To add or not to add, does anybody have a lion fish in their reef tank?

[fishy all the time]

I have a 75 gallon reef tank with some fish; a orange spot goby, a manderin goby, a scooter, a yellow tank, a cinnamon clown, and a gold bar maroon clown. I am really interested in adding a lion fish. My LFS can order these really tiny ones, about 2 inches long. They say they only get a little bit bigger. Would this be safe for my tank? Would it eat any of my snails or shrimp?

 

[ryebread]

I had a small Volitan lion in a reef tank for a while but it didn't really work out. The lion never harmed any corals but, you should know that a lion will eat anything that will fit in its stomach......... and some stuff that I never thought would fit in there. Lions are slow swimmers but they can dart at something in a split second. I had to get mine out of the reef after it ate a bi-color blenny and a royal gramma in the same week. They were all nearly the same size. Your choice.

 

[stacyt]

I never had a problem with my volitan eating the other inhabitants. He did however irritate some of my corals. He would sit on my mushrooms and polyps and cause them to closeup. I finally just moved the corals to a different tank.

 

[sistrmary]

I have a radiata and a fu manchu lionfish in my 100gal reef. I haven't had a problem with either of them. If it doesn't get much bigger than 2" it can't be a Volitans It's probably a fu manchu. For the first time lionfish owner, I really wouldn't suggest a fu man, they die a lot in captivity. Most of them will never wean to frozen food and eventually starve.
Ask the LFS what kind of lionfish it is, if it's either a fuzzy dwarf or a zebra dwarf, they're very hearty. (The rest of them are too, but most of them, including these two, get around 7" long. They'd be fine in your tank though if you want a lionfish that big)

 

[fishy all the time]

Thanks alot for everyones help. The lion fish is really for my boyfriend. Since we have been together he has really wanted one. I thought it would be a nice suprise for all of the help he gives me I think me fish store cells the fuzzy dwarf variety. I cant believe how tiny they are.

 

[jonthefb]

yeah a fuzzzy dwarf would make a good inhab, but as sistrmary said they do still get to be aabout 6 or seven inches long. i also agree that the fu man chu lions are not as adept to living in captivity. many times they suffer from shipping, and are very cryptic to begin with. it is also very hard to get them adjusted to frozen foods, or anyhting for that matter!
good luck
jon

 

[fishymissy]

I have a volitan lionfish in a 90g tank. Even though I can't call this a reef tank, it did have some mushrooms and polyps in the tank. My lion has been trained to eat just about anything that hits the water. (Very greedy eater) Well, one day, one of the mushrooms broke off of the rock and started floating around. Apparently this looked good to him and he ate it. Needless to say he became very ill and I almost lost him.
Even though he has recovered, I will no longer put any lionfish with any kind of mushroom coral.
I realise that most lionfish will not do this, but it is something to be aware of.

 

[fishy all the time]

Thanks everyone