rhinopius

cincyreefer

Active Member
Anyone ever keep a rhinopius? I am thinking about getting a solid purple one, but have absolutely no experience with them. Any info or links would be appreciated.
 

liontamer

Member
Hey gys, conogre has one. He hasnt been on in a while, but ill tip him off. He got a STEAL, literally, for a rhinopius. It was labeled as angler of some sort at a fish store, he got it for $80!!!! Man, its so sick. Ill give him a holler.
 

conogre

Member
Yep, he's right, and yes, it's sweet!**grin**
They had it labled as a Striated Angler and made my whole year.
Mine's doing great, but keep in mind that like many Lionfish and Scorpionfish they may require live feeders at first and for God's sake NEVER feed your SW fish goldfish!!!
They produce a chemical called Thiamase that can and will do severe liver damage to many marine predators.
While mine PREFERS his fish on the fin, he was eating frozen feeders after only 4 days and has a LOT bigger mouth than you'd suspect!
Here' a pic of my new Rhinopias sitting next to my S. papuensis that comes from the same area.
Be careful about paying too much for a specatularly colored fish as they can and do change color at will.
Surprisingly, I've found that they PICK the color they want to turn!!!!
I had an angler in a basically brown/green tank yet it would set next to an orange sponge it liked and eventually turned orange.
 

conogre

Member
Here's another photo, and both are the same fish.
This one is a S. diabola or False Stonefish and as you can see was white when I got it.
In just a month or so it kept setting next to a piece of LR that I allowed cyanobacteria to grow on and obviously liked the color purple.
Keep this in mind the next time you have a small red or purple cyano bloom and get all upset....sometimes blessings come in forms you'd never expect!!!**grin**
 
R

royalshrimp

Guest
hey conogre which fish in that pic is the rhino?:notsure: if its the red one. i got mine for 15 bucks!
 
R

royalshrimp

Guest
here is a pic..... he is a lot bigger now... about triple that
 

liontamer

Member
Nope, hes talking about the one to the left of his diablous scorpion, and then he was showing off his pics of his scorpion. Im not even sure if yer scorpions are the same. U may have a waspfish??
 

conogre

Member
royalshrimp, the Rhinopias is the other one, new photo below.
Yours, while superficially similar to the other one in my photo (S. papuensis) has major differences in head length, head/body proprtion, jaw length and placement and dermal appendages (the skin flaps "whiskers" on mine.
While I'm not sure, I belive yours is a S. brasiliensis or "Barbfish" from the tropical Atlantic and Caribbean (I've actually caught several over the years and they are among my favorites.
the differeences between scorpionfishes (all) and anglers are actually many and easy when you look closely, with the Scorpionfishes also known as the scaleycheeked fish (most have scales all over) while the anglers are scaleless and with leathery skin.
In the pectoral fins, the anglers are modified almost into arms, complete w/an elbow and fingers that they use in climbing through the LR, while the scorpiofishes are usually a variant of a large fan-shaped but normal fin, with the most extreme being in the Lionfishes, Gunnards and Sea robins.
The pelvic fins in the anglers are also highy modified almost into "duck feet" complete w/a knee and weebbed toes that they use with the pectorals to climb.
In most of the scorpionfishes the pelvics are just fins with a common mode of locomotion being a hopping on the botttom when not swimming normally, although a few (Spiny Sea devils(Innimicus) , Gunnards and Searobins have them modified into 2,4 or six individual legs with which they can walk or even run accross the bottom.
Any help?
 

conogre

Member
Here's a photo of a Barbfish sitting next to a false-stonefish, S. diabola that closely resembles the flasher scorpions.
the barbfish is the orange/reddish one.
One of the things I love about the scorionfish is that many truly seem to enjoy the company of their own kind or relatives.
The only exceptions that I know of is the Dwarf Fuzzy Lionfish (two males will fight, while I had a pair that spqwned 62 times over 6 months), the FuManchu Lionfish (these seems VERY hostile towards each other, even in larger tanks) and the true Stonefish ( I have a 13", 4 pound specimen that will eat ANYTHING that gets in front of him)
 
I

irenicus

Guest
Wow, nice grab Conogre. It's nice to find those gems in the petstore marked incorrectly.
 
R

royalshrimp

Guest
ya but mine lookes a lot like the one in that pic, mine is about triple that size now and has changed dramatically.:yes:
 

liontamer

Member
Yea man, now I see y yer writing that book. Dude, yer fish isnt the same one as his, its the different that he said. I can see the difference. Its all in the eyse, plus the diabola one has a more upturned mouth, for like hiding on the bottom and gulping (hense falsestonefish) but yers has a more straight forward mouth for snatching, kinda like lions in that sense. Its still a neat fish though.
 

conogre

Member
Actually, I'm STILL having a problem getting it to eat dead foods with a ways to go before I can fully relax, but as it took it's first dead feeder from handheld forceps on day four, I know the battle is largely won and it's just a matter of time.
If he's fed a live small feeder, he'll then follow it up with a dead one of the same kind, but if you're offering him JUST dead feeders we targets it and shows interest, but still doesn't strike.
The S. diabola stubbornly refused all but live foods for well over a year, closer to two, so it's just a matter of being patient and not giving up....while trying to feed him yesterday I had my arm up to the shoulder in the tank and was watching him very closely for "tells" when the S. diabola cruised the whole length of the 6' long 125 gal. tank and snatched the feeder neatly from the forceps and settled down, obviously ready for another, almost as if to say, "Hey, you KNOW it works, but if he isn't going to eat that, well..........."**grin**)
 
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