Striated Anglerfish long term diet?

johnf3

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 14, 2023
Messages
69
Reaction score
33
Location
Los Angeles
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hey all

I recently got a small striated anglerfish, about 4/5”. It’s doing great so far, been feeding saltwater ghost shrimp, peppermint shrimp, green chromis and frozen silverside soaked in selcon. Feeding every 4-5 days currently.
I set up a chaeto grow tank and am also using it to house/hopefully breed feeders. Right now I just have a couple chromis and about 30 ghost shrimp along with chaeto and blue hypnea (which I’m doing chaetogro for). I obviously want something in the tank for ammonia source and am curious if anyone has any opinions on what would work best in the long term? I thought the ghost shrimp may start breeding but I’ve read they can be cannibalistic. Thought of mollies but I want to make sure the anglerfish gets a varied diet too. Just need help figuring out the best feeder to stock for long term ease/success

Anyone in the same boat/have any ideas?

E3FE6071-9F58-4391-AA09-0EA5AEE9E4F6.jpeg
 

ISpeakForTheSeas

7500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 22, 2021
Messages
8,450
Reaction score
10,309
Location
United States
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
It’s doing great so far, been feeding saltwater ghost shrimp, peppermint shrimp, green chromis and frozen silverside soaked in selcon.
Do you know what species your silverside is? If not, what brand is it?

For feeding, I'd imagine those shrimp and chromis are fine feed options, but there is the concern using saltwater feeders that they may bring in fish disease that gets the angler sick at some point - to avoid that, the general recommendations at the moment are freshwater ghost shrimp, freshwater guppies, and freshwater mollies (emphasis on the freshwater because that helps prevent them from bringing in disease); you can adapt them from fresh to salt and breed them if you want.

If you want to use saltwater ghost shrimp and peppermint shrimp, then to be safe, you'd want to run them in a separate breeding tank for 60-76 days to eliminate most disease risks.
I thought the ghost shrimp may start breeding but I’ve read they can be cannibalistic.
You can breed the ghost shrimp, and the peppermint shrimp too - you're probably out of luck with the chromis though. If you wanted to breed saltwater feeder fish, clowns would probably be the easiest at this point - to avoid disease issues, I'd do a full, prophylactic treatment QT for the broodstock, then feed the larvae to the angler:
For shrimp specifically, see the links below (the first link is a general shrimp rearing guide, the second is basically tips and info on rearing ghost/grass shrimp specifically):
Some good links for info and discussion on anglers:
 
OP
OP
johnf3

johnf3

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 14, 2023
Messages
69
Reaction score
33
Location
Los Angeles
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Do you know what species your silverside is? If not, what brand is it?

For feeding, I'd imagine those shrimp and chromis are fine feed options, but there is the concern using saltwater feeders that they may bring in fish disease that gets the angler sick at some point - to avoid that, the general recommendations at the moment are freshwater ghost shrimp, freshwater guppies, and freshwater mollies (emphasis on the freshwater because that helps prevent them from bringing in disease); you can adapt them from fresh to salt and breed them if you want.

If you want to use saltwater ghost shrimp and peppermint shrimp, then to be safe, you'd want to run them in a separate breeding tank for 60-76 days to eliminate most disease risks.

You can breed the ghost shrimp, and the peppermint shrimp too - you're probably out of luck with the chromis though. If you wanted to breed saltwater feeder fish, clowns would probably be the easiest at this point - to avoid disease issues, I'd do a full, prophylactic treatment QT for the broodstock, then feed the larvae to the angler:

Some good links for info and discussion on anglers:
I appreciate the information!

Not sure of the silverside species but these are the ones I’m using currently: https://feederfishfood.com/product/flash-frozen/

Planning on expanding my macro set up with several 10 gallon aquariums. Going to keep trying with these ghost shrimp but also try peppermint shrimp and some other feeder options in each tank and see what works the best! Also will be useful to separate the algaes into each of their own tanks

Yes I’ve heard mixed opinions on feeding freshwater fish. Makes sense for the disease aspect but I’ve read they need the nutrition from specifically saltwater fish/what they’d consume in the wild. Not sure what the best long term option would be for a feeder fish at this point but I’m wondering if the angler would be fine with live shrimp/varied inverts and just frozen fish enriched with selcon? I’ve also thought about going to the fish market and getting a variety of different meats for him to try. I’m just glad he’s accepting frozen foods, makes it a bit easier haha
 

