Pros and Cons of a Fuzzy Dwarf Lion?

garfunkle

garfunkle

Member
I am considering getting a dwarf lion for my 55g reef tank that I am setting up. Mt planned stock list is:
-Coral Beauty
-2 Fiji Tomato Clowns
-Diamond Goby
-LMB
-3 Green Chromis
-and possibly the lion
-I also plan on having a cleanup crew as well as coral.
Will a dwarf fuzzy lion fare well i nhere, or should I be worries about the others?
 
reefreak29

reefreak29

Active Member
u already have more fish then i have in my 90 but some of the cons are they put alot of bioload in your tank and they eat shrimps,and of course there posinous. they will also eat any fish thats half its body length or smaller
 
tx reef

tx reef

Active Member
Forget about the Chromis if you are going to get a lion.....this will help with the bio load.
 
garfunkle

garfunkle

Member
Originally Posted by reefreak29
u already have more fish then i have in my 90 but some of the cons are they put alot of bioload in your tank and they eat shrimps,and of course there posinous

Only 5 of those fish actively swim around, so it won't be a problem. I just want the facts on lions. Thanks
btw, get some more fish! :happyfish
 
ejensen

ejensen

Member
I have a Fuzzy in my 115 and it does just fine. I do not have anything that it can eat. I put it in last so it doesn't try to eat anything. Maybe if I put a new small fish it might try to eat it. I even have a camel back shrimp. I never comes out during the day though. As for the extra bio load. I have chato and a skimmer so my nitrates are very low. Barly a hit of color with using a salfert test kit. That is my favorite fish in my tank.
 
rcdude1990

rcdude1990

Active Member
i just recently bought a dwarf lion and its in my 55gallon kinda reef tank (since i only have 2 corals) he is great but hes not an active perons he hides wen my t-5's r on and at night hes goin in and out of the caves in my LR. i got worried wen he wasnt eating anyhting but i finally got him to eat.
 
murph145

murph145

Active Member
pros!


cons....
um he did eat some smaller shirmp.... and he did eat 2 smaller fish when i didnt feed him enought.... now i feed him enough and hes done awesome and i have some pretty small fish he just ignores now!
 
garfunkle

garfunkle

Member

Originally Posted by murph145
pros!


cons....
um he did eat some smaller shirmp.... and he did eat 2 smaller fish when i didnt feed him enought.... now i feed him enough and hes done awesome and i have some pretty small fish he just ignores now!
WOW!!!!, now I have to get one. Can you tell me what and how often you feed eat? Tank size? Fish size? Other fish in the tank?
Sorry for the questions, I just want to be sure before I buy one. Thanks a lot in advance.
 
murph145

murph145

Active Member
hey garfunkle
this is my yellow dwarf lion... yellow is a lil harder to come by in color but there are pleanty of tan and semi yellow ones out there all fit the same general description
as far as food i feed mine a combo of some frozen formula1 thawed and broken up into chunks and some thawed shrimps from the market..... he swims to the surface where i pretty much hand feed him.... i make sure to feed him seperately every 3 days that way he doesnt get too hungry and chase the lil fish around tryin to eat them lol.... hes too slow of a swimmer to catch all the lil frozen mysid and brine shrimp that i feed the other fish daily thats y i feed him on his own schedule....
hes in my 180G tank but i think they would be fine in a 50G or larger tank they dont need to swim alot but they like alot of caves and rocks to perch on.....
this fish is about 3.5" from nose to end of tail making her pretty small ....
these will most likely eat any smaller ornamental shrimp
i keep it with a variety of other fish without any issues... i have some anthias that are less than an inch long and she doesnt even bother them at all
 
garfunkle

garfunkle

Member
Originally Posted by murph145
hey garfunkle
this is my yellow dwarf lion... yellow is a lil harder to come by in color but there are pleanty of tan and semi yellow ones out there all fit the same general description
as far as food i feed mine a combo of some frozen formula1 thawed and broken up into chunks and some thawed shrimps from the market..... he swims to the surface where i pretty much hand feed him.... i make sure to feed him seperately every 3 days that way he doesnt get too hungry and chase the lil fish around tryin to eat them lol.... hes too slow of a swimmer to catch all the lil frozen mysid and brine shrimp that i feed the other fish daily thats y i feed him on his own schedule....
hes in my 180G tank but i think they would be fine in a 50G or larger tank they dont need to swim alot but they like alot of caves and rocks to perch on.....
this fish is about 3.5" from nose to end of tail making her pretty small ....
these will most likely eat any smaller ornamental shrimp
i keep it with a variety of other fish without any issues... i have some anthias that are less than an inch long and she doesnt even bother them at all

Thanks you very much my friend! It's a done deal, I am going to get one of these when the tank is about a month or so through the cycle. BTW, would it be ok with a cleaner shrimp?
that picture of the lion is my new wallpaper, thanks aginan!
 
murph145

murph145

Active Member
no problem friend

id say if the cleaner shrimp was added first he stand a good chance of being fine.... the thing about these lion fish they get acustomed to u feeding them when u open the top.... so anytime u add a new fish or shrimp they are already in the mindset that its feeding time and they willlook at it as food.... so when i add new smaller fish i do it with lights off that way he doesnt get a chance to really spot them b4 they hide in the rockwork for a bit then he never saw it as food
 
garfunkle

garfunkle

Member
Originally Posted by murph145
no problem friend

id say if the cleaner shrimp was added first he stand a good chance of being fine.... the thing about these lion fish they get acustomed to u feeding them when u open the top.... so anytime u add a new fish or shrimp they are already in the mindset that its feeding time and they willlook at it as food.... so when i add new smaller fish i do it with lights off that way he doesnt get a chance to really spot them b4 they hide in the rockwork for a bit then he never saw it as food
I don't care what they say Murph, you are a smart guy
. Thanks for the tip. I would hate to lose a Diamond Goby or a clown.
 
ogredawg

ogredawg

Member
I had the a 3.5" lion in my tank a month ago and after 1 week of it being in my tank it ate 4 chromis that were at least 1" in size. My advice is not to get the chromis (or at least get bigger size) or they'll be gone right away. The reason for this I think is because chromis could be stupid sometimes and just stay right in front of the lion. That's what mine did and so it wasn't too hard for the lion to hunt them. The lion tried chasing the male false perc clown in my tank and he stopped after the clown went to his anemone. But after that my clown wouldn't leave his anemone and I got scared because the clown didn't eat much and only ate food that went really close to the anemone.
The rest of your list looks good except for the goby also. Now I don't know much about it, but I'd be scared unless it's a bigger size because goby's aren't really that active.
 
garfunkle

garfunkle

Member
Diamond gobies are usually 4-5" when you get them, plus they are smart fish that will make great use of sand and lr to hide. I am not worried about it. Also, I will wait on the chromis until I see big ones at the lfs. I don't mind getting them one at atime to make sure they are big. One more thing, what do yoy guys feed yours? Thanks
 
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