cleaner shrimp with my Volitan

Ulmo21 · #1 01/04/2005, 08:03 PM

Hello all! I have introduced a copperband butterfly to my tank. His tank mates are a 9" volitan lion and other assorted fish. my problem is the copperbank is starting to get ick! yikes! I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with cleaners getting along with lion fish. He is really lazy and doesnt mind the chromis' I've had for 6 months. Any replies would help a lot! Thanks

JDM130 · #2 01/04/2005, 09:15 PM

It will be food before it even hits the bottom. Trust me on this one, I used to feed my old Lion crayfish on occasion and he would scarf them right up. Remove the CB and treat in a seperate tank if you have to. The CS would be an expensive meal.

evad1 · #3 01/04/2005, 11:10 PM

i have a large lion about and 1 cleaner shrimp the shrimps hides from the lion keep the lion well fed and it might work im the only person i know that can keep them together they have been together over a year now good luck

Ulmo21 · #4 01/05/2005, 05:39 PM

evad1:
I have quite a bit of live rock and places to hide so I think I might gamble with it. Did your lion actively chase the CS at all? Or did he just leave him alone? Thanks

Chandler044 · #5 01/05/2005, 06:05 PM

Or you could take our advise. I mean, the lion sure will appreciate the fact that yer feeding it such a nice meal, but it will find it eventually. Some people get lucky with em, but lions were like "made" to eat shrimp and fish like... Its not a good suggestion. A good suggestion would be to treat it somehwere else, cuz a cleaner shrimp wont even rid it of ich, thats a little irassional to think it will get rid of it for u. They can help you like prevent the ich in small doses, but it wont cure it for u

Ulmo21 · #6 01/05/2005, 07:03 PM

thanks chandler044, i agree ive been reading and the shrimp wont clear up my problems. darn. thanks for the advice everyone. looks like i'll be saving the 20 bucks for something else (that wont get eaten).

Absint Reefer · #7 01/05/2005, 08:42 PM

won't coral banded shrimp clean to and they are a little bigger so they might not fit in the lion's mouth

Reefdrumz · #8 01/05/2005, 09:35 PM

I had a cleaner shrimp with a volitans lion for about 6 months. Then my lion suddenly died. What a shame.. I loved that fish.
There was never a problem. But the cleaner was in there before the lion was, so I dont know if that helped

Woo Hoo a hundred posts! Finally!!

Mscott203 · #9 02/06/2005, 01:29 AM

Contrary to popular belief it can be done. I had 10 month old 5 inch volitan and introduced 1 inch cleaner. lion tried but after a while gave it up ( he was full of frozen krill at a time) Shrimp hid for few days, but now they are best friends. lion makes no attempts, and yesterday I saw cleaner clean his Mouth! Good luck, it is really rewarding to see if it works

jbrown11352 · #10 02/09/2005, 12:57 AM

I also have a lion and cs and they are fine so far. I just got them both tonight and within one hour the lion allowed the cs to climb on him and clean.