Lionfish only tank?

[dutt7]

Putting together a fowlr tank for the wife.
180g tank, 65g sump, skimmer, fx5, 2 ac500's and probably 100+ lbs of live rock.

She really wants a v. Lion fish and I know they aren't the best with many other fish. She doesn't care for eels and things of that sort.

We went to lfs the other day and they had 5-6 pretty large lions in a 125g. They were approx, 7-9" each, beautiful fish.

She asked if it was possible to have multiple lions only in a tank.
I've been researching a lot and haven't come across much lion fish only tanks.

Hence the reason for this post.

With the above tank specs, would I be able to pull of multiple decent size lionss in the 180g? Say maybe even three of them?

 

[DoubleM 10]

well i would think that yes its possible if you were able to sex them somhow and get
1 male and 1-2 females.

from what i know it would be very difficult or impossible to sex V. lionfish. im sure some expers would chime in on this.

 

[namxas]

P. volitans tolerates conspecifics pretty well. I've seen and keep multiple lion tanks (altho not lion only), and if done properly, they make really nice displays. You could keep different color morphs of volitans (a trio), maybe add a larger medium-bodied lion.

We have a 7' x 2' x 2' medium-bodied lion/scorp/stingfish setup in the works ourselves.

 

[Wolverine]

Agree with Greg, they'll usually do fine together. Just make sure that there aren't huge size differences. If there are, the small one may become a snack for the large one.

 

[MrTuskfish]

I've had a 240 Volitan tank for quite a while. i started wit 5 beautiful black Volitans , now have 3. When they got too big, the tank just didn't look natural; so I found new homes for two of them. It became impossible to get do any work in the tank with 5 large lions, too. When small, they tended to hang around with each other, but started just ignoring each other as they grew. I have a harlequin Tusk and 3 Purple tangs with them now. Several fish have moved in and out of this tank with never a problem.

 

[dutt7]

I was thinking 3 max and maybe another misc fish or two. Really appreciate the comments!

 

[LisaD]

I've seen several very nice lion/scorp tanks. +1 on minimizing the size differential though.

 

[MrTuskfish]

I was thinking 3 max and maybe another misc fish or two. Really appreciate the comments!

Sure. I'd introduce all 3 at the same time and about the same size. Volitans grow incredibly fast, so give a lot of thought to tankmates. they can go from "small" to huge in no time. I've under-estimated the maw capacity of a lion more than once.

 

[D5HP]

Any pictures of these lionfish tanks? I always thought it would be cool to have 3 huge ones in a tank and maybe one other species in there...not sure what would look best though.

-D

 

[dutt7]

That would be cool if someone has some pics of a few lions in a large tank.