Info. on Lion Fish & what can be kept with them?
 

Recently moved my main display tank from main floor to basement. During this process my spare heater failed allowing the water temperature to dive. As a result all of my fish died (Powder Brown Tang, Coral Beauty, Green Chromis, Standard Clown Fish, Goby, Yellow Wrasse & my Cleaner Shrimp). The few corals that I had where in a separate bin and are okay. So I now have a six foot, 140 gallon tank with 40 gallon sump basically empty with only liverock and a few corals.

I have always liked the Lion Fish family but have no experience with them. I know that they will eat almost anything that will fit into their mouths. So I have a few questions and hopefully I can get some good feed back.

I would like to have the following fish:

1 Volitan Lionfish, Pterois volitansor or 2 Dwarf Lionfish, Dendrochirus zebra?
2 Maroon Clown, Premnas biaculeatus
1 Yellow Tang, Zebrasoma flavescens

i wouldnt get the Volitan Lionfish, Pterois volitansor , cause they get to big and will prob eat ur fish in the long run but if u get the dwarfs which i have ( zebra dwarf lionfish) they are really peaceful and i have them in a reef set up with clownfish shrimp snails crabs you name it and they been living happy for a while now, hope this helps

Can you have a pair or just single?

i second this question and add in that i have 1 dwarf zebra and wouldnt mind a seconf type of dwarf lion like a fu man chu or a fuzy, would i be able to have both in the same tank?

Up until when my volitan died it was looking a bit cramped in my 120gal so my vote is for one of the smaller varieties as well. They should be fine with the maroon clowns and tang as long as they are large enough so that they will not fit into the lions mouth. My tomato clown lived with a volitan for roughly 6 years.

This is a good article on all types of lionfish http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...ture/index.php

From the article:
"One of the most common questions I address is, "What else can I keep with my lionfish?" The answer is a complicated issue [Figure 19]. Frequently, hobbyists want to keep multiple lionfish in the same aquarium, and although there is no problem housing two or more of these fish together, closely related lionfish will fight. I have found this problem occurring most frequently with the dwarf lionfish, in that Dwarf Fuzzy lionfish will often harass Dwarf Zebra lions. Although these skirmishes are often nothing more than gill cover flaring, head shaking, and chasing, many times it's accompanied by a bite or two. If one lionfish persistently attacks another, they should be separated or the subordinate lionfish will cease feeding and may die. Another point of consideration when keeping both large and dwarf forms of lionfish together is that large lionfish will eat smaller lionfish, and I have personally witnessed this on several occasions."

look into eels, not the piscivous ones mind you. May I suggest starting by considering a snowflake eel? an attractive species that is usually too big for a lion (unless you get a much smaller specimen than your lion) but also lacks the typical viper-like eel fangs that could seriously harm fish of all kinds. note that getting an eel would require you to eel proof the tank to prevent escape.

how about a grouper? note that you would need relatively similarly sized fish to prevent them from eating each other.

Fish that are too big to fit in their cavernous mouths.

As someone who has experienced their poisonous sting, please be careful when working in any tank holding lionfish. By far the worse pain I've ever experienced.

The girl at the lfs- big al's, said if you get the dwarf young and I troduce it they grow together and should be tollerent of each other as long as they are well fed.

Is this true?

Josh

In my experience lionfish are very peaceful and timid fish, I have never seen one show signs of aggression. In the wild I've seen lions stick together, usually anywhere from 2 to 6 lions under a single rock which seems to suggest you can keep a couple of the same species but to be safe it might be best to avoid this in the same way you do with most reef fish.
Here's a clip of just such a find

I also currently have 2 lions in the same tank, one zebra and one fu-man-chu and they don't show any signs of aggression towards each other at all. I have a tilefish, 2 seahorses, a pipefish, a green spotted mandarin, and an engineer goby in the same tank. I'm also planning on adding a third lion (fuzzy) when I find one. I believe provided the lion can't eat the tank mate they will be fine, more often than not you have to worry about the lion over the tank mates. It's best to train them to eat off a stick or tongs so you can feed them easily and you don't have to worry about other fish out competing them for food.

would it be possible to have a puffer and a lion in the same tank?

i was thinking of getting a volitans lion and just wondering about possible puffers that could live with it.