got it and immediately opened it and gave it to me. I put the end into the water and squeezed out all of the air from the baster like end of the feeder, this is much stronger than a baster and you can get ALL of the air out of it, it's also about 2 feet long. I tried jamming it (gently as I could possibly JAM) it down his mouth into his stomach, I was hitting the plate that acts as a valve for breathing and couldn't get the big thing in, and him biting on it was making it even harder. Finally after a lot of manuvering I got it down by pushing it down the side of his mouth. I got the end to work it's way down to the stomach cavity. I tried pulling the air out and after a few failed attempts I was able to suck the air out and with it came a bunch of bubbles.
So, in the end after struggling for more than an hour and a half, I was able to get the air out and he sunk back down to the bottom and today he is fine, a little stressed but fine over all. I don't want it to EVER happen again but if it did I can safely say I would be able to remove the air within a matter of minutes. I am sure this would work on any frogfish that is bigger than 4" in length.
To add to that, I think if that is possible this thread should be a sticky for people who can't search. Yes, I think they should pay the $24 for that luxury but that's not the point.
About a month ago I built a 7 gallon tank out of acrylic for keeping seahorses. My parameters finally balanced and yesterday I bought some sea horses and luckily picked up a "Sea Squirt Feeder"
I think this tool or anything similar is a must have for anybody attempting to keep frogfish.
Now to the story, PART 1
I had to move a Giant Frogfish last night from a 125 gallon tank to a 45 gallon tank all to his own because the damsels he primarily eats had too many places to hide and I feel he needed a smaller area to hunt in. He is about the size of a large basketball.
Of course I always attempt to keep him away from the air when I can, I catch him with a net face first to keep his mouth pressed against it so he can't injest air before putting him back in water after only a second or so. But this time I slipped up and he injested a huge amount of air.
Part 2
I put him in the tank and I was horrified about the huge amount of air that was trapped in him, about the size of a grapefruit. He was floating upside down and couldn't expel the air. I let him sit for 5-10 minutes while I frantically tried to search on reefcentral for a method to get the air out. I read about holding them upside down with their face up, massaging the air bubble, squeezing, everything.
I tried all of it, even putting an airline tube down his throat until I could see it poking the inside of the air bubble, all it did was squirt water out with each breath he took. Most of the stuff I read in my search told me he was going to die.
Part 3
I started to panic because he looked like he was beginning to die. His breaths were further and further apart and I didn't know what else to do after trying everything. I was so desperate I took a needle and pulled the skin away from his belly where the air was and tried to stab the needle into his skin. No such luck, the needle wasn't penetrating the skin at all no matter how hard I pushed, twisted, etc I couldn't pierce the skin it was like kevlar!
So in trying to think of everything I could, and almost ready to give up I told my wife to run out and grab that package with the feeder in it while I held the fish down. She got it and immediately opened it and gave it to me. I put the end into the water and squeezed out all of the air from the baster like end of the feeder, this is much stronger than a baster and you can get ALL of the air out of it, it's also about 2 feet long. I tried jamming it (gently as I could possibly JAM) it down his mouth into his stomach, I was hitting the plate that acts as a valve for breathing and couldn't get the big thing in, and him biting on it was making it even harder. Finally after a lot of manuvering I got it down by pushing it down the side of his mouth. I got the end to work it's way down to the stomach cavity. I tried pulling the air out and after a few failed attempts I was able to suck the air out and with it came a bunch of bubbles.
So, in the end after struggling for more than an hour and a half, I was able to get the air out and he sunk back down to the bottom and today he is fine, a little stressed but fine over all. I don't want it to EVER happen again but if it did I can safely say I would be able to remove the air within a matter of minutes. I am sure this would work on any frogfish that is bigger than 4" in length.
