hawkfish

[fishtanker]

hi all,
i have a question regarding hawkfish. most of the info sources on these fish say that they are likely to eat shrimp and "small" hermit crabs. what i want to know is if anyone has had this experience with this family of fish. i'm thinking that either a long nose or flame hawk would be a great addition to my 125gal but i need to have hermits in there for cleanup purposes. i don't want to add one that will eat them all. does anyone have any experience on this? pics would be cool also.
thanks

 

[jumpfrog]

Don't know about hermits but shrimp are toast in my hawk tank. I have a spotted or pixy hawk. I throw in some glass shrimp from time to time just for variety. He hits them with gusto. I couldn't imagine putting an expensive marine shrimp in there.

 

[shels]

I have a flame hawk in my 140, and it is great. I have hermits small and big and the hawk does not mess with them at all. I think he would mess with shrimp. He gets excited when I put ghost shrimp in.
He is such a cool fish, alot of charcter. He even sits on the snails on the glass.
Shel

 

[brinkdrum]

My flame hawk is awesome! Definetly would eat any shrimp that went in the tank though, but as for my hermits, he leaves them alone. My friend also had his falco hawkfish with emerald crabs and a sally lightfoot, so i'm pretty sure they would be okay. I'm a little leary of putting these kinds of crabs with my lion so i haven't tried them personally.

 

[fishtanker]

thanks for the replies everyone. i heard they have great personalities, thats why i wanted one. i looks like the hermits would be OK, probably not a shrimp though. does anyone know if these fish have a history of jumping out of the tank?

 

[brinkdrum]

Very active fish. Its definetly a possiblity. I've even had a fuzzy dwarf lion jump out before, so anything is possible.

 

[shels]

I have heard they can jump out, I have never had that problem with a hawk. I have my tank covered. I did know one person that had a hawk jump out, I think the hawk felt threatened. I would cover the tank to be on the safe side. It is weel worth it for sunch a fun fish.
Shel

 

[flamehawk]

Falme hawk w/b great addition. Should be no problem for hermits but will attack shrimp. Good luck...flame's are great fish!!

 

[rabid frog]

I have my flame hawk with a cleaner srimp and two pepermint shrimp and he doesnt bother them, but I have heard many stories of them eating shrimp,

 

[firegarden]

Except a Coral Banded Shrimp, to big. Mine have co-existed together about a year. I love mine, he's so cool!

 

[lakeman70]

Originally posted by FireGarden
Except a Coral Banded Shrimp, to big. Mine have co-existed together about a year. I love mine, he's so cool!
Not to steal the post or anything, but I have also been wanting a Flame Hawk. Anyone else keep coral banded shrimp with theirs with sucess?? Also will the Hawk bother snails??

 

[fishtanker]

Rabid
thats an awesome pic of your hawk. thanks for sharing

 

[shels]

Mine has never bothered the snails, hermits, sally light foot or emralds. I have never tried shrimp, (he gets all excited when I put in ghost shrimp) I have Dragon Wrass that I do not trust with shrimp either. I know he would eat them (He took out the Sally light foot and the emralds ) When he was alot smaller.
Good luck
Shel

 

[lakeman70]

Originally posted by Shels
Mine has never bothered the snails, hermits, sally light foot or emralds. I have never tried shrimp
Thanks for the info Shel. Anyone else have any info on the compatability of CB shrimp and a Flame hawk??

 

[brinkdrum]

I have snails and hermits...they do fine, he doesn't bother them at all.

 

[rabid frog]

thanks fishtanker, I dont have any problem with mine bothering snails of crabs, he just kind of hangs out

 

[reef fool]

A longnose hawk is probably the least likely to eat shrimp. I have had one in my reef for several months and the only inverts he eats are pods. I have 2 cleaners, 2 fire shrimp, 4 pepermints and a CBS. Also a sally, an emerald, and a white anemone crab and he has never touched one of them.They do jump out and go carpet surfing though (my first one did!), so you need a tight lid.
I had a flame hawk w/ several shrimp and after a few weeks he decided to eat a full size cleaner! I traded him in for a longnose the next day!

 

[fishtanker]

thanks for all the replies guys...lots of info here
i was at the lfs today and saw a spotted hawk $25, a flame and longnose hawk $49 each. i'm thinking 49bucks is a lot for a hawk. has anyone had the spotted hawk before?

 

[brinkdrum]

well the long-nose is a bit over priced, but the other two are around the price you would normally find them at.

 

[pigeoncreek1]

They do jump out and go carpet surfing though (my first one did!), so you need a tight lid.
I'll second that!!...I had a long nose for 2 weeks and it managed to find a 2"x3" opening in my canopy and ended up a crispy critter on the floor I'm thinking about replacing him with a flame hawk...