Dwarf Lionfish...tell me about them

C

CarolynM

I've had seahorses for a couple of years now and am wanting a total change in direction on one of my tanks. It's a 42gallon cube drilled with 15 gallon sump. I have live rock and various softies. Only inhabitants right now are a mandarin, pep shrimp and a seahorse. I can move all of the inhabitants to another tank.

I'm considering a dwarf lionfish. They are so interesting looking and I hear actually have personalities. What I was wondering is are they coral compatible? I hear that anything that can fit in their mouth will end up there - question could large bangaii cardinals be kept with them? Or a six line? I like these fish too and don't know if I want to sacrifice the chance to own them for a lionfish.

How active are the lionfish? As long as I'm careful about where they are when my hands are in my tank, is there being venomous a real problem?

Are they hardy? Please tell me all about your experiences.

Thanks
 
The only one small enough to be somewhat assured of him not eating the fish you mentioned (lg. bangaii, lg. 6-line) would be the Fu-manchu.
As far as active, they may not swim around a lot all the time, but when they think they are getting food (like anytime you stick your hands in the tank) they will be right there. You need to wear gloves. They are safe around corals. Just not shrimps and fish small enough to fit in their mouth.
 
I have had a dwarf and a fumanchu for at least a year. They have great personalities. The dwarf will swim onto my hand to be feed ghost shrimp. That happened because all the other fish are too fast and agressive so I always had to feed him first a shrimp at a time at the top corner. After a few months he would just swim up and land on my open hand. They are not overly agressive at all. People seem to think that they will actively seek out your hand to sting you. I have never seen that. I am more afraid of the fox face than the lions or scorpion fish/toad fish I have. Outside of the hungry dwarf they all prefer to be as far away from my hand as possible. I doubt a large dwarf would even both a large mature six line or cardinal. Dwarfs mouths are pretty small compared to other predators. I had a tiny mandarin with all mine and they never messed with him either.
 
I have one, he's on the 30 gallon tank by himself. Very peacefull, I use the tank as coral grow out tank as well and he swam around coral and don't bother any of them.

Mine is peaceful, hangs out upside down on any rock and come swimming around when it's feeding time. He knows it as well, everytime, I come around the tank, he comes up waiting for me to feed him.

Here's the kicker, feeding will be your biggest challenge. Most likely, anyone that you get will only want to eat live feeder shrimp. Mine used to do that, until I trained him eat frozen food. I took a rubbermaid container, drill some holes for circulation and suction cups. I hang them on the side of the tank. I starved him for about a week and a half, then start to use a clear straw and wiggle frozen mysis in fron of him. It took about 5-6 tries, but eventually it caught his interest and he started to come up and eventuall ate it. Now he ate frozen mysis, squid chunks, shrimp chunk and half of silverside. I varied his diet, everyday...

Once you are able to get him to eat what you want him to eat, it's pretty easy...they're very hardy as well.
 
They sound great -exactly what I'm looking for. I'm sure I'll be adding one in the near future. What stores locally have them? Any differences pros and cons between the types?

Carolyn
 
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