Lionfish

if you want a lionfish you could try a dwarf lionfish of somekind
Fuzzy Dwarf Lionfish
Fu Manchu Lionfish
Dwarf/Zebra Lionfish

 

I would avoid the Fu Manchus. They are the hardest lion to convert to frozen. They are also bottom huggers, so it can me difficult to get food to them. They can hide quite a bit, and if they don't feel secure in their environment, they'll hide even more.

The mombasae and antennata get to about 8-9". If you get them small, they won't even get to that size.

What is your experience with these kind of fish or saltwater tanks in general?

 

two years goes by quick,, mine has done fine but i agree that a bigger tank would be better. they need the space to spread out a lil. and if you feed live feeders, sometimes it hard for them to follow the food having to turn around in a smaller space. i am putting mine in a 240gal as soon as i get the setup finished

 

My son has one in his 92 corner and got it about the size od a baseball body not with its spines its now much larger then a softball body and about the size of a basket ball spread out. They grow very quickly and this got to this size in less then 2 years. In my 92 I keep thinking about moving him out sooner then later. 55 is way to small imo. I had a dwarf fuzzy in there also but like mentioned they are hard to get to eat. I had that for 8-9 months and it dissapeared totally I flipped rocks I dug around everywhere and case of the missing fish lol.

 

I hate the missing fish case. Well I have been in saltwater for about a year with a 29g biocube. Before I have about 3 years of freshwater experience. Well in about a year and a half I will be moving and will upgrade to a 75g in that house. The house im in now I want a 55g. So by the time he needs a bigger tank he would be able to get it

 

I had a Russel's Lionfish in my 55 Gal FOWLR that I had a few years ago. He was with a Yellow Tang, a Dogface Puffer, 2 Perculas, a Harlequin Tuskfish, and some others. He did great, and never caused problems. I fed him guppies about every 2 days and he was happy. I love Lions, they make a tank look great.

 

Where do u live? I have a 70G Predator tank overflow, return pump, and with HUGE skimmer (Kent Nautilus TE), 30G sump, aout 120lbs LiveRock, and an 11" V. Lionfish in the tank with a Bursa Trigger that I am going to sell for $400

See my signature for the build thread

 

You'd be SO much happier in the long run with an antennata, radiata or a mombasae. The mombasae is the nicest looking lion out of all of them and gets about half the size of a volitan.

Here's mine.

 

I live in raleigh nc. But a 70g is to big for me right now. I just really like the look of the antennata, radiata or Volitans. Ive heard less about the mombasae, do they have the same type of flow the volitans do?

 

They all have about the same care. The "mombasa" is often mid-ID'd and is often called an antennata at the LFS. Mine was actually called a miles which is very similar to the volitans. SCORE!

You'll have a little more options for tankmates with a medium size lion.

With small lions your tankmates options will be even more vast. If I can figure out how to add a link to my tank, you'll be able to see the different fish I put in my 55g.