LFS gonna give me a Volitan Lionfish

[bob`_your_dog]

My LFS has challanged me, the guy said if i manage to get my water conditions right he'll give me on of his baby loin's that i have been admiring for the past month. I must admit i am not the type of person to let down a challange.

Basically every time i got for a water test and to admire and ask the price of the lions, he tells me my waters not good enought yet, or mature enough yet. My tanks been running for just over 2 months now and is starting to settle, so he said he if i can get my water within range he'll give me one. I've been having problems keeping my salinity and PH stable , i think the addition of my soon to be RO top off should help. Also my nitrite has been slowly dropping from the cycle so i'm hoping it'll be gone when i go for the big "test"

But now i'm quite worried about me cleaner crew, and sebae clown. He said he'll hapily take the lion off my hands when he starts to get big. He's about 5cm's long at the moment from head to tail, how long till he starts to pose a serious threat?

 

[Fishy411]

Till hes almost twice the size of the Clown. Yur Inverts should be fine unless U have shrimp.

 

[bob`_your_dog]

Well i got 2 cleaners at the moment, they're about twice his size at the now or will he still make a snack of him?

 

[Navarre]

As soon as the head of the clown can fit into the mouth.. thats when its a danger... liofish will take out a fish of equal size ir even slightly larger with ease. )

You say you have 2 cleaners? do you mean 2 crabs and snails? if so then your cleanup crew is whoafully inadequate sorry You need a minimum of 1 cleanup crew per gallon of water.

 

[bob`_your_dog]

sorry, i meant 2 cleaner shrimps. I've got tons of snails and a few small stars. But will he attack my small little hermits aswell?

 

[stellablu]

I think you might lose the cleaner shrimp...but if you're set on the lionfish then you can send the shrimp my way!

 

[Opcn]

I'll bet you could buy 1000 shrimp by the time you payed the cusoms house brokerage and veteranary fees on those two., the shrimp will be goners in no time, and so will the clown unless hes protected.

Sorry

 

[stellablu]

Erm...a grave, yet good point. Awww.

 

[bob`_your_dog]

Well the clowns i dont really care about, i was planning on taking them back anyway, but i dunno if i could bear to see mario and louigi (my shrimps) take on the a lion. HHMM i'm gonna have to think long and hard about this

 

[bob`_your_dog]

well i took my water to the shop and he was very impressed. He assured me that the lion will pose no threat to me shrimps for a good while. So i took the smallest one he had. It's really small and really cute. My shrimp are actually bullying him. But he's looking great.

 

[blout]

Whos not looking good

 

[bob`_your_dog]

They're all looking good I went down to me LFS shop again yetserday and he gave me a relativly small baby mollie to feed my new beast. I know feeding them freshwater fish isn't the greatest but hey, i'll go catch a couple little fish down at the reef next week and let him eat at his leasure. But it was great to watch he slowly followed the mollie and then ponced a soon as the mollie saw him, he's a lot faster than you would think (some might think thats a little sick - but it's the law of the jungle so )

Anyway he's doing great just scared to death of my cleaner shrimp cause they're allways trying to clean him every time he swims past their post, i geus he looks like he needs a good clean to them.

 

[blout]

i know what you mean about speed ive wached LFS feed there monster volitan with a 6 inch goldfish, he had to be destracted to the other end of the fish tank so the goldfish had a little chance to run then the lion spotted him and went for the kill and in one go he swollowed this fish with just the tail sticking out the back it was awesum to watch and so fast

 

[Opcn]

Mollies are brackish fish, sailfins are more comfortable in full satl water than in full fresh, no problems there, goldfish however will cause a thiamen deficiency because of the high levels of antithiaminase in there bodys.

 

[Fishy411]

Ghost Shrimp are good. Also squid ( frozenl and silversides