Lionfish

[bowser]

Hello all ! After my family and myself move to our new house, I intend to set up a 125g tank to house a single volition lionfish. I plan on having some LR to form a cave for the fish, but not much else in there. I want plenty of room for the fish to swim in. What shape tank would you recommend? Should I go with a standard rectangular tank, bowfront or one of the corner types?
I also have a question about this fishes behaviour. Is it an aggressive animal as far as objects in the tank goes? Example, my brother had an oscar that would attack the heater, thermometer, etc... will the lionfish do the same? What about snails? I have to tell you, if he gets a snail stuck in his mouth, I don't know if I would be willing to get it out !!

Thank you for any info!

 

[danmhippo]

If you have the $$ to get a round tank, that would be the best, otherwise, any shape would do. I wouldn't say the lionfish are aggressive......maybe when he is hungry (all the time, actually) and has aimed your finger tips as food, but otherwise, they are relatively gentle. Snails? I wouldn't, not unless you think he can digest the hard shell and poop it out. Just go with the good old magnet. If you need to hang something in the tank, I would suggest you put them in the overflow or in the sump. I have not witness lionfish attacking a heater, but hey, who knows!

One more thing.....Do not feed him FW gold fish alone. Train him to take seafood pieces. Give him as varied diet as possible and soak the food in selcon before feeding.

HTH.

 

[FMarini]

Hi:
So first things first.
No lionfish are not tuff on their environment, just other fish or moving inverts. A cave, a heater, fake plants etc should be fine.
Second a single volitans will love this tank, square, cube, bowfront, etc, any size of shape just make it bigger than a 75 gal and an 15" adult volitans will love it.
Third, this will be a totally boring tank. Lionfish sit 99% of the day, and only move when hungry...how do i know, cuz i have a whle tank full of lions, and after feeding they hangout. If you do decide on another fish make sure they are not lionfish food, or will use the lionfish as food. So no mean triggers!!!
Damhippo is right on the money...once you get your volitans established, train him (i call it weening) ween him onto dead prepared marine foods, like grocery store bought, shrimp, crab meat, white fish, etc. and rotate the foods often, supplmenting the food is also good. Eitherway if you must feed live foods use live ghost shrimp skip the goldfish and minnows.
Good news for you...Volitan lions are hardy, ween over the easiest and are great fish...jut remeber by this time next yr you will have a 15" long lionfish.
If you email me directly i can send you a lionfish info sheet i wrote.It contains lots of husbandry tips, including weening these fish over.
HTH
frank
PS:To see my 180 gal tank of lions: http://www.marshreef.org/members/fmarini/index.htm

 

[davelin315]

First and foremost, I agree to skip the goldfish. They have no nutritional value and are like feeding iceberg lettuce to tangs, useless. Also, I have heard that they have some sort of protein-kinase or something like that inhibitor that is an evolutionary tool to help their survival. Don't know if it's true or not, but since they're useless as food, why bother at all with them? As far as their habits, lions tend to live on cliffs and ledges, and are not often found in the "open" reef. I have kept many lions over the years, growing some to huge huge sizes, and have found that they like to hang out upside down and also vertically. They will swim around when hungry and flare their fins for you and be very showy. The key is to train them to accept dead food. I trained mine to eat tetra doro-min sticks, flake foods, and pretty much anything else that I popped into the tank. Something that you might want to consider doing is adding other fish. If you get some damsels and a couple of coral heads for them to hide in, it will encourage the lion to move back and forth between them trying to eat the damsels. Also, as damsels are very quick and hardy fish, you probably will never see your lion make a meal out of one. A little lesson in lion fish keeping, though, if another fish swims too close, it will either get eaten if it fits into your lion's mouth, or it will get stabbed by a spike and die (I lost a niger trigger and a fiji puffer to a lion fish before). Also, no matter how "friendly and tame" your lion appears to be, never take any chances with it, as it could turn at any moment and stab you, and I can tell you from experience, it hurts a lot for a long time.

As far as attacking stuff in the tank, it won't, but I wouldn't recommend a powerhead in the tank with an exposed strainer, as your lion will nestle up against it and possible get sucked in, and the same goes for heaters, as the lion may decide to hover next to it and get burned. They will eat anything that will fit in their mouths, and even some stuff that doesn't. They are really beautiful, though, and are a great fish to keep, although they are very sensitive to ammonia and nitrite, so make sure your tank is well cycled before introducing them.

 

[bowser]

Thanks guys for all the replies!!

I am very pyched on getting one of these guys. I hadn't thought about them being so lazy, maybe I'll go ahead and cycle the tank with some damsels and just leave them in when it's done.