ISpeakForTheSeas

7500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 22, 2021
Messages
8,450
Reaction score
10,309
Location
United States
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Not sure of the silverside species but these are the ones I’m using currently: https://feederfishfood.com/product/flash-frozen/
I'd be really hesitant to feed silversides without knowing the species used, as many "silversides" are high is Thiaminase, which can cause major problems for predatory fish like anglers.
Yes I’ve heard mixed opinions on feeding freshwater fish. Makes sense for the disease aspect but I’ve read they need the nutrition from specifically saltwater fish/what they’d consume in the wild. Not sure what the best long term option would be for a feeder fish at this point but I’m wondering if the angler would be fine with live shrimp/varied inverts and just frozen fish enriched with selcon? I’ve also thought about going to the fish market and getting a variety of different meats for him to try. I’m just glad he’s accepting frozen foods, makes it a bit easier haha
Yeah, angler longevity is one of the mysteries the hobby is still trying to work on, and long-term diet may be a big part of it.

The reason these species (Mollies, Guppies, and Ghost Shrimp) are suggested is because they're actually brackish water species; their nutrition profiles are generally closer to saltwater species than freshwater - they're likely not ideal, but they are (as demonstrated by a number of different aquarists' experiences) not bad.

If you wanted to keep the feeders you use strictly saltwater, the peppermint shrimp (or other shrimp) and clownfish (or other comparatively easy to breed fish species) are probably your best bets. I'd be genuinely curious to see how the angler would do on a purely saltwater fish and occasional shrimp diet.

Anyway, live shrimp is a good addition - I doubt anglers would eat many other inverts, but I may be wrong. Frozen fish can be a good addition if you can get them to eat it (live is generally best as it engages the angler, but frozen would be fine nutritionally). If you can figure out a way to get your fish active and "angling" for prepared foods (like frozen feed), that'd be great.

For meat suggestions, salmon is pretty much the gold standard; mackerel and others (see Jay's list linked in the quote below) are good too. The quote was targeted for an eel, but it deals a lot with thiaminese.
I'd definitely add a bivalve like mussels or clams, they're not only healthy, but they contain a good amount of Vitamin B1 (thiamin), which helps keep predators healthy despite their ingestion of thiaminese.

That said, how long have you had the eels?

What pellets are you using?

For the fish, I've heard that mackerel is pretty good (low thiaminase, good fat, but it's fairly low in protein). Tilapia is still low in thiaminase, but to my understanding it would basically be a filler food as it's low protein and low fat (healthy fats are good for fish and people) - I don't know that I'd remove it, but you may want to look at other options (preferably high protein, low thiaminase options) to replace it with. The post by Jay Hemdal in the link below has a decent list of high thiaminase and low thiaminase fish that you may be able to find. I know salmon is pretty much considered the gold standard, but it can be pretty expensive (and I'd imagine it could be pretty hard to come by in India).

With the shrimp, shrimp is a good feed (and doing the whole shrimp is a good call), but you don't want to feed too much shrimp. Fresh shrimp is best if you can get it - I've heard that you want to be careful how much frozen shrimp you feed because of the thiaminase content (to my understanding, Vitamin B1 degrades over time while the thiaminase is more stable; so the longer the shrimp is frozen, the lower the Vitamin B1 content goes, but the thiaminase content stays the same).

That's all that comes to my mind for the moment - @lion king any thoughts?
Some more good info on predator feeding and what to feed:
Also, just a fun fact to end with, the Striated Anglerfish (Antennarius striatus) has a biofluorescent esca (the "lure" of the "fishing pole").
 
Last edited:

TOP 10 Trending Threads

WHICH OF THESE CREEPY REEF CRITTERS IS MOST LIKELY TO GIVE YOU NIGHTMARES? (PICTURED IN THE THREAD)

  • The Bobbit Worm

    Votes: 48 65.8%
  • The Goblin Shark

    Votes: 4 5.5%
  • The Sea Wolf

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Giant Spider Crabs

    Votes: 1 1.4%
  • The Stargazer Fish

    Votes: 5 6.8%
  • The Giant Isopod

    Votes: 9 12.3%
  • The Giant Squid

    Votes: 1 1.4%
  • Other (Please explain!)

    Votes: 5 6.8%
Back
Top