Rhinopias Owners ..

Mental1

New member
I am a brand new rhinopias frondosa owner and would like to hear about others feeding practices. I believe the LFS was feeding him a silverside every other day -- yes -- he eats fresh frozen and live feeders -- and I read an article that said feed until he is full twice a week. So I started by feeding him 1 fish every other day.

I fed him on Sunday night and then when I got home on Monday night he started doing this little feed me dance which I had never seen before. So for the second day in a row I fed him a silverside (which I have been slitting open and packing with pellets for some added nutrition). Then on Tuesday night when I got home -- same thing -- he did his little feed me dance. I did not feed him again last night but today I fed him -- when he saw me preparing his fish he started dancing -- he ate one stuffed sliverside and then started dancing again -- he wanted another one. So I gave him another one. I stopped there because I also read to be very careful and not overfeed these guys.

So I am curious -- how much are others feeding their rhino's? I also have live feeders but I am in the process of fattening them up -- a bunch are pretty small. We fed him one of the larger ones -- and I think there is one more. And yes -- they are saltwater something -- there are housed in the main system. NOT GOLDFISH -- I KNOW!
 
Hi Sherri-- nice to see you onboard.
I would direct your question to seahorsedreams and her hubby namxas, as they have a pair of Rhinopias and have been quite successful w/ them.
There are a handful of other rhinopias owners on this board as well- who will hopefully chime in
BTW- whatever happened to the cloudy eyes and the other issues we discussed
frank
 
Hi Frank! Thought I might find other owners here. His eye has cleared up -- looks almost completely clear today. He started looking and acting better once I started stuffing the silversides. As far as the possible ich goes -- all of that has cleared too. Maybe he was just stressed by the move -- it is a two hour drive to my house from Boston -- and the new tank. I can't believe the antics of this fish. He is just too cool. He has turned a deep green color in my tank -- I am thinking because he is trying hard to imitate a green plant -- the bottom of the tank is very bare. But I also see some spots where he may be turning back to the purple coloring as I have quite a few purple mushrooms in the tank. Whatever color he ends up being is fine with me -- he is the best!
 
Sherri...he's turing green?! LOL That's wild :) I didn't know they did that.

Can't wait to see him in he new home. Hope I get to see him do his "dance"

Glad to hear he's settling in just fine!
 
Here's a picture taken by a reefing buddy with a better camera! He still looks yellow and the eye still looks cloudy but this picture is just awesome!

131354IMG_3451a.jpg
 
hi Sherri,

welcome to the Rhinopias club! it's great to hear that your fish is eating so well. as you're finding, they're quite personable, and yes, it's very cute when they decide they "need" feeding.

we feed all of our scorps M-W-F with a variety of foods: silversides, cut-up table shrimp (shell-on if it stays), various fish from the fish market (red snapper seems to be a fave), squid, and clams/scallops. Renee does stuff certain foods w/pellets or beta glucan, and she also sometimes injects it w/vitamins. we had a period of time where the eschmeyeri went "stick shy" and was eating gutloaded damsels, but its now back on prepared fare.

our frondosa has kept its purple coloration, but our eschmeyer's has decided to go from bright yellow to a cool "tequila sunrise" color since its tank contains a lot of purple LR. it began to change when i had to yank out the macro that was beginning to go sexual, which we never replaced.

i'd love to see more pix of your fish! the front-on view is really a cool pose, isn't it?

here's our frondosa:

fronny.jpg
 
I love it! I was thinking of adding an eshmeyer too -- as soon as I get more experienced. Thanks for the report of what you are feeding and thanks for the welcome to the club! I will definitely get him more variety. Oh -- silly me -- he is still yellow -- he lookeds green under the blue lights this morning. Oh -- hi Lisa!

131354IMG_3445a.jpg
 
Oh -- I forgot to ask -- how much do you feed them? Do you measure? Keep feeding until they don't want anymore? Thanks Greg! Oh -- my husband is the lead singer of a band and plays several instruments ... I'm a groupy!
 
we pretty much feed to satiation or a nice "belly bulge" at the very least.

cool...i used to play professionally, but now that i have a good day gig, i can pick and choose the jobs i play, and i like that a LOT better (most of the time!).
 
Okay -- I will look for the belly bulge -- or the food dance ceases! I was going to do both live and dead foods but it sounds like you guys try to get them all on dead -- what is your reason for this? Not having to keep live feeders in a tank somewhere because you have so many mouths to feed? You would have to keep a 180 just for feeders!

I was looking at your thread on the fu manchu and you guys are the scorpionfish gurus! I had to look up a bunch of the fish listed in your wife's sig. I was thinking about adding two more fish in with this guy -- he's on his own in a 65g. I was thinking of adding an eschmeyers and a dwarf either fuzzy or zebra lionfish. The fun manchu is too small I think. Who do you have for tank mates with your rhinos and how big is the tank?

Yea --my husband's band doesn't perform that much -- do it for the fun of it. They play a bunch of old rock 'n roll tunes and get together weekly to practice. He just has fun ... not in it for the money.
 
when you feed frozen/thawed foods, there is virtually no chance of the fish catching a pathogen from the live food. it's also easier since one doesn't have to relay on the fact that sometimes live food may not be available (live food can also be pricy). as i may have mentioned, we were buying damsels for our eschmeyeri when it reverted to live (we always gave them a 20 min FW dip before feeding them out).

our plan is to keep both Rhinos with our volitans (the frondosa currently resides with the lion). we're setting up another tank for them.

i think either of the dwarf lions will be fine with the Rhinos as long as they're not "food-size". the reason i say this is because Renee & i tend to look for juvies that we can grow up ourselves. even a medium-sized lion might be a good choice like P. antennata. jut outta cuiosity, how big is your frondosa (ours is pretty good-size)?

i actually haven't played much "for fun" in awhile, but i try to make sure the gigs i take are with peeps that i enjoy playing with.
 
I had no idea I needed to be concerned about pathogens with live food. Did not cross my mind. Is that a fairly common thing or rare? Fresh water dip sounds like a great idea.

My guy is about 8 inches long so he is not a small fish. So I would need to buy a larger lion -- the antennata is cool. It looks like they max out at 7 inches which would be good considering it's only a 65g tank. I am going to keep my eye out for an eschmeyer and either an anetnnata or dwarfs. I think it is good to grow out the juveniles as you can probably train them easier to take prepared foods. Hard to teach an old fish new tricks? But the small size would make it tough for me without setting up another tank. I don't think I would have a lot of support at home for that .....
 
I don't think I would have a lot of support at home for that .....

tell hubby it's "what musicians do"...he wouldn't wanna be outdone by an old sax player! ;)

here's some inspiration. BTW, the tank is a 60 gal, and these fish are moving out to an upgrade soon (we've had the lion since it was the size of a walnut, and it has outgrown 3 tanx now, incl. this one):

tankmay700.jpg


the chances of live food transmitting pathogens are about the same as adding an un-QT'd fish to your system, maybe a bit more if you're using some kind of "feeder" quality fish (not kept under the best of conditions).

i look at it this way...what kind of chance is one willing to take with a fish that's worth hundreds of dollars and isn't the easiest to find?

you're right...it's easier to train a younger fish to frozen than an older fish.
 
Well, I think I have to wait a while before I can add another tank! This one is barely a few weeks old. My unspoken household plan is to make the 65g a freshwater tank and start keeping discus and replace it with a 90 or 125. Then I can really have fun with the scorpionfish. The basement system would easily handle it.

As far as the feeder fish go ... well I put them in one of my basement tanks that are part of the system and I am growing them out. They are pretty small. So the pathogens from them are already in the system. Kinda dumb I guess. Maybe I got lucky but they look really healthy and are eating like pigs. It is convenient that he eats frozen while I grow them out!

We have actually had our first shed -- just found his skin? all over the tank -- well in two pieces ... looks like what a snake would do.

I will try and get a lion that is already eating prepared food -- I think my LFS can find one for me.....it just has to be bigger to be able to go in with him.

I love your tank. I am trying to decide what kind of macroalgae to put in with him. What have you had the best luck with? I don't want to have to deal with any of it that goes sexual but was thinking about something like gracilaria or purple ochtodes. Could feed it to the tang too....
 
a 90 0r 125 would be SWEET!

the shed thing will happen every so often. one thing i might mention is sometimes the fish do some odd things with their mouths/gills to loosen the cuticle. the look like they may be distressed, but once the cuticle loosens, they're back to normal and all clean and pretty.

different macros favor different systems for us. some will grow anything, some only grow certain species...go figure. you might want to look into red grape (Botryocladia sp.). it's a slow grower, but won't go sexual, and it does best under non-MH lighting (it fades/goes brown under bright lighting)

check out John Maloney's macro at REEFCLEANERS his stuff is great, and he always has something interesting.

here's what Botryocladia looks like (it was a bit "leggy here as i had just added some clippings):
fronny700-1.jpg
 
These fish have a recommendation of being frozen before consuming. My peeps were fisherman and I have some nasty cod and halibut stories.

Sea bass
Capelin & roe
Cod
Flounder
Dab
Fluke
Grouper
Halibut
Herring
Jack
Jobfish
Kahawai
Mackerel
Monkfish
Mullet
Chilean Sea Bass
Ocean Perch
Plaice
Pollock
Rockfish
Sablefish
Salmon & roe (aquacultured and wild)
Seatrout
Sole
Sprat/Bristling
Trout/steelhead/rainbow
Tuna, small
Turbot
Wolfish
 
Here's mine, I have a custom 46g tank built to house 2 Rhinopeas and a frogfish:

<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/LQ-wkuoWUOBGkYWKemw1sg?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_NPIRWKuZUJQ/SgB6KW09ZEI/AAAAAAAACU8/tYC9PEWeh1I/s800/IMG_0724.jpg" /></a>

<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ByjQzPcrnxywMv3Wn4rDxw?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_NPIRWKuZUJQ/SfIwK_xU1aI/AAAAAAAACR0/QI5HsGzHEGA/s800/IMG_0572.JPG" /></a>

<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/PfOiReVTymB4ZMysQ1n6IQ?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_NPIRWKuZUJQ/SbAXTjAer1I/AAAAAAAACAA/yOlu1DWqP0Q/s800/IMG_0153.JPG" /></a>

I feed mine 1 vitamin enriched silverside each 2x/week. Every once in a while I'll feed live foods.
 
SWEET! How long have you had them? Were those pictures taken when you first got them? What colour are they now. How's the dinged lip doing?

EDIT: Oh. The angler pic wasn't showing up at first. How long have you had this combo together? What is the size of your eschy's and how big is the angler?

Here's our eschy.

esch700b.jpg
 
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Nice! I've had the angler about 8 months, the Eshy's around 6 months. They've stayed pretty bright red (although the bigger one is a lot brighter)
Here's some more pics:

<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/SRpoJr-s1e7QGlhM5KTnFg?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_NPIRWKuZUJQ/SfIvdjX3NcI/AAAAAAAACQ4/7pFlAV3XE9g/s800/IMG_0577.JPG" /></a>

<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/kubyuVMP8UKaAZuRU-cLgA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_NPIRWKuZUJQ/Scfx3_o8SwI/AAAAAAAACH0/HdiRVmVOgGU/s800/IMG_0451.JPG" /></a>
 
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