Fu Manchu in Biocube?

[ceruleanseaslug]

The Fu Manchu lionfish is pretty much my dream fish and I recently saw one for sale for the first time at my lfs and pretty much fell in love. I have a Coralife Biocube 29 that I've had for about three months stocked only with four reef hermits, four trochus snails, 3 nassarius snails, a small zoa colony, a candy cane coral, and a 1.5 in. ocellaris clownfish. I'm worried about the fu manchu eating the clown, but it does tend to be always moving and it sleeps in the top corner of the tank by the overflow which might prevent it from being eaten? It's usually active at night though. Hopefully if I kept the fu manchu well fed on ghost shrimp (I can only find the freshwater ones is that okay? I would gut load them and everything.) it will ignore the clown for the most part and I asked the owner of my lfs if he could get me a smaller one that would be less likely to eat the clown. I have about 20 pounds of reef saver rock in my tank and there's one large cave but I'm worried that's not enough hiding space for the lion. Should I get another piece of rock to help it feel more secure? Also could I add a flame hawk with them or would that be overstocking the tank? The nitrates tend to stay from 5-10 but I'm trying to get it lower.

 

[jmm]

Lion fish are relentless hunters.

 

[ceruleanseaslug]

So you think that there is no chance whatsoever of it being able to live with a clown, regardless of me ordering a very small specimen?

 

[jmm]

Usually a clown is quick enough and smart enough to stay out of the way for a while. But it is highly stressful for them and eventually the lion fish will win.

The size you buy a fish is not the size it stays. Some fish grow slowly and some quickly. But they all grow if they're healthy.

I would also worry about the flame hawk.

 

[sde1500]

if you just have to have it, why not just bring the clown in to your LFS and get the lionfish?

 

[ceruleanseaslug]

The clown was my first saltwater fish and I'd hate to give it away and the main thing is that I just can't decide which one to keep

 

[ceruleanseaslug]

I want the lion really bad but I'm also really emotionally attached to my clownfish

 

[arashsheikhpoor]

The deal is that if it can fit in the lion's mouth, then there is a good chance it could be eaten. That's not to say that it will though.
I had a dwarf lion in my 75 gallon reef and basically all pre-existing fish and inverts were fine. The newer additions were a different story.

At one point I added a blood shrimp that was almost twice the size of my cleaner shrimp and it was eaten within a day. The lion never touched my cleaner.

Also had a pair of clowns that were both smaller than the lion that were never touched by the lionfish "although the clowns were pretty aggressive". Whereas a few gobys went missing after a few days.

 

[ceruleanseaslug]

Yeah I thought that since the clown was already in there it might have a better chance

 

[fearyaks]

Not an expert but do Fus eat like Fuzzies? I was under the impression that it was more off an 'above stalker' and preyed upon food beneath it more than prey in front of it? I assumed this based upon its strange swimming patterns... Could be totally wrong though. Bigger issue might be that a 29 is just too small for one long twrm.

 

[ceruleanseaslug]

They only get 4 in. long, everything I've read says it isn't an issue

 

[ceruleanseaslug]

And with the thing about feeding habits, they tend to swim directly up to their prey and waggle their dorsal fin to hypnotize them so I don't think they're really an above predator

 

[jmm]

I know you're justifying it and weighing the "yeses" and "noes," but it is a risk.

 

[ceruleanseaslug]

Yeah I know, I should probably just steer clear of the fu manchu for now