Corals and scorpion fish

[Mr.Tan]

Ever since I started my tank, i have always been interested in keeping a scorpion fish of some sort (leaf or sailfin preferred since they tend to perch more then burry themselves from what i have been reading) However I have always been questioning being able to keep one with corals. Is it even possible? I mean, I only plan to keep zoas, mushrooms and other polyps/soft corals (none of which i have yet, still deciding on what to do). Do these fish really not do well with them? I understand that they like to perch a lot and sit around, which kind of remind me of how my starry blenny (RIP) used to act. So before I start buying corals and even get the fish, i was wondering if it is possible to keep the two things together?


I also have a rather large Coral Beauty in my tank, who has to be the biggest one I have seen (hes a good 3" long and not fully grown, they get to 4" max). The sailfin and leaf i noticed gets about the same size, would these two be a problem in the same tank?

I am not totally set on buying one, and understand the risks and care that is involved with keeping one... I have been doing a lot of reading, however I just wanted opinions from all of you on it.

Its a 29g tank with a 20g sump..i understand that leaf/sailfins require a 30g minimum...so i figured i would be fine with a 29g since i don't plan to have many fish at all in it.

 

[DoubleM 10]

Ever since I started my tank, i have always been interested in keeping a scorpion fish of some sort (leaf or sailfin preferred since they tend to perch more then burry themselves from what i have been reading) However I have always been questioning being able to keep one with corals. Is it even possible? I mean, I only plan to keep zoas, mushrooms and other polyps/soft corals (none of which i have yet, still deciding on what to do). Do these fish really not do well with them? I understand that they like to perch a lot and sit around, which kind of remind me of how my starry blenny (RIP) used to act. So before I start buying corals and even get the fish, i was wondering if it is possible to keep the two things together?


I also have a rather large Coral Beauty in my tank, who has to be the biggest one I have seen (hes a good 3" long and not fully grown, they get to 4" max). The sailfin and leaf i noticed gets about the same size, would these two be a problem in the same tank?

I am not totally set on buying one, and understand the risks and care that is involved with keeping one... I have been doing a lot of reading, however I just wanted opinions from all of you on it.

Its a 29g tank with a 20g sump..i understand that leaf/sailfins require a 30g minimum...so i figured i would be fine with a 29g since i don't plan to have many fish at all in it.

Yes they can go together. They will just not allow you to have ornamental inverts like shrimp.

They might irritate the vitals by perching on them. Other than that no problem. I have xeinas and frogspwan and a torch and all are great. My gf even got a feather duster Thats ok. The fish that are in that tank are a fu man chu. And a cockatoo waspfish ( sailfin scorpion).

Not the coral beauty might bully them. Imo scorps are not really to agressive. They do not swim well at all so the coral beauty that is graceful in the water might intimidate them. Also if the sailfin looks like algea then the coral beauty might harass the scorpion cause it thinks it food not because they are fighting

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[rayn]

I wouldn't think the leaf would eat the coral beauty, but you never know. Sometimes their mouth and eyes are bigger then their stomachs. As for corals, your good to go from what I have been told. I'm currently in the process of setting a leaf fish tank up and plan to have corals in there as well. Also thinking I might add some macro algea to the tank, might be a consideration as well.

Know up front that the leaf fish are hard to ween to frozen and you may have to forever feed live ghost shrimp or guppies to it. They are(from my minimul experience) easily trained to net feeding though. Mine started climbing up to the net on the third or fourth feeding.

 

[namxas]

As mentioned, your two biggest issues will be:

1. The CB may pick on the scorp, either due to its normal "browsing" on the rockwork or the angel just being a punk, but I'd suspect the former may be the most likely scenario. Scorpaeniformes are about as docile as any family of fish gets, and are prime targets for aggressive species. Waspfish are very close to this fish in terms of general habits, but are easier to wean and are a bit tuffer than leaf fish, but have the same general shape, size, and good manners, so you may consider a red-fin (Paracentropogon rubripinnis) or a cockatoo (Ablabys taenianotus).

2. Feeding the leaf scorp (they can be tuff/impossible to wean). This means you need to be prepared to feed the leaf fish live ghosties and guppies (no goldfish/rosyreds!) for the life of the fish. Fortunately, leaf fish train easily to feed from a small net, which makes life a bit easier.

I do recommend reading the following articles as part of your research:

There's a decent little section covering leaf scorps in this one:

It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got That Sting...Scorpionfish in the Home Aquarium

This article covers different feeding/weaning techniques:

Tools of the Trade: Equipment & Techniques to Convert your Fish onto Frozen.

HTH

 

[Mr.Tan]

lots of great info from all of you which is much appreciated!! It sounds like it would be better then i thought it would, however i did forget (which i dont know how i did) that I have 2 blue/green chromis in my tank, that are the OG fish i started with, and i have a strong feeling the scorp might make quick lunch of them when given the opportunity...

Feeding the scorp. shouldn't be a problem, as I have learned over time that I need a great deal of patience with this hobby. If i want to make things work, i need to devote some time to it which I am more then willing to do for something as cool as these fish are. I do have a good amount of rock work that I feel might be a problem for the shrimp/live food will hide in if not eaten right away and could potentially die and then cause problems if I can not get them out if nto eaten, which leads to me to my next part decision below..

What I am leaning more towards now is starting a seperate tank for one, rather then worry about him eating my chromis or having my CB picking on him.. I also have a coral banded shrimp that is the life of my tank and has grown quite a bit in the time I have had him, so I don't want to have him be eaten or injured...

If i want to just get like one fish, whether its a leaf scorpion or a Waspfish (which I also like a lot) what is the appropriate tank size for this fish? I don't think I would have more then one in the tank, however if possible I might consider it..

:beer:

 

[namxas]

For a single specimen, you could go as small as a 10 gal as long as you keep up on the water quality. A trio could work in a 20 (a 20L would be awesome) or 29 gal.

 

[Mr.Tan]

I certainly would do atleast a 20g (long since you seem to and so does that website that it is better having the length rather then the height). I read both of those articles you posted entirely, and i saw they said a 10g would be fine for a single, but to be completely honest (even though they don't really "swim" around a whole lot I would have to go with atleast the 20 just because a 10 seems cramped to me for that fish.. Thanks for the advice, Im for sure going to start the build of a tank for one as soon as I get my current DT to where i want it.

:beer: