CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

well i have room for a 20 gallon instead of the 10 gallon.if i could could i get a dwarf lionfish and a clownfish?if i could what are some good types of dwarf lionfish to keep?

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My tanks include:

90 gallon 3 oscars

29 gallon 3 firemouths and pleco
10 gallon swortail, molly,and pleco

FEEDER NAZI

I'm 13 years old

I have a fuzzy dwarf lion fish, and he is great, I have a pic of him on my website. The tricky thing about them is getting them to eat frozen foods they are much harder to wean of live food... mine still wont take anything but live food. You could do a pair of clowns and a dwarf lion in a 20 gallon tank but that would be about the limit of it. Also be aware of 2 things when dealing with lions, esp dwarfs. 1-They like to hide so you will need to put a pretty good amount of live rock (or some sort of decoration) in the tank for it to hide in and behind. 2-because they like to hide so much and because they are typically nocturnal hunters you may not see much of him for a few months while he gets settled and used to a routine of hunting/eating during the day.

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Adam

Come see my website!
Adam@cichlidfish.com
Got ?'s about HITH? Read this to learn more!

adam,


for a 20 gallon and for the lion would 20lbs of live rock be good enough for the lion to hide in?also i dont plan on getting any reefs or anenomies just right now so i shouldn't need a whole bunch of lighting shuold i? and also would the lion eat hermit crabs, snails, and cleaner shrimp?cause i really dont want him to.what would happen if your power went out for a few hours, would all of your fish die?cause if they did that would be a lot of money worth of fish to loose just cause your power went out.here's the filtration:a 200ghp hang on the back power filter, and a 200gph power head. should that be enough? how do cycle a salt water tank with out fish in it?

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My tanks include:

90 gallon 3 oscars

29 gallon 3 firemouths and pleco
10 gallon swortail, molly,and pleco

FEEDER NAZI

I'm 13 years old

You may want to be careful getting 2 clowns. If I were you I'd go for 3.....2 clowns often tend to fight.

For the lion hiding....What I always do is build a cave that way he is hiding from light but still very visible and my lions ALWAYS take to the cave. Here's what to do get two big pieces of base rock and 1 big flat rock(check the deminsions of your tank and the rock so you don't buy a piece that doesn't fit ) Then take the two base rocks and put them down INTO the sand make sure they are really stable. Then, set the flat rock on top. I always like to center the cave and build to the left and right off that and it kinda makes it and the lion a centerpiece.

No, you shouldn't need to much lighting. Actually the less lighting you have the more you may see the lion out. But it will help grow cool stuff on the LR with good lighting...so you'll want to find a good medium.

Yes, it is possible that the lion will eat shrimp crabs and snails....I've been lucky and most of mine just eat the shrimps. There have been a few of ine who didn't bother with any of it.

You will want to keep a couple battery powered air stones around in case the power does go out. You may want to change 1 gallon of water out every hour or two and put in water warmer than what is in there by 4-5 degrees. You'll want to dump the in SLWLY and away from fish if possible.

Yes, That should be suffiecient filteration.

You can cycle a salt water tank with live rock instead of fish. I usually just buy the uncured LR if possible because it is cheaper and you won't have any fish in there anyways. (And it helps move the cycle along)


Hope that halped good luck

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Clint
CDevoe1111@aol.com

I pretty much agree with Clint on everything except the clown thing... at least from what I have read. Clowns will always form a male female pair and all the other clowns in the group will be males. Those subordinate males will get picked on and it lead to them dying. I have always heard that if you want to keep clowns never buy more then 2 and make sure that they are of the same species, as differant species will often fight to the death. Everything else you mentioned about the tank sounds about right to me.

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Adam

Come see my website!
Adam@cichlidfish.com
Got ?'s about HITH? Read this to learn more!

Well I was speaking from my expierience. I've had odd expierience with thema and they seem to fight when there is only two of them when there is three SOMETIMES two will team up and kill one then they kill each other. But I've only been able to keep two clowns when they both had thier anemones....and sometimes they fight over that....so I guess I don't have any relevent petterns but I think it is better when I got three.

I've read the same things adam but it has never worked for me....but it looks like you have.

