lionfish question

dendrochirus

New Member
i was wondering if anyone could tell me the best way to set up a 35 gallon aquarium for a single fu manchu lion? i need to know the best type of filtration, and lighting, and what fish are compatible?
thanks
 

aggie05

Member
it would be best to post this in the aggressive section. But from what I have studied about them they are very messy eaters and will require a lot of filtration. No paticular lighting is needed since it is just a fish and it will want a lot of rock to hide in. They will also tell you that the tank is going to be too small, even for a fu. The experts on this page do not like to keep any lion in anything that small. As far as other fish go, large clowns would work and anything else that wont pick on it. But it will eat anything it can fit in its mouth. Like I said, post this in the aggressive section and they will answer all your questions, or better yet try using the search function, thats what its there for.;)
 

fshhub

Active Member
definitely you would want good filtration, and as for compatibility, you would be limited to one or maybe 2 other fish, youwould wnat something big enough to not fit into his mouth, like maybe a large algae or even a bicolor blenny, this would also hel pwiht algae control. too. giving you 8 or so inches of fish that would be about it.
maybe also a 4 or 5 inch wrasse or a dwarf angel later on.
Your options will be limited since you only have 35 gallons and would want something that would be big enough to not fit into his mouth.
HTH
 

shmeeb

Member
yeah, they're very messy eaters if they can't fit whatever it is you're giving them into their mouths whole. if they can its fine, if not they shake it violently in order to get it into more manageable pieces, which of course scatters bits of food all over the place. particularly messy if you're still giving it live food--blood and fish scales everywhere, entertaining as all hell, but not very cleanly. best is to get him over to uncooked shrimp ASAP, problem is lion fish take awhile to get used to it.
as to lighting, they're nocturnal, so like aggie said, doesn't really matter.
i have a dragon wrasse and a snowflake moray in with mine, and they all get along just fine. well except that the dragon is a pig and will try to steal the moray's food right out of his mouth, even after he himself has been fed.
 

shmeeb

Member
by the way, i'm not suggesting that you put either a moray or a dragon wrasse in a 35 gal tank. you would have some terribly unhappy fish if you tried that.
 
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