My Valentine's Day Flame Hawkfish Situation

A couple days ago I posted asking what the chances would be that my Fire Shrimp and a Flame Hawk could live together peacefully. Most of the responses were doubtful, and everything that I have read said to be cautious if adding with inverts, especially small shrimp.

Well, I went out yesterday to my local lfs and they had four of them in stock for their big weekend sale...20% off everything. I held back from the temptation because I didn't want to risk my Fire Shrimp.

Sooooo...my fiancee comes home tonight with a bag from the fish store and I know exactly what she has(I almost called her and told not to get me a fish because I just had a feeling). Sure enough, it's a small Flame Hawk that I told her about.

The fish looks beautiful. I acclimated him and put him in my tank for now. I have two days to decide what the hell I should do. One of my Fire Shrimp is twice his size and the other is not quite as big, but still bigger than the Hawk by a good amount.

What shall I do?

 

Well if it was me i wouldnt want to disapoint my fiancee with taking back the fish i would just try and if you lose the shrimp then you still have the gift your finacee got you.

 

Markie...that's kind of my mind set right now. I really like my shrimp, they eat right out of my hand and pick my hand when its in the tank. But...I really like the fish, I had one when I first had a SW tank almost 10 years ago and it was my favorite.

 

It seems like if the shrimp are bigger than the fish, they should be safe for now. Just keep the fish well fed!!

And the thoughtfulness of your fiancee is worth a lot.

 

Well, he ate during his first feeding in the tank so I think I'm just gonna try to keep him fat and happy so he doesn't eye my Fire Shrimp.

 

I talked to my LFS guy who is very SW knowleagable about my Flame Hawk before I got mine. I have a cleaner shrimp and tons of inverts. He said as long as the shrimp is larger and the flamehawk is added to the tank after it, it would be fine. Adding a shrimp after a Flame Hawk has adjusted will more likely make it think it's food and not a friend. But in the end nature is nature and you can never be 100% sure as the Flame grows.

My Cleaner shrimp is much larger than my flame and neither bother one another at all.

I think you'll be fine, here's a pic of Dennis, he's hilarious to watch:

 

I too was skeptical of the Flame Hawkfish and Fire Shrimp living together peacefully but I'm happy to say that there have been no issues for almost three months now. Last week I went ahead and added a CBS and the hawk has left him alone so far too.

 

I'm really glad to hear from people who have had success with the pairing. So far so good for me still. The Hawk has even perched right beside the fire shrimps a few times and nothing has happened. And none of the other fish really pay much attention to him so he's acclimating really well.

 

Trust me, that hawk is going to grow on you...bigtime

Wont be long until it follows you when you are near the tank - at the very least it will always be interested in what you are up to.

I love my Hawk. A ton of personality

 

The funniest thing my hawk does is when I come up to the tank he scatters like he's seen Godzilla. But anytime i have my hand in there or am arranging anything at all he's always snooping around and coming over to my hand to see what I'm doing. He's like a foreman surveying the work. Can't wait for him to get bigger, he's def a character.