predator reef?

[darklcd]

hey all

My tank is finally ready for fish and coral but I am wondering if there is anyway that I can keep a couple small predatory fish along with other reef fish. I was think about a dwarf lion as well as maybe a grouper or a small eel.

Any thoughts?

 

[returnofsid]

All 3 of those fish will eat anything they can fit in their mouths, including shrimp and other fish. The grouper will get HUGE and the eel will require a very tight fitting lid. Also, since all 3 are voracious and messy eaters, you'll need a VERY GOOD skimmer to keep your water quality "clean" enough for a reef tank.

 

[burning2nd]

predators and reefs are kindda not something you want to keep together... for one they will destroy your tank... with very little consideration to your work.

2nd you will be unable to keep some of the smaller inverts like shrimp and snails and hermits,

i think you should look at making a tank for predators and a tank for a reef.. but not try to mix

 

[jrgilles]

Maybe a dwarf golden moray?

 

[johnpeezy]

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51299

Thats my 20 gallon reef tank. With a fu man chu lion fish.

First off, he's evil.

He tries to eat little fish and fails (neon cleaner gobies swim out through his gills).
He will eat any type of shrimp you put in the tank (probably because I feed him freeze dried krill)

And worst of all he sits on my zooanthids and(just recently) my acans I think he uses them as pillows

Other then that he does not screw with frags, rockwork, nudibranches, crabs, lobsters and quickly loses modivation after failing to catch fish.

I would actually reccomend him for another reef tank and I would put him there again if I had to go back and do it over.

 

[Beto]

Agree on the fu manchu. He's not agile enough to catch most fish, and not big or fast enough to corner them either. I hand feed him every single time -- otherwise he'd probably starve. I've had him over a year, and at this point, he doesn't even try to hunt -- he just waits for me to feed him.

 

[runtowin777]

yeah a fu man chu will be good cuz its small, but any ell with thrash your corals and rock. it will knock over every thing. i put rhino snails in my reef and i had a hard enough time with them knockin stuff down. if u want though u can go with a zebra eel and it wont eat other fish. i have one and ive never had a problem.