Bangaii Cardinal with Lionfish?

Hey guys, so I have been thinking about getting a fuzzy dwarf lionfish or zebra lionfish to go with my current fish (I had a crash, so now I only have a bangaii cardinal.) He's about 2.5 to 3 inches long. What do you think?

 

FWIW I have a fuzzy dwarf for 2 years now that really has not grown much, 4" total size the entire time. I have 3 cardinals in with him and there is no way he could eat them. BUT I have seen some larger fuzzy dwarfs, but idk if any of them would eat a full grown cardinal, my dwarf seems to prefer shrimp over fish. I even put in a tiny 1" 6-line and he does not stalk it, hoping it grows a bit before he might decide to! Remember my experience may not be typical.

 

Thanks, that's really helpful. What do you recommend to avoid being stung? I'm probably just being paranoid, but I'd rather not take my chances.

 

A Lionfish mouth is bigger than you think. It's always a possibility that your cardinal will become dinner. I learned the hard way with my clownfish. I thought there was no way it would fit in the Lions mouth, wrong. They lived together for over a year too.

 

In my first tank I had a very small dwarf Lionfish and 4 green chromis. They were the same size but it didn't stop the lionfish from swalling those chromis one by one until he choked to death on the last one. I thought it wasn't possible that he could be eating them until i saw him dead with a tail hanging out of his mouth.

 

And that is usually the way it goes. Some lionfish will try regardless of if they can physically swallow their prey.

 

There is a reason they are wiping out reefs.

 

Was that a dwarf zebra or fuzzy dwarf? I have had some different lionfish species and fuzzy dwarfs are the only ones I have had that were not as aggressive towards fish. They also have a much smaller mouth than the other species. Yes some lionfish are destroying reefs, but those are not fuzzy dwarfs.

No tips on getting stung. Been nailed twice.

 

I'm not saying a fuzzy dwarf is safe for everyone, that is just my personal experiences. I have had several fuzzys over the years, couple dwarf zebras, Antennata, radiata and one russles. The fuzzy dwarf is a very different fish from the others. But that's just my experience.