Newbie wants to keep lion fish

Sam C

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I'm new to this but having diving with fish for a wile now and would really like to keep some lion fish at home

i have always been told that keeping marine fish was really difficult but was talking to a chap that runs a local store who said this was not the case and that you can now get a filter that sits at the bottom under different layers which means there's bearly any maintance required like there is with the traditional filter marine fish where you have to change the water etc

can anyone tell me some more about this and is it all that easy?

Thanks

Sam
 
Im not sure what this man is talking about but it sounds like an undergravel filter. If so then this is a very old type of filtration and not used very much anymore. I wouldnot say it is maintenance free however as these filters can clog up the sand and slow down their efficiency after a period of time.
By far the best filtration is liverock, its the "industry standard" filtration of today is you would like to give it a title :D Its maintenance free and looks great in your tank too!
As for keeping lionfish, well they are nice things to have but they give out alot of waste products so make sure you have plenty of liverock for them. Make sure you do some research because some lions grow very large and very fast too.
 
it sounded like a UGF at first to me too, but on re-reading, could he be talking about some sort of sump filtration - a refugium, or possibly one of the fancy "reef 500" etc. systems?

a refugium may certainly reduce the necessity for water changes.

having said that, these systems still require a fair bit of maintenance of one sort or another.
 
True, possible the many layers could represent a DSB, Mineral mud system or another form of natural filtration method. Whilst these are all excellant forms of filtration, liverock is still the bet main filter for a tank and its improved with other filters like these to support it. :)
 
to be honest Fraservet he was very vauge and wasnt to sure himself about what sort of system it was except that it was a pump under several different layers of substrate like pete, sand and rock etc

thanks for the info Navarre

im probly going to get one lion fish to start with and some other fish for company which i have read is alight as long as the other fish arnt conciderably smaller. i was thinking maybe clown fishx2, does anyone know whether this is a good idea or can recomend anyothers

i have the room for a tank that is (in dimentions) 700mm deep x 1300mm wide x 1000mm high
though iam not really restricted by height it would be in the corner against a wall in a room on the 1st floor

anyone know what the water capacity of this would be? i did try to work it out but the figure was very high

these are a maximum in dimentions, i would'nt mind something smaller if it would be easer to maintain and cheeper

Thanks

Sam
 
If my calculations are corect then you have a capacity of 910ltr/200 gallons roughly.

This is plenty for a lionfish but I would say that clownfish are definately out of hte question. You are going to want large fish that it wont see as food. Anything that will fit into the lions mouth will be considered food and in fact somethings that wont even fit are sometimes attacked and this usually causes the lions death as it cannot remove the fish from its mouth.

Tangs, Large angels rabbit fish wrasses (large) groupers. These are all good occupants for a lion. Dwarf lions allow for more variety of fish, be careful however, they still can swallow fish almost equal in size to them.
 
so what would i need to get started then?

and how much of this live rock would i need for an easy life?

i have already located a dealer in wales which isnt too far for me to travel to collect the lion fish
 
I get the same volume.
This is quite a big weight on a first floor floor!
make sure you check that it can be supported.

Unless you are having a custom built tank, I would imagine you will end up with a 4ftx2ftx2ft tank for that sort of space.
This is about 100g or just over 400 litres.

Lionfish do vary in size from very big to quite big - did you have any particular species in mind?

As Navarre says, lionfish will eat anything that can fit in their mouths - and they are all mouth!


So really, you are looking at a tank full of big fish - which may mean only 3 or 4 fish depending on what you go for, and what size tank you end up with.
And you need to stay away from aggressive fish and fin nippers.

Deep Sea World in Edinburgh used to have an excellent display tank (it may still be there, I haven't been for ages) with a big group of volitans lions and some panther groupers.
 
OK take a deep breath cos this is gonna hurt :crazy:

200 gallons of tank will require 100kg of liverock. :S

Now liverock is about £12-15 per kilo. now do the maths and this will tell you how much its gonna cost to fit a tank like this with liverock :-(
 
OK take a deep breath cos this is gonna hurt :crazy:

200 gallons of tank will require 100kg of liverock. :S

Now liverock is about £12-15 per kilo. now do the maths and this will tell you how much its gonna cost to fit a tank like this with liverock :-(


:blink: there has to be a cheeper way?

may be if i scale it down a bit. could do with finding out what sort of size tank others are using to keep them
 
these people do live imported fijian rock for £9 per kilo there the first i came across on google so will keep looking

http://www.reefkeeper.co.uk/acatalog/Live_rock.html

now if i got the 4 x 2 x 2 tank that Fraservet mentioned then that would be 100gallons and only 50 kilos of live rock?
£450 still a lot of cash though

Sam
 
Liverock is the best filter you can buy. Whilst undr gravel filters and mechanical filtration does work, they are by no means a match for liverock. ALl these other filters produce high amounts of nitrates and this means large and frequent water changes. Liverock eats nitrates so this means less frequent and smaller water changes. So ovre a longer term project liverock is by far cheaper and better. You also have to aquascape the tank with something so why not have liverock as it doesnt both.

OK so you dont have to purchase all the liverock in 1 go, maybe 20-40kg to start with a stock lightly, then purchase more each month until the tank is full. My tank is 220 gallons yet im only half full with liverock IMO.

if you are considering a full lionfish than i would not consider putting one in anything less than 100 gallons and this would be the only fish that would fit in it as these creatures grow over 2 ft in length.

A dwarf lion of course can be very different and much smaller tanks can be considered.


Also, as has been mentioned, a 200 gallon tank on a 1st floor is a considerable weight. I would ask that you research i nto whether your floor can withstand over 1.5 tons of water/rock in one spot.
 
There is always the option of getting base rock which is cheaper and seeding it with some liverock. You'll have to wait a little longer before stocking the tank but it would cut down costs a bit.
 
Also, as has been mentioned, a 200 gallon tank on a 1st floor is a considerable weight. I would ask that you research i nto whether your floor can withstand over 1.5 tons of water/rock in one spot.


yeah thats what i have been thinking about i may have to rethink this
 
this is true, as dragonscales has mentioned, Reefbones which is basically liverock left to dry out on the docks and die can be purchased for usually less than half the price. A good way of minding hte budget is to purchase as much liverock as you can afford then make up the rest with reefbones/ Place the reefboenes under the liverock and allow the liverock to see dthe system. It takes longer but its cheaper.
 

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