SELECTION
Did you mail order this fish and would you recommend mail order this fish? Are there captive-raised/bred specimen available and where? No and no. I'm not sure about the third part but I'm sure there are.
Any tips on how you picked a healthy specimen of this species from LFS? What do you think is the ideal size to get? I grabbed the first one I saw. Although mine is very healthy and looks wonderful in my aquarium, I saw one a few weeks later that I LOVED. The colors were amazing. My suggestion: BE PATIENT!
Are there any noticeable differences in body shape, pattern or color among the same species or between juvenile and adult of this species? Not Sure
Is there a way to tell the sex of this fish? Not that I'm aware of at this time
ACCLIMATION AND INTRODUCTION
Any special tips about the acclimation and introduction of this fish? This has been an easy fish for me to introduce. I drip-acclimated him for about 40 minutes before introducing him to my new 75 gallon aquarium.
Any special needs for this fish or special considerations for young specimen? Try to get him to eat krill or other shrimp. He is a predator and he wants to eat other fish. He will if you let him so don't put anything in the tank that will fit in his mouth... ever.
Should this fish be the first or the last to introduce to a tank? I think it would work either way but I've only experienced introducing him first. He was very territorial. I actually had to capture him so he would quit stalking the other fish as I introduced them. After that, he sulked for a couple of weeks, hiding behind rocks even at night time and completely avoiding the other fish, until I gave him a live meal. He then started acting normal like in the beginning.
COMPATIBILITY
What tankmates do you have with this fish?Is it a reef or FO tank? It's beginning to be a reef tank. I currently have a snowflake eel, coral beauty angel, foxface lo, Hawiian tang, blue tang, and a scopas tang.
Have you had more than one of this species in the same tank? If so, is there a certain male/female ratio or group number worked for you (to have a harem or pecking order)? Do they school?
Have you had other species of the same genus/family in the same tank? No but I did see a tank with at least 15 lionfish. They did not school during the time I saw them, they were all very to themselves.
What’s the stocking order (considering the above factors) that worked for you? I actually had a dragon goby already established in the aquarium that was eaten three days after I added the lionfish. After that, I added the Coral Beauty. A few weeks later I added all of the other fish listed except the scopas tang which I added last. The scopas gets a long fine with the other tangs despite being added in much later. I did however change the live rock around somewhat when adding the scopas as well as feeding the lionfish a live feeder.
Did this fish hurt/eat any of other fish (or vice versa)? The lion has only eaten the goby at this point.
Did this fish hurt/eat Cnidaria (corals, mushrooms or anemones)? Not yet. My lion is actually very slow moving unless he is stalking another fish. Even then he only lunges when he is trying to eat. Normally that is out in the open part of my aquarium and not close to the corals. He sometimes hides beside my Fungia and seems to love it.
Did this fish hurt/eat ornamental crustaceans (shrimps, hermits, crabs)? I have only bought crabs with a shell. I think he would eat anything without a shell but I have not attempted to cross that bridge yet. He did go after a hermit one day when the tank was still young, but the hermit tucked away and was able to get out of harms way. I haven't seen the lionfish try since.
FEEDING
How did you get this fish to eat at first? I have tried many things but I have only been able to get him to eat live food at this point. I'm going to try live shrimp next and then try krill again.
If this fish only accepted live food, how did you wean it over to prepared food? I haven't been able to yet.
What’s the diet? Unfortunately, only live freshwater feeder fish at this point but it's still a fairly new aquarium.
How much and how often do you feed? 1 sm-med fish every 2 weeks.
How does this fish eat?(grazers, active or sedentary predators, sand sifters, etc) Predator. He will follow his prey and normally attacks once the fish turns toward him.
GROWTH RATE AND LIFE SPAN
What is the initial size of your fish and maximum size it reached? I would say he's 3-4inchs and he's grown little to none in the 2.5 months I've had him.
How fast did it grow (how much growth over a given period of time)?
What size tank did this fish live in? (or how soon did this fish outgrow what size tank)? I have him in a 75 gallon. What do you think is the minimum tank size required for an adult specimen of this fish? I'm not sure, I think a 75 gallon is plenty of room. They don't move around much, I think they would be happy with whatever as long as they are given a chance to hunt and hide.
If this fish went through body pattern change from juvenile to adult, was the change complete? How long did it take? N/A
How long have you kept this fish? If you no longer have this fish, what was the cause? 2.5 months and counting
What is the longest lifespan and the maximum size of this fish in home aquarium and/or in the wild reported? From what I've seen from this survey 20 years
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DISEASE AND TREATMENT
What disease has this fish had? How did you treat it, for how long? What's the effect of the treatment? None at this point
BEHAVIOR
Does this fish change body color under any circumstances? It seems to but it could be different shades brought out around different corals. I have recently added a large pink Colt to my aquarium and the lion seems to have much more of a red tint than he had before.
How active is this fish? Is this fish shy? Very active in the night. Kinda hides/remains stationary during the day. He is NOT shy. He is more than curious whether it be your face at the tank or your hand in the tank, he wants to see what's going on.... not always a good thing
)
How territorial or aggressive is this fish? How does this fish interact with tankmates? He is very calm with his tank mates. He does like to show his aggressiveness off toward his live meals in front of the other fish but he has very rarely chased or lunged after another fish in the tank. He and the Foxface Lo seem to get along the best but he doesn't chase the other fish off or the eel off when they get close... or in the eels case, when he wraps himself around him.
Did this fish ever jump out of the tank? No
How does this fish sleep? normally upsidedown or sideways at the top of the tank, under a piece of liverock. I built a nice bridge out of the rock so he is normally under the liverock now.
Does this fish allow cleaners to clean? If so which cleaner and how often? I have not seen that happen.
How does this fish interact with human? He is not afraid of humans by any means but he is also not dominate towards me. He lets me reach in and do whatever I need to and he normally just moves to another spot in the aquarium. Normally he will come over to see what I'm doing if I'm moving something but will go right back to where he was.
Any other interesting observation of this fish? He's very curious when I add new items. He has to be the first to know. He always goes up to a new bag that is tossed into the aquarium. If it's a feeder fish he will sit and wait, sometimes lunging at the fish while still in the bag. If it's a new addition that won't fit in his mouth, he'll go look at it and then go back to whatever he was doing.
REPRODUCTION
If you have a mated pair, how did you get them to pair up? N/A
Any information of spawning in captivity? None
SUMMARY
Your overall assessment of this species -
How sensitive is this fish to poor water quality on a scale of 1-5? 1-3
1 - very tolerant, may survive a cycle in a new tank
2 - quite tolerant, may survive accidental ammonia or nitrite spike
3 - not terribly sensitive to reasonable pH, salinity or temperature changes
4 - sensitive to any significant water chemistry changes, and may show stress during such changes
5 - very sensitive to water quality, may easily get stressed and get sick with any change in water chemistry
Would you recommend this fish to beginners? Yes! I'm a beginner
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Any other recommendations/comments? I love my Lion!
If you have any picture(s) of this fish you took, please post it here and share with us!
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/...-08cropped.jpg
Thanks, good luck with the survey! I look forward to seeing the results!