Has anyone heard of a lion eating a coral beauty?

luv4reef

Member
Hey guys,
I bought a coral beauty today and he is a good size one but my lion seems to be stalking it so to speak, I have watched him before hunt down my lg. damsel and eat it & he is acting the same way towards the c.beauty, do you think that is what he is doing? The c.b is much larger than his mouth & the lfs assured me the lion can't eat him, has anyone else had this problem?
Thanks!!
:notsure:
 

luv4reef

Member
:nope:
not what I wanted to hear, but thank you for the info!
If this were your situation, would you trade in the lion for a smaller one or maybe a dwarf lion?
He didn't seem that big at the lfs untill we put him in our 65gal and I can tell he will out grow it quickly, plus I don't really want something that is going to eat everything I put in. (its one thing when it's a damsel but at 30 bucks and up it just stresses me) lol:nervous:
 

luv4reef

Member
Thanks!
I really enjoy him but I have a feeling it's for the best to trade him, I get attached to my fish but what are ya gonna do?
What kind of info do you have on a dwarf species? I really don't know much about them.
 

moraym

Active Member
I have kept three dwarf lions myself, and they are fairly easy to take care of after a little early work. You need to make sure the pet store has them eating before you buy them, eating anything at all, even live. They're not hard to wean off of live food and switch them to frozen, so long as they are eating. The hardest part is getting them to start eating, period, so make sure the local fish store is feeding them something.
I've successfully weaned three dwarf lions from eating live fresh feeders at the store to eating frozen food without even using a feeding stick. They are very fun to keep.
You can keep more than just three species successfully in your tank, the following lions will be fine in your system:
Radiata Lionfish
Antennata Lionfish
Fuzzy Dwarf Lion
Dwarf Zebra Lion
Fu Manchu Lion
(and some people will tell you a Russells Lion will work in a 65g, but mine got almost a foot long and required an upgrade, so I'd steer clear of the Russells)
If you have any questions, let me know, I'm no expert, but I have way too much experience with the little lions (can't keep a big lion in my main tank, eel unfortunately likes to go after everything):yes:
 

fmarini

Member
Luv4reef:
thats a beautiful black juvenile P Volitans lion. I would expect that fish to be about 8-10" long in 1 yr and almost 12-15" in 1.5 yrs. I also suspect your 65gal tank will be quickly outgrown.
Next as you've watched, these fish are fish eaters. They will actively hunt, stalk, and eat whatever moving item that fits into their mouths, and as mentioned by JW their mouth is pretty good size. Infact my rule of thumb is lions will try to eat a fish which is equal to half their size. So your CB may be lunch now, or if it swims fast might be lunch in 3 weeks or 3 months, but believe me the lion will out grow it and then eat it.
As for the dwarf lions, if you have a decent tank w/ good water quality then a dwarf or two woul be fine. Both JW and MorayM have given you good idea what to deal w/
frank
 
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