Lionfish in a 38g reef tank?

Good idea or not? I want to build my tank around one, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea to put it in a reef..

 

you might be able to get away with a dwarf fuzzy but that might be pushing it.

 

A Mombasa would work or a fu man chu but it would be pushing it

 

Alright thanks. I'll find something else and put that in my other tank soon!

 

A dwarf fuzzy (Dendrochirus brachypterus), D. zebra, D. barberi(Hawaiian/green lion), or D. biocellatus (Fu Manchu) lionfish would do fine in a 38 gal reef. The lion won't pay your corals any mind at all, however, smaller ornamental crustaceans (crabs, shrimp) and any fish that can be swallowed, will become food eventually.

Hermits and snails are fine as a CUC with lions.

P. mombassae is a mid-bodied lion, and a 38 gal is a tad tight for the medium lions.

You might want to give Lions, and Turkeys, and Devils, Oh My! Lionfish in the Home Aquarium a read...it should answer most, if not all of your questions (or give you some other questions to ask!).

HTH

 

Dwarf's shouldn't be a problem.

 

I say nay. I had a dwarf fuzzy in my 55 he wasn't happy at all they need LOTS of room even though they are a dwarf. Id advise against it.

 

The guy that got me started in this hobby had a dwarf in his 55. Neither of them were happy about it. The fish because it really didn't have much room with the rock & corals, and the guy because the lion just sat there most of the time (it's what they do).

 

Alright thanks everyone! I've decided against it because it would end up being HIS tank and I couldn't really put much else in it.

 

I suspect that it was either your aquascaping or tankmates that resulted in your lionfish "not being happy". A std 55 is a really nice size for a fuzzy. In fact, one could keep a M-F-F harem in a properly outfitted 55 with little trouble, altho as with most other fish, they will indeed use whatever room is afforded them, so of COURSE, bigger is better.

The reason the lion sat around is most likely because the tank was probably not properly aquascaped. If any of our lions see us, they don't sit around at all...just yesterday, I had three of them "greet" me as i walked in the door from work (we currently keep 9 lionfish specimens (7 species) as well as several scorps, waspfish, stingfish, and stonefish).

Just out of curiosity, what do the both of you consider a proper tank size for a dwarf lion species?