Clowns & Lions - Can They Co-exist?

ReachTheSky

ReachTheSky

Member
My father and I have decided to build a reef aquarium together. One thing we are having a bit of a tough time agreeing on is the Lionfish. My father really wants to keep a Lion in the tank - I don't. Now don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful fish and I think it will make an astounding set piece in our 90 gallon tank but the predatory nature of the fish is putting a bad taste in my mouth. It imposes a lot of limitations as to the other inhabitants I could have.

Clowns in particular. I love Clowns and would love to have one but every single reference I go to says they're incompatible with Lions. I've also read that the general rule of thumb with Lions is pretty straightforward - "If it doesn't fit in their mouth, they can coexist." There are larger species of Clowns if I'm not mistaken - such as the Maroon, Clarkii and Cinnamon Clowns - all of which can grow to 4 to 6 inches. There's no way the Lion would be able to swallow that. What do you guys think? Has anyone here kept the two of them together peacefully?

Another thing - this may be a bit of a long shot. What about shrimps? Yeah, yeah, I know the Lions gobble them up. What are the odds of keeping one successfully? Any types of shrimp that Lions don't eat? Any special methods of keeping a shrimp in the display safely?
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

Administrator
RS STAFF
As noted "If it fits in the Lion's mouth it's FOOD"! Their mouths are MUCH bigger than they appear (reminds me of some people I know. . . ). They WILL eat shrimp and other inverts.

One of the biggest down-sides to a Lionfish is they are HEAVY on the Bio-load of the tank. They are messy eaters and produce a lot of waste at one time.

If the clown(s) were big enough and or the lion small enough it might not be a problem of eating them. Also remember the lionfish is painfully venomous so you'll ALWAYS want to keep that in mind and keep him "partitioned off" if your hands are near the water.
 
reeferman

reeferman

Well-Known Member
+1^.i have a pair of clowns and a fuzzy dwarf lionfish together incident free[fingers crossed].like BigAl said,theyre mouths are a lot bigger than they look,mine "yawns"sometimes and his mouth is huge!luckily my fuzzy dwarf is a pellet eater.
 
ReachTheSky

ReachTheSky

Member
Thanks guys. Sound advice.

This ain't a dwarf by the way. I'm talking about the monster Volitan Lionfish here. If it can seriously swallow a 6" fish, I would be amazed.
 
GrendelPrime

GrendelPrime

Well-Known Member
was the 4 duplicate posts to get ur post count up?..lol if u go with a dwarf lion that will open ur selection up a bit more
 
ReachTheSky

ReachTheSky

Member
Oh no no, not by any means. My browser blanked out and gave an error a few times when I tried submitting that post. I had no idea that it actually DID submit the post.

On the topic of the dwarfs though, it is an interesting thought that we'll look into. Really, the main reason for wanting a Volitan was for the big glorious fins but I'm afraid that the cons it brings into the setup I want might outweigh the pros.
 
reeferman

reeferman

Well-Known Member
fuzzy Dwarfs have beautiful fins,i love mine,the only fish i kept when i broke down my predator tank.
 
wonderloss

wonderloss

Member
Another thing to consider is that, despite their predatory nature, lionfish do not deal well with aggressive tankmates. I l believe some of the larger clowns can get territorial, so you may end up having a problem with clowns nipping at the lionfish.
 
reeferman

reeferman

Well-Known Member
my puffer ate half of one of my fuzzy dwarfs fins[regrown now].they will carpet surf too if they get spooked.
 
ReachTheSky

ReachTheSky

Member
wonderloss said:
Another thing to consider is that, despite their predatory nature, lionfish do not deal well with aggressive tankmates. I l believe some of the larger clowns can get territorial, so you may end up having a problem with clowns nipping at the lionfish.
Click to expand...
Great point. Really, the only "peaceful" Clown I'm able to find is the Ocellaris, and they're definitely small enough to be eaten by a Volitan. What about a Fu Manchu? They're pretty small and look pretty good.
 
ReachTheSky

ReachTheSky

Member
Last question, I swear: As far as Lions munching on invertebrates. Did you guys mean literally ALL invertebrates - crabs, lobsters, stars, urchins, snails, anemones, clams, etc. - or just a select few softies that move around the tank?
 
GrendelPrime

GrendelPrime

Well-Known Member
anything that skuttles slithers hops or creaps at some time or another "Might" become a snack especialy shrimp or crabs, and please ask as many question as u have
 
J

JulesVane

Member
One of the MANY stupid mistakes I've made thus far (and I've made a few!) is putting a Volitan Lionfish in my 90 gallon reef. This was an exceptionaly small Lion, so cute! First, it ate my Skunk Cleaner Shrimp, then it ate 2 beautiful Purple Firefish...swallowed them like sketti! Then, it was eye-ballin my male False Pecula! Now, mind you, I've got 200+ pounds of live rock for the Lion to hide in as soon as he sees the net comin' for him, impossible to net! This "cute" little Lion went 3 months without live food and the fish thrived. Would not just die! I finally had to get a tiny fishing hook with a feeder tuffy on it and fished him out...what a sight to see! I would strongly suggest NOT adding one to your tank....my experience.
 
ReachTheSky

ReachTheSky

Member
Wow, sorry to hear that.

I kind of saw this coming, that's why I'm doing a lot of extensive research on the nature of the fish before committing to buying one.
 
wonderloss

wonderloss

Member
I think if I were to get a lion, it would be the only inhabitant in its aquarium. I doubt I would even do any coral, just the fish and live rock.
 
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