Experience with blue spiny lobsters

H

Hens4Fish

Active member
Ok,
So I have a blue spiny lobster in my tank, 180 FOWLR. There are some smaller fish in there, but also some 3-4" angels I dont want eaten. Half of what I read says they are not going to go after healthy fish, others say it will kill everything in their paths. So I am looking for some advice from people who have had this lobster and what experience they had. Some have also said once it gets bigger it become predatory, but is that when it gets to be 14"? If anyone has HAD one of these and can tell me what size the lobster was if and when it started becoming aggressive toward fish. The only other thing I have is tube anemones in the tank and fish. Any experiences would be helpful, please let me know.
Thanks
 
I had one when my tank was a reef tank, actually an awesome part of the tank i thought, he never went after fish, only thing he liked was eating snails and hermits, he would grab a hermit crab and if he couldnt get it out of its shell to eat it he would get mad and start shaking it and eventually get wore out with it and toss it, he loved chowing on moon snails, not sure why but he had a thing for them, mine was fairly large, body was about 5 1/2 inches and antenna were about an extra 10 inches, but in regard to your post, no he never went after a fish
 
Hey Nate,
Thanks for the reply. Thats just what I was looking for as advice. And I dont think a fish would go after this guy, hes pretty big. Anyone else, I would love to hear. Its hard to know if the people who say that lobsters eat fish are actually eating healthy fish, or if they had sick or dying fish that the lobster ate. So I like to hear about the experiences.
Thanks
 
I had one about 10 years ago in a 90g with a couple fuzzy dwarf lions. They were all about the same size at first, but the lobster molted often, and grew quickly. When he got to about 5", one of my lions went missing (the lions were both around 3-4" TL). I thought something may have been wrong when she didn't come out for food, but it hadn't been long enough to warrant taking 250 lbs of LR apart to look for her. About a week later, I caught the lobster eating my other lion. While I didn't actually see it catch either of them, I'm pretty sure he managed to grab them when they were perched on the rock, as both lions were previously very healthy.

Of course the types of fish that you have are a lot more active, so you may not have any issues, but I wanted to share my experience.

They are very cool animals though, and if I ever decide to try keeping them again, I'll likely do so in a species tank :)

Hope everything works out with them, and your other fish!

-Ben
 
Hi Ben,
Thanks for the info on your experience. Did you notice if your fish were sick at all? Some people have said if the fish is healthy it should not be able to be caught, but this guy crawls around my tank quite a bit. I would be livid if I came down and he had my prized queen or french in its jaws. I am thinking I will get rid of it, so there is no risk, not worth it to me. Its probably about 4" right now.
 
One thing to consider is even active fish sleep, and a sleeping fish is like ringing a dinner bell to an opportunistic predator.
 
Yeah, but I have watched these fish sleeping, and they dont lay down on a rock and fall asleep, they still are moving a bit. My question is really at what size and age will it start going after healthy fish? It seems like some do and some dont go after fish. My brother has had one in his tank for months now and it has not gone after anything. It is a bit smaller than mine, but I wonder if you keep it fed if it will not bother fish. Thanks for the comments.
 
These lobsters are predators that hunt at night. It's just a matter of time until it starts killing and eating your fish.
 
Hi Monkey fish,
Thanks for the reply, did you have one that did this? The more I research, the more I find that people didnt have a problem as long as they were fed. It seems like they were predatory if left hungry. Please only give advice if you have had experience or a background that you have seen this behavior so I can get a good feel for what other owners have had happen.
Thanks.
 
Yeah, both of my lions were very healthy and would beg for food every time I would walk near their tank. Looking back, I should have realized that something wasn't right when the female didn't come out to beg, and disassembled the rock work right away to get the other one (or the lobster) out. I kept them together with the lobster for a good 7-8 months before anything happened, and never witnessed the lobster hunting or attempting to capture them, and then both were killed/eaten within the span of a week. I had the lions since they were not much bigger than a quarter, so it was a real bummer to lose them.
 
Hi Boat,
Thanks for the reply. I am getting more and more worried about him, since I would be really mad if it killed and ate my prized fish. I think I am going to try to get him out of there somehow before he becomes a problem. Thanks for the advice.
 
I had one, grew very quickly.. It was ok as long as it was fed but if not pretty much anything it could get ahold of was dinner it made it's way through my clean up crew, but I never noticed it going for fish, Strangely my puffers and trigger never paid it any mind
 
I had two of these long term.
The first one I got was pretty cool, it actually came out even in the day, never any real issues other than they tend to really knock stuff over, and can tear up your tank a bit.
It was pretty cool to drop a piece of anchovie and watch him do the happy dance around the tank till he found it.
Also was cool they shed that shell in one piece, we would dry them and clear coat them, had a cool visible collection of shells showing growth and color changes.
That one died after eating a large piece of nori, guessing it had issues digesting it.
So i replaced it w/ another and that one was a complete a hole from day one.
It visibly chased after fish if they came even close.
Glad I had the first one, but I wouldn't have another, not if you are really attached to your fish.
I read all the time people are usually dissapointed as they hide often.
 
Hi Dav,
Did he ever catch any of the fish? My brothers lobster comes out all the time, and is cool. I am hoping mine wants to come out. Since its a 180 it has lots of room, and the fish dont bother him. Thanks for the reply.
 
The first one never harmed anything, the second bugger tried for every fish that came close. Fortunately I think they were already made aware from the first less problematic lobby, but it was just too close for my liking.
Occasionally I would see it scrape a fish w/ it's feelers in an attempt to reach for them, and that was a big bozo no no, and that earned him freedom from my tank.
In the same setup, the first was out often, and it only took a split second to bring him out by dropping a piece of chovie in there, it was kind of a cool show to my neighbors.
The second one hid more.
 
Not sure max size, seems I recall seeing blue Australian lobbys that were fairly good size, like close to the size of lobby's we eat, but I'm not exactly certain it was the same species as what we are getting for our tanks, I THINK it is, but not absolutely certain.
Mine got to be about 6" when I got rid of them, both about the size of a small cleaner shrimp at purchase.
They seem to grow fairly fast.
 
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