flame hawk and shrimp

M

Mappelbaum37

New member
I have had my hawk for about 7 months now. Awesome fish, but a while ago I had a cleaner shrimp in the tank and my nitrates in the tank were high and the shrimp looked like he had trouble molting and wasn't doing so well. I came home to find an antenna sticking out of the hawks mouth. This will remain a mystery forever whether or not the hawk picked up the remains of the dead shrimp or if the hawk killed it. But either way, I was planning on removing the hawk bec. I want to start adding shrimp.

I went to my LFS and the guy says to me "flame hawks are perfectly reef safe and there shouldn't be any problems with him and shrimp." Personally I think he's wrong but I'm stumped on what to do. Do i leave him in the tank and add a shrimp and see what happens, or do I remove the hawk to be completely safe?

I plan on getting a blood red fire shrimp, and a cleaner shrimp. Nothing more bec. I don't want to be on the look out for more then 2 shrimp moltings monthly. *Im lazy like that :) *

SO, what do I do here?

thanks for the help.
 
It is a well known fact that flame hawks eat shrimp. You can get lucky as Orochimaru did but there have been a fair amount of pictures on RC showing the remainders sticking out of their mouth.
 
I had a spotted hawk and while he was reef safe, he wasn't shrimp safe. I had a heck of a time getting him out.
 
i have a spotted hawk and a coral banded shrimp that get along fine... the CBS is pretty big though...
i dont think i would trust the hawk with anything without claws to protect themselves
 
Yeah, thats understandable. I would get a CBS but If I get that I read that it would harrass a cleaner shrimp or a blood red shrimp. I think it was liveaquaria but im not sure, that said if there's a coral banded shrimp in the tank, that should be the only shrimp. Im not sure though. I was looking for 2 or 3 shrimp. I guess worst comes to worst, I'll try putting a shrimp in the tank. If I see the hawk chasing/harrassing/trying to eat the shrimp, I'll take him out. Hopefully I wont have to take him out, but we'll see..

Thanks
 
a little off topic but what do you mean by

" I don't want to be on the look out for more then 2 shrimp moltings monthly. *Im lazy like that * " ?
 
It is a marginal call. Eventually the hawk will get larger. Mine have eaten a shrimp that is as big as they are. But, no longer. After much work with a fish trap, I removed my hawkfish. Not easy, because they are wary.
 
Whether he was responsible for the shrimp's demise or not, the flame hawk got a taste of the amaebi, so if he sees another one, it'll likely turn into another meal.
 
Good call kes_reef. I think I'm not even going to take any chances with this guy, because he's also just started perching on my yellow leather.

Picture1157.jpg


Picture1156.jpg


This was making the yellow leather close up, but ever since I started using this new red sea salt mix, it is fully open even when the hawk lands on it. Still, I think I will return the hawk. A kole tang will be replacing him bec. I saw this awesome kole at my LFS and apparently he will help out with my algae problem

useskaforevil: Shrimp molt their skin once a month. The more shrimp I have, the more moltings there will be every month to take out of the tank. When I had my cleaner shrimp a while back he molted and I woke up and thought I was going crazy bec. I saw the moltings of the shrimp that looked like a dead shrimp, and I saw the shrimp the moltings came from on a rock. I thought I was going crazy!

Thanks for the advice.
 
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