Hawkfish

[66chuck]

Will hawkfish (longnose or flame) eat cleaner shrimp and hermits? All the websites say "monitor with". Don't want to introduce a fish that will graze on my clean-up crew.

 

[nereef]

hermit crabs should be pretty safe. with the shrimp, they mean what they say. your shrimp might get eaten and they might not.

 

[tarball]

All i know is those knuckle heads will jump out of the tank when lights go out.

 

[gnorman]

if the shrimp is bigger than it then it should be ok, we have kept cleaner shrimp with longnose hawkfisih and there has been no aggression towards it. but as u may know, crazy things happen in this hobby so just be careful and do monitor

 

[grabbitt]

I kept a hawkfish with three peppermint shrimp and they got along fine. He wasn't very big, and I'm sure it would become a problem eventually as the hawk grew, but they will be fine together for at least a little while. However, permanence cannot be promised.

 

[brandan]

My Flame Hawk is fine with snails and hermits. I do not have any shrimp. I don't want to spend $22 on a cleaner shrimp and then have it end up dinner for him. Mine did jump out of the tank one morning, luckily, I was standing right there.

 

[worldwide zoo]

I have a spotted hawk who is a hermit crab assasin. I've come back from collecting them and thrown 20+ into my reef. For 2 days he'd swim around with a new victim in his mouth every 10-20min. or so. Out of the three peppermints I bought he got two of them and the other hides in fear of his life constantly. I feed my fish heavily 2x a day, so it isn't a starvation issue. This is what they eat in the wild.

 

[tang4me]

My 2 inch flame had a decent size peppermint as a snack two days ago. It had left it alone for awhile, but was starting to eyeball it. I figured it was just a matter of time.

 

[dodgr31]

I have a long nose hawk and a cleaner shrimp. I get more entertainment out of watching those two. The hawk goes over to the shrimps cleaner station several times a day and waits until the cleaner does his thing cleaning the hawk. Sometimes, if the cleaner doesn't move the hawk will stick his tail right in the cleaners face to get his attention. They are cool together.

 

[sepulatian]

Sir quizzy is a falco, which is basicaly a shortnosed....longnose. They have the same attitude. He has killed many hermits right in front of me. It is usually...RIGHT in front of me. He did most of them in when I moved him from my 55 into a 20 gallon. I didn't like where the 55 was and wanted to move it. He was not happy about it. He now lives happily with 2 hermits, two turbos, and a diamond goby within the 55 with about 56lbs of rock. He does not bother any of them now. Beware, they are spiteful!!!

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by dodgr31
I have a long nose hawk and a cleaner shrimp. I get more entertainment out of watching those two. The hawk goes over to the shrimps cleaner station several times a day and waits until the cleaner does his thing cleaning the hawk. Sometimes, if the cleaner doesn't move the hawk will stick his tail right in the cleaners face to get his attention. They are cool together.
WOW my falco made lunch of a cleaner a LONG time ago. I don't think that any behavior sums up any hawk. They have way too much personality to be steriotyped at all.