Lions and reef tanks?

[am3gross05]

Here's a question. From my understanding.. lions are not reef safe, however ( and I could be wrong on my assessment of reef tanks ).. I went to the lfs today and saw they had put a volitan lion in a tank where they were also selling anemones. Aren't anemones considered part of a reef? Also I saw this from a guy who was selling his tank on ----.. a lion with a horde of anemones. If lions and anemones r safe.. what else can u put in a tank other than fish and LR? I have a lion with a flame angel, chocolate chip star, and a purple urchin. Just curious I guess.. but also confused.

 

[nicky1.8t]

I believe that they are reef safe with caution, but they will eat any small fish that will fit in there mouth. I had one in my reef for 6 months with no problems

 

[cubfan]

I agree with nicky. I have colt coral and tons of little snails and crabs and my lions don't bother them. Did eat a bicolored pseudochromis that was hiding in a piece of live rock, though. Wouldn't worry about inverts, but be cautious of little fish that will fit in the lions mouth.

 

[toughguy80]

Yup, had mine in my reef for about a year. Only thing that makes them not reef safe is that they eat shrimp and small fish.

 

[f1shman]

I don't know about the shrimp, but definitly they eat small fish. I think you'd be better off with a dwarf, because a volitan will eventually get bigger then most of your fish making them his snack. And one dude on this board has a beautiful yellowish greenish incredibly colorful dwarve angel in his reef.

 

[toughguy80]

They'll eat shrimp :yes: As a matter of fact when you get your lion for the 1st time and can't get it to eat, what do you feed it.... ghost shrimp. A guy I know had a huge CB shrimp in with a 6" fuzzy dwarf. One day the lion got hungry and after the fuzzy was done, nuthing was left of the CB shrimp except the claws :scared:

 

[am3gross05]

I do have some blue legs in right now and he hasn't seemed to mess with them. I HAD a damsel in that was my test fish for the cycle. Yeah..... The lion had him for dinner , but I was cool with it cause like I said, the damsel ws the test fish...lol. I do worry about the Flame... but hopefully he'll get big enough so the Lion to mess with him. And I do plan on going to a bigger tank eventually. The only thing that sucks is he only eats fresh water rosies. Haven't been able to feed him anything else. But thanks for all the answers.. that gives me a few more ideas.

 

[cubfan]

Try to get him to eat ghost shrimp. Anything, but FW fish. The fat content is too high for a lion's liver to metabolize. There are a ton of threads on how to wean a lion to frozen food. Do a search and check them out.

 

[exile415]

I really love lionfish and my LFS always has baby voltian lions. I really like them, but always have been afraid they would eat my corals,anemone or kill shrimp and inverts

 

[angelsrock]

the only reason they would not be considered reef safe is because they eat any fish that they can fit in their mouth and stuff like shrimps. on the other hand i have a dwarf lion and he hasn't touched my fire and cleaner shrimps. the shrimps are a year old and the lion is 2 years old, but has only been living in the same tank together for 8 months.

 

[ophiura]

I think the reason actually is not so much what they will eat, but the fact that they eat a lot and produce a lot of waste. Water quality is very important when keeping corals and anemones. So large predators tend not to be put in there with them. This is why in true reef tanks - where corals etc are of prime interest - there tend to be very few fish. The bioload of fish relative to the capacity is very low. So the main problem as I see it (apart from eating small reef associated fish and crustaceans) is that water quality could be an issue and so the corals do not thrive.

 

[jayc]

I second what Ophiura said. :yes: