flame hawk in a reef?

[skirrby]

i know most say no.. but i know and have seen it pulled off for quite some time with no problems.. whats are the risks,.. i absolutly love this fish, and always have.. and they got a nice one at the lfs.. is it probably safe.. or way to risky in my reef.. hes a lil guy maybe one 2 inches right now.

 

[jtoz116]

i have an arc eye hawk in my 55 gallon reef. i have had him for bout 9 months now. he doesnt bother anyone at all... :yes:

 

[tizzo]

They don't mess with corals... but some will eat hermits, snails and limpets. They may be aggressive to smaller fish and I have no clue how it is with ornamental shrimp.

 

[xnikki118x]

JtoZ, how big is your arc-eye? Do you know offhand how big they get? I love them and how much personality they have, but I was always afraid to put one in a reef. [Well, what's going to be a reef, lol.] I'm glad to hear someone has had luck with them!

 

[stando76]

I had one (flame hawk) in my 55 and I had to get rid of him. He would go after my peppermints and then they would never come back out. I also had a hard time introducing new fish as he would literally pounce on them until he killed them.
If he is going to be your last fish added to the tank, and/or you are not adding any shrimp then you will be ok.

 

[dogstar]

I have mine for over two years and have never seen it bother anything in my reef.
I have snails, hermits, stars and skunk and blood shrimp, corals and other fish. No problems. It did get chased by a hog wrasse that I got rid of cause it chased my gobies and blenny too.
They are cool fish the way they sit and watch everything. Mine will swim up and sit in my hand and eat food from my hand.

 

[jtoz116]

they get about 6" to 7" inches in length. mine is about 5 and 1/2" inches long. yeaaaa i have had a lot of luck with this fish. but i keep it well fed, so its doesnt bother any inverts or other smaller fish.(true percula clown which is about 2 inches)

 

[promisetbg]

You know how I feel about it...

 

[bigb]

Try looking at Dwarf Hawkfish ( Cirrhitichthys falco ) may be more suites to the smaller tanks. If its the hawks behavior in general that you like IMO this is a much neater lookimg fish. All hawks have the same swimming/jumpimg from rock to rock behavior. I have had no problems with my Dwarf Hawkfish eating anything other than what he finds on the rock or with what I feed him. Pic is not mine.