Lionfish Tank Setup Suggestions

[D Rose]

My reef tank of almost 2 years crashed during the heat wave. I am going back to a lionfish tank as it is easier and I loved haveing them. Heres the Specs:

Tank: 90 gallon reef ready, 120lbs LR, 80lbs Lives sand, 20 gallon sump, aqua-c skimmer, filter sock,

Fish To add: 1 Volitan Lionfish, Open to other suggestions

My Question: I am going to have a 4x54w PC fixture (Selling my MH lights since there is no need)......I was thinking of doing mostly actinic so that the lighting is lower and the lionfish will be out in the open water.

Also I was going to do 2 large rock piles in each back corner with a couple caves in them to give a lot of open swimming room.

What tankmates should I get (I already had porcupine puffer, niger triger, eel.....and would like somehting different this time around)
-Would a Miniatus Grouper get too large/too aggressive?
-My old lion never bothered small fish it couldn't catch....maybe a school of nice anthias to use as "dither" fish to make him comfortable in open water?

As always all advice is welcome and this site is awesome

 

[bud]

After my Queen angelfish ate everything in my tank and beat up everybody. I brought a Lionfish with it, I also have a small red flame angelfish. So far all three are doing very well together but I have one of those very aggresive Queen that wants to take my finger off. I think if it doesn't fit in the lionfish mouth everything is fine.

 

[Euroreefer]

Clown triggers are nice.

 

[Chraddam]

I had a fuzzy dwarf for about 6 months-until it jumped the tank trying to attack one of my cats. Found it under my bed the next day...I am interested in ur MH-pm me.

 

[Euroreefer]

Damn, lionfish thought he was a lion, attacking a cat!!!...LMAO!

 

[reefprobe]

Miniatus are very cool but they tend to take all the food away from the lion, anthias are fine as long as they are big enough. And almost any tang would be a great addition.

 

[Wes]

Aggressive triggers will terrorize lionfish

 

[D Rose]

My NIger Trigger was a bit of a problem with my old Lion, no triggers for me this time, but thats why I am worried about a grouper since they are also aggressive

 

[prattreef]

Perhaps this is of use to you:

http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum...orum/reefs-magazine/62445-into-lions-den.html

 

[marrone]

You shouldn't keep very aggressive fish, like large Groupers, Triggers or Eels, with Lion fish. Most will chase and attack the Lion fish, resulting it it stressing out and dying.

 

[Dre]

Pt.Volitans is one of my favorite lionfish.large wrasses like the thalassomasdo well with lionfish. Try and get a black or red lion they are rare and beautifull.Have you thought about a lionfish only tank?What ever you decide remember to keep nitrates in check these fishes eat a lot and grows fast.

 

[bud]

Not hijacking or anything but Maroone what is the reason some lionfish turn upside down. I have see a few in local LFS (won't mention names) that is like that.

Did they over eat?

 

[D Rose]

Pt.Volitans is one of my favorite lionfish.large wrasses like the thalassomasdo well with lionfish. Try and get a black or red lion they are rare and beautifull.Have you thought about a lionfish only tank?What ever you decide remember to keep nitrates in check these fishes eat a lot and grows fast.

I had a Black volitans before my reef and I agree they are amazing fish. thanks for the wrasse suggestion, I am gonna look into getting a wrasse

 

[marrone]

Not hijacking or anything but Maroone what is the reason some lionfish turn upside down. I have see a few in local LFS (won't mention names) that is like that.

Did they over eat?

It's quite normal for them to hang upside down or even underneath over flows, power heads or rocks. In the wild a lot of Lion fish live in or around caves so they tend to hang upside down waiting for pray to come by during the day. At night they usually are out and about swimming around looking for pray to eat.