lionfish tankmates?

[bues0022]

I'm almost done planning for what to put in my tank, and last night I flipped my plans around....again. I have a 30ga. cube plumbed into a 58ga. side-by-side. The 58 is getting a TBS package, the 30 I decided is going to get a dwarf lionfish, and mostly mushrooms for corals (low-light). I've done some reading on lions, but still have some questions.

Can a lionfish co-exist with a mantis? who would kill who?

If a mantis will work, would a shallow sand bed also be ok?

What are other critters or tank mates for the 30cube that could live with the lion?

I can't find anywhere that lions eat pods, so should I re-do my plumbing a little, so the drain of the 30 goes into the return from the sump? This way some of the pods can make it into the 58ga. (planning on having a mandarin)

Any other suggestions for keeping a lionfish, and making this a cool-looking tank?

 

[kydsexy]

i can tell you that any fish small enough to fit into a 30 can probably be food for a lion. you can add other scorpionfish or rockfish into the tank but don't over crowd. id say 2 dwarfs would be more than enough

 

[Slphappy]

I couldn't tell ya' if a lionfish could be kept with a mantis shrimp, but I'm guessing it's probably not the best idea. But it might possibly work as long as the mantis is not a fish hunter and the lion is well fed... Lionfish do not eat pods BTW...

Here's a great article on Lionfish. http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-11/fm/feature/index.php
Definetely worth reading...

Good luck...

 

[TylerMoore]

Lionfish versus Mantis Shrimp would be quite the battle. hah.. If life was like pokemon, we would just go around and battle animals like that for competition. Buuuut, since its not, so I wouldn't put the two together.

But on that note, I had a volitans lion in my 75 with my tomato clown for a while with no problem. He was a baby though. I did see my lion fish eat pods from time to time though, when I wouldn't feed him for a day or so. I decided to give the lion up, because I was feeding him mysis shrimp like crazy, and I also wanted to start adding more smaller fish to my tank. Lions kind of limit you

 

[bues0022]

that was a pretty good read! I think I'm not going to play with fire with the mantis, so I guess I"ll go shallow sand bed. Possibly a jewel damsel for a tank-mate?