dwarf lionfish tank?

ok so im wanting to do a dwarf lionfish tank with my 55 gallon tank. i have

70lbs of sand
55lbs of rock
two power heads
11 mangroves
chaeto
gracilaria

things i am going to order from reefcleaners:


codium (tall)
feather caulerpa
grape caulerpa
oar grass
and a penny macro algae

i wanted a realistic camo for this tank. (idea by lionfishlair.com scorp tank.)

so with all this do you think a pair or a trio of fuzzy dwarf lionfish would work in this tank? i have to still figure out how to sex these fish, but i know it has to do with lateral lines on either the fins or the body.

21" of fish when full grown.

thanks

 

I would go with a pair of fuzzies and then you'll have lots of room left, should you want to add some other fish in time. A trio could go in there, though.

There are several ways to tell the male and female apart. The female has 4-6 stripes on her pectoral fins where the male have 6 or more. The males heads are larger and their pectoral fins go beyond the area where their tail joins the body (caudal peduncle), where the females pectorals are notably shorter. I'll put together a few little pictures... I'm a visual person and I guess I always assume others are too.

Would you ever consider adding other scorps or are you looking for a species only tank.

 

im not real sure yet. but if i got with other scorps id do a leaf fish or a sea goblin. if theres room. i havent really looked at sea goblins much. guess i need to research that. a visual aid would be awesome!

 

It'll be two different species in the pic, but both look very similar and are sexable in the same way.

I have a male fuzzy and I thought I had a little female one I've been growing up. She turned out to be a male.

Females are harder to find. I'll be back with the pics.

 

ok sounds good. what woulds be the outcome of two males in the same tank? i am guessing they would figure out whose dominant but i dont know how theyd do that besides jowsting (spp?).

 

I don't have any really good pics to show this easily. I've been meaning to put that visual together, so I'll get on it tonight after i feed the little beasts.

 

They will fight continuously until someone leaves the territory.....

I had 2 blackfoot lions go at it HARD... they were tumbling over each other and everything.

 

do you think the fighting would be fatal? im not too sure how lionfish react to there own venom in a species sense. so im just wondering if it would be a good idea to blindly get 3 fuzzy dwarf lionfish, instead of taking what might be months to get a male and two females that are on frozen foods.

 

They will basically fight to the death because they won't leave each other alone. If one became dominant, the other would never come out to eat. They are not meant to live in a submissive environment, so this would be a very stressful situation and he would eventually die. In the wild the submissive one would leave... in our tanks they cannot.

If they were both of like size and experience they would lock mouths and duke it out toe to toe. I wouldn't be surprised in there was a spine or two involved.

I have video of the blackfoot's fight. I don't think I've actually watched the footage. That will be the second thing I'll do tonight.

I would not blindly get a trio. The odds of ending up with 3 males is greater than you ending up with even one female.

 

ok so i should go for maybe just one then?

what about a different species of dwarf lion? would this work? or is it the classic same body shape, gonna fight thing? just wondering.