An Amazing Angler
Perhaps in part because of the wild variation of forms and colors that Antennarius striatus can take, it has dozens of different common names around the world. In English, these names all end in either Angler, Anglerfish, or Frogfish; in other languages, (after translation) they have these same names but also Toadfish, Bullfish, Sharkfish and others. In all the languages that describe this fish, the names all start with a descriptor like, Striped, Hairy, Striated, Black, Island, etc. For our purposes we call them their most common North American moniker: the Striated Angler.
What we call Colored Striated Anglers here at Quality Marine can be a range of colors, and frequently more than one. If an angler is solid black, or has tiger striping, it gets a different category, but some of the wildest patterns and colors come under the Colored Striated nomenclature. The largest one on record was 10 inches long, but a more common adult size is less than half that.
Antennarius striatus is a common fish, listed as a species of least concern by the IUCN. They can be found in all of the world's tropical oceans at a huge variety of depths and habitats. From seagrass beds to rubble piles anywhere from 15 feet deep down to hundreds, there is a Striated Angler that can and likely does live there. They are usually found by themselves, hidden superbly well and attracting prey with the little fishing pole they come equipped with. This interesting appendage is called an Esca (actually the Esca is the little wormy looking bait at the end of the rod which is called the Illicium.) When the prey swims close enough, they are engulfed in the Angler's huge mouth, which is big enough for the Striated Angler to consume a fish nearly half its own size!
They do not need a ton of room to roam as they live a very sedentary lifestyle. Many recommendations around the web say this fish needs a very large aquarium and this is based primarily on the fact that they eat large (messy) meals and produce a correlated amount of waste, which can be a challenge to deal with in the filtration of smaller aquariums. A single adult could comfortably live out its life in an aquarium as small as 40 gallons if the filtration was very oversized. They will prefer to have some habitat, like live rock, and are a great candidate for keeping with many of the decorative Macro Alga we've talked about in recent weeks. Striated Anglers can swim, but will spend much more time waiting in ambush, or “walking” along the bottom of the display on their pectoral fins. Aquarium displays will not need substrate necessarily, which would help the filtration, but conversely, a small grain, or mixed grain sand is a nice soft surface for them to walk and rest on. The lighting for your display should be subdued. The fish will neither need, nor like, excessively bright lighting.
Water quality for keeping Antennarius striatus should be good, and stable. Normal aquarium parameters achieved by mixing quality salts like Tropic Marin to instructions would be perfect; water changes should be large and consistent. These fish will suffer in elevated levels of nitrate, so plan your filtration and your maintenance to keep nutrients low.
The Colored Striated Angler is a very cool fish to keep and is well suited for being the only fish in a display. They can be kept with other fish, and we don't consider them “aggressive”, but we do consider them hungry. They are going to try to eat any fish in your display that they can. They can be kept with other larger fish, but you should avoid fish that would pick at them like Puffers, Triggers and the like. Most Anglers will take to captive feeding very quickly. They can be fed with feeding sticks and should accept things like appropriately sized chunks of shrimp and silversides readily. In the rare case that yours doesn't like thawed offerings, feeding clean, live saltwater foods like saltwater mollies or guppies, ghost shrimp and feeder minnows can generally get you through the “picky period”. Some advanced hobbyists maintain their own breeding populations of saltwater mollies because it is excellent food and also makes for an amazing display at feeding time. The most common issue that newer hobbyists have with Anglers is overfeeding. This is one of the fun aspects of Angler ownership and can easily be overdone. A big meal, a couple times a week is plenty. If your Striated Angler has a drop off in food interest, it's probably being fed too much. If you notice it getting skinny, increase meal size or frequency. It could potentially be kept with corals though these should be picked for their ability to thrive under lower lighting, subdued flow and perhaps to help clean up the bits of food left behind by the Angler; Polyps and Soft Corals make the easiest choices.
This is an amazing fish to keep, and a pretty straightforward one as well. Make sure your aquarium is well established, keep up with maintenance and take the time required to feed it by hand (which is really, really fun) and you should have no problems keeping one of the most unique fish in the marine aquarium hobby. If you think this sounds like a display you'd like to try, head to your Local Fish Store and tell them Quality Marine sent you over to pick up a Colored Striated Angler today!