Keeping a dwarf lionfish

fishoholic · #1 11-17-2011, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sphelps

The Fu-mans are the harder ones to keep out of the dawrfs, just so you know, might be best to try a different one first and see how you do first.

Agreed, if you really want at fu-man try to buy one that's already eating frozen. The first fu-man I ever tried had not been trained to eat frozen and despite my best efforts I couldn't get him to eat and he died after a week. The second fu-man I got, Ken from Blue World (here in Edmonton), trained it to eat frozen silversides before I bought it. That was back in March 2010 and he's been with me and doing well ever since

Mine eats mostly PE mysis now and krill every now and then and once in awhile he'll eat part of a silverside.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sphelps

You can keep multiple lions in the same tank.

Not 100% sure on that, I bought a red fuzzy dwarf lionfish to put with my fu-man and while I never saw them "fight" or anything I found my red fuzzy dwarf dried up on the floor 2 months after getting him

The other tankmates that are in there is a small cowfish, leopard wrasse, and a mystery wrasse. The mystery wrasse is pretty small still and while I've seen him chase my leopard wrasse once in awhile I can't see him chasing a lionfish out of the tank. They are in a 80g tank.

Some tankmates I don't recommend to have with a dwarf lionfish are: frogfish (my fu-man kills them) and toby puffers or lunare wrasses (they will nip the lionfish's fins).

Here's my guy

tang daddy · #2 11-17-2011, 04:23 PM

Shelps and fishoholic, thanks for the excellent advice and first hand experiences... I have always envied shelps pics of his fumanchu in his reef tank and from that point have wanted one.

I saw a Fu manchu at Jl and really wanted to take the guy home but because he wasn't eating I didn't want to kill it in a week... I am hoping that I can get ghost shrimps and make sure he eats it before bringing it home... I know these guys can be trained aswell, although the dwarfs tend to be alittle more sensitive to water quality and can take awhile to accept food.

I am also wondering how they catch these fish because in the wild they mostly hide and come out at night as they are nocturnal hunters.

sphelps · #3 11-17-2011, 04:45 PM

While I suppose not all lions are the same I would still conclude an aggressive one to be rare and not typical. I've kept many lions and always together with various tank makes including other lions, frogfish and other scorpions. In addition many others do the same and you'll even often see multiple lions in one tank at the LFS. I've never seen territorial or real aggression behavior from a lion, it's always protective in the form of pointing or waving fins at approaching threats, this is especially true of the Fu-man.

Click here for video

JTang · #4 12-26-2011, 12:22 AM

Hey Chris, I'm hoping to do the same with my 46 bowfront... dwarf lion, puffer, eel, trigger - the ones that dont fit in the reef tank.

sphelps: That's my dream tank! Great Work! (I didn't know you can keep a lion/eel with a seahorse??? I thought seahorses r very sensitive n fragile...)

Bugsy · #5 03-20-2012, 03:22 PM

Hello Chris,

I had a dwarf lionfish a few years back. It came to me on frozen foods but.... it was sure not easy to feed. Although it did eat the varieties I fed it I had him for just about 1 year and then he died. Beautiful fish very hard to keep in my opinion.

tang daddy · #6 03-23-2012, 04:40 PM

I have a crappy cell phone pic but don't know how to post it....Maybe if I sent it to a member they could help me??

Mandosh · #7 03-23-2012, 05:07 PM

Here you go Chris...

Looks like a Fuzzy Dwarf/Shortfin (Dendrochirus brachypterus)

badfish! · #8 03-23-2012, 05:34 PM

He's sweet, I just got one too, I like how he's super stealthy moving about my rocks! Good luck with him

paddyob · #9 12-26-2011, 12:31 AM

In the first pic the white lines around the fish make it appear super imposed or photo shopped. Kinda funny.

Do much editing?

Quote:

Originally Posted by sphelps

While I suppose not all lions are the same I would still conclude an aggressive one to be rare and not typical. I've kept many lions and always together with various tank makes including other lions, frogfish and other scorpions. In addition many others do the same and you'll even often see multiple lions in one tank at the LFS. I've never seen territorial or real aggression behavior from a lion, it's always protective in the form of pointing or waving fins at approaching threats, this is especially true of the Fu-man.

Click here for video

The Grizz · #10 12-26-2011, 01:18 AM

I have a Fuzzy Dwarf Lion in my FOWLR with a couple Triggers, couple Puffers, couple Damsels and a trio of Clowns.

It was not eating anything at all for the first week or so but it really got hungry finally, My FOWLR residents all really like krill & silversides all chopped up.

I dump about a half ounce or so into the tank and the Lion finds what he wants & sucks it back.

The funnest was when the lion & my Valentini Puffer where tracking the same piece of krill. The lion won the food but the puffer gave the lion a one heck of a headbutt, rammed right into the lion right in the mouth. Now at feeding time the puffers and lion are on different sides of the tank.