Frogfish maybe swallowed air?
 

I noticed my frogfish looked like he was floating to the top of the tank the other day, once he got to the top he'd dive back down to the bottom, only to float up again. Wasn't until he was able to move under the marco algae in the tank that he stopped floating around. I've heard of frogfish doing this when they've swallowed air, but my frogfish has been in his 10g tank for a few months now and was never exposed to air. He also hasn't eaten in the past 4 days which is very unusual for him.

I read about holding the fish by it's tail so it's mouth is facing upwards and when they fight to get away it sometimes releases the bubble. Tried this last night and he puffed himself up and opened his mouth really wide and thrashed around a bit, which freaked me out, so I let him go. Never saw a bubble come out and unfortunately because it freaked me out, I didn't try for to long. Right after that he dove down to the rocks and looked a bit better, but then shortly after that he was floating around again until he went under the marco algae.

I also read about massaging it's belly until it burps the bubble and/or whatever else out. However his mouth is pretty close to his belly so I will have to work up a lot more courage before I try that.

The odd thing is his belly doesn't really look bloated, like I think it would, if there was an air bubble in it. Which makes me wonder why on earth he's floating around and not eating, which are signs of air being swallowed. He's in a 10g by himself so it's not like he's being harassed by any other fish or anything like that. The only other thing I can think of is maybe he ate a stomatella snail? There are lots of those in the tank, most of them are pretty tiny but there are a few big ones. I haven't tested the water parameters in awhile but the coral looks ok and I do 10% weekly water changes so I don't think it's a water quality issue but I'll test and check my nitrates etc. later just to make sure.

Any thoughts/ideas? Anyone have anything similar that they went through with their fish?

More likely a swim bladder thing, I've heard of the swallowing air thing but it's pretty rare and happens when you net them/remove them from the water, given the circumstances I would pursue this any further.

Honestly this is why I stopped keeping these fish, seems no matter what they become ill in some way eventually and stop eating. A lot of it seems to be tied to diet and meeting the energy requirements they need just to feed is difficult.

I can't offer anything else, perhaps there is a general treatment you can try but the problem with these fish compared to others is they stop feeding while other fish may become sick they still usually feed.

Best of luck.

Interesting, although not what I wanted to hear. Anyone have long term success with a frogfish? Or is it the norm for them to stop eating, act odd and die?

I had read about a guy who rubbed his frogfish's belly until it puked up a whole lot of stuff and he said after that his frogfish was fine. I have also that krill and silversides don't meet their diet needs because it's missing some B vitamins but I do soak my food with selcon so I think that helps.

Just went to read up on swim bladder issues with frogfish and the only frogfish that has a swim bladder is a sargassum frogfish, and mine isn't a sargassum frogfish.

Interesting, perhaps it is some kind of trapped gas then. Is it actually having problems staying down?

Following. Never heard of anybody keeping these successfully. Not for long anyhow.

Money grab fish.

Yep, any time he moves out from under the macro alage he floats up to the top of the tank. He dives right back down again but continues to float back up and around until he manovers himself under the algae. I'm guessing the algae acts as a weight to hold him down :noidea:

Well I think you nothing to loose really, seeing how it obviously floats and has no swim bladder it must be trap air. Use a net and see if you can get it to thrash around a bunch again. Message its belly and do whatever you can but don't freak out :lol:

Not sure there's anything else you can try, I doubt just leaving it will pay off. Best to keep trying something.

Easy for you to say when it's not your figure right by it's mouth :razz: however I will most likely try it later on today.

hehe, I don't think there defense involves biting. Honestly I'd just try getting it to trash around in a net or something. Or at least do that long enough so it's pretty tired before trying to grab the tail.