First tank before and after

Just started my first tank. It's 50 gallons. Started with 4 pounds of rock and 3 damsels. Went down to one damsel because he killed the other two.

Now I have 45 pounds of rock a Volitan lion, lemon peel angel, a pincushion urchin and no damsels. (The lion fish gave him what he had coming.)

Still a ways to go plan on adding corals and a few more fish.

 

The lion

 

Lemon peel photobomb

 

Day 1

 

I hate to be the bearer of bad news.

The Lemon Peel is going to pick at the lionfish and stress it to death, or the Lion is going to outgrow the damsel and swallow it whole. Both can happen.

I advise removing either the Lemon or the Lion. The Lemon will eat all your coral, and the lion will eat all your shrimp and clean up crew.

 

very nice set up you have! I really like the mixed sand bed.

 

While I generally agree with what you are saying, you are missing the more important piece of advice. Volitans can get over 1' long, and so need a large tank! (think 125 gallons) A dwarf/fuzzy lion would be more appropriate in a 50 gallon tank.

 

I know my Voli will one day become basketball sized. It's just my first tank. I'm looking to upgrade to a 200+ in a year or two. The two used to have problems, but now they have made their territories at opposite ends of the tank and leave each other alone.

 

I am one to advocate to not buy fish that will outgrow your tank. Wait until you have the tank setup. What you see all to often is that things happen in life and you aren't able to do the upgrade you planned. Now you have a fish (or a few) too large for your current tank, leaving you to have to try and re-home a full grown fish.

This is more for others reading this, so don't take this the wrong way. However correct tank size or not, I still don't advocate for having a Volitans in with smaller fish though. I do hope it works out in your case and you don't have some expensive meals for the Volitans.

 

Nice setup. Dont underestimate the size of your lionfishs mouth.