I recently bought a really interesting fish. It took a while to find but boy was it worth the search. The Pre-historic monster fish or the freshwater toadfish is an ambush fish that buries itself beneath the sand and waits…
I was able to find this fish on https://www.shophaw.com/ for $70! The fish arrived in two days in perfect health. I planned for about a month and a half before buying the fish to make sure the set-up was right since this was a specialized fish. Most of the research I found was spot on but since having Dillion, that’s his name - named after one my friends as my friend and this fish are both ridiculously ugly, for a month there are few things I learned that wasn’t in the research I read.
Let’s start with what the research had correct:
Thalassophryne Amazonica grows to about 4-6 inches in length but due to it’s inactivity it can be kept in a tank as small as 20 gallons. I have mine in a 20 long.
They are an obligate piscivores - meaning they must eat live fish to stay alive - I have tried frozen food but he never eats it. Mine has been eating Juvenile jewel cichlids, kribensis, and rice fish.
The recommend temperature is 72 - 78. My heater is currently set to 76 and my toadfish seems to be happy.
pH levels can be anywhere from 5 - 8, my pH fluctuates around 6-6.5.
They are venomous.
And a few things I have learned since:
They should be fed live fish that specifically are bottom level swimmers, like most cichlids. The reason for this is that top and mid level swimmers can be too far away for your toadfish to attack and eat.
The other thing I noticed is that they do not like to be noticed which makes it incredibility difficult to film or take pictures. If it knows that I am watching, it will not eat or move. And maybe this is due to the new-ness of the fish but it seems to prefer to be “undetected”. So, when it comes to feeding time make sure to turn the lights off in the room and back away from the tank a bit to see him “in action”.
I also noticed that they are very visual. They have beady little eyes that see everything! I had to cover the sides of the tank since I have fish tanks right next to each other on a rack because he would try to eat the fish in the other tank!
They are nocturnal. So most of their movement and hunting will be done at night. And this is when I notice that there are less fish in the tank….because he ate them. Most resources I’ve seen say to feed your toadfish 1-2 times per week but I like to keep 5-6 fish in his tank at all times because he doesn’t seem to “gorge” himself but rather if he isn’t hungry he’ll just find a comfy place and rest.
Now if you plan on getting a toadfish there are a few things I would recommend:
Dedicate another tank for feeder fish, specifically fish that are bottom dwelling fish. Like dwarf cichlids. That way you don’t have to buy feeder fish and thus increase the odds on introducing an illness or disease into your tank.
Use a sand substrate as this fish loves to bury themselves.
Create a “ledge” or mountain in your scape that your toadfish can perch on and observe the rest of the tank. Mine likes to bury himself in the sand and climb on the highest decor item or rock to see where the best place to “set up camp” is. Yes, this fish studies other fish behavior and will move to areas where fish tend to hangout the most. It’s crazy.
Use rocks around your plants. This fish will bury itself wherever it deems necessary without regard to where you have plants or decor. So, to avoid your plants being ripped up use plants that don’t need to be planted or use rocks to prevent them from being dug up.
In the future, I do plan on attempting to breed these fish as they are extremely fascinating. There has been 1 reported case of this fish being bred in captivity. So, it is possible.
Let me know if you have this fish and what your experience has been!
Until next time!
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