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Clint
CDevoe1111@aol.com

It may be a fish to fish and species to species thing... I dont know... I currently have 2 ocellaris clowns peacfully sharing a sebea anenome... they fought earlier on but that is a natural part of them trying to figure out who will be the female and who will be the male.

I suppose if you get two dominant fish where one of them wont give in and let the other be female, that might result in one or both fish dying. But so far sticking with a pair has worked for me... I dont have any experience with using trio's etc.

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Adam

Come see my website!
Adam@cichlidfish.com
Got ?'s about HITH? Read this to learn more!

do clowns require an anenomie?well if they dont are the anenomies hard to keep?if i did want to keep corals or anenomies how much lighting would i need?or would the lion apreciate all of the light that the anenomie requries?if the clowns dont require an anenomie, i dont think that i would probably get one but i might if they arent to hard to keep and all of the lighting wouldnt disturb the dwarf lion.

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My tanks include:

90 gallon 3 oscars

29 gallon 3 firemouths and pleco
10 gallon swortail, molly,and pleco

FEEDER NAZI

I'm 13 years old

Clowns dont need an anenome and I would personally rate anenomes a 9 out of 10 for sensitivity, husbandry and water quatliy, issues. You need very very bright lights to keep them successfully as well as feeding them food. I would steer clear of them. THere are some low light corals like mushroom leathers that the clowns will adopt as a host and dont require lots of knowlege to keep. For just the fish whatever light strip comes with the tank will be enough, fish dont really need lots of light and for the lion the less light the more you will see him.

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Adam

Come see my website!
Adam@cichlidfish.com
Got ?'s about HITH? Read this to learn more!

today at lfs the guy said that i couldn't keep 2 clowns in my tank. well he said i could but i would have to get rid of them when they get bigger and theres no way that i could keep a dwarf lion with them. is that true?and how much do you think that it should all cost by the time i'm thru getting everything includding the fish and tank and filtration ect. ect.?

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My tanks include:

90 gallon 3 oscars

29 gallon 3 firemouths and pleco
10 gallon swortail, molly,and pleco

FEEDER NAZI

I'm 13 years old

I have heard of clowns being kept in tanks as small as 6 gallon eclispe's before... 20 gallons is plenty big enough for anything except maybe maroon clowns since they get quite a bit bigger. I have 2 clowns with a dwarf lionfish as well and have no problems there... dwarf lions never get above 4-5" so they never get big enough to eat a clown fish. When it comes to fish follow the guideline of 1" of fish per 5 gallons for the first 6 months and then 1" per 2-3 gallons after 6 months.

From what I have heard and what if cost me to set up my tank look at spending between $20-50 a gallon to completely set it up, there are lots of acces. that can raise the cost even from there. You will need a filter, protein skimmer, 20 lbs live rock, and sand.

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Adam

Come see my website!
Adam@cichlidfish.com
Got ?'s about HITH? Read this to learn more!

also would i need a protien skimmer? and could i keep the dwarf lion and a maroon clown and what would be another good fish to keep with those 2?

Yeah you'll need a protien skimmer

I think most blennies are quick enough and get big enough to not be snacks for your lion (wait on adam he has been able to see the behavior of the dwarf)

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Clint
CDevoe1111@aol.com

what are some good cheap brands of protien skimmers? amd also do you run them all of the time like other filters?

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My tanks include:

90 gallon 3 oscars

29 gallon 3 firemouths and pleco
10 gallon swortail, molly,and pleco

FEEDER NAZI

I'm 13 years old

Dwarf lions have slightly differant behavior then regular lions. Because they are smaller in size they have more of a tendency to hide up in crevasses in the rock... dont get me wrong I see mine daily and he is often out swimming openly in the morning, but I wouldnt expect to see him out swimming even 25% of the time, All lions tend to be ambush predators anyway and dwarfs are much more that way. I'm not sure if a 20 gallon is big enough for a maroon clown and I definately wouldnt recommend trying to get a pair in tank that small. Maroons are extremely ill tempered and have been known to attack their owners, and draw blood, when cleaning the tank. They are really pretty fish but not the most social or friendly from what I have heard.

There are cheap protein skimmers that are on the market that are okay for smaller tanks like you have, they do require more maintenance then the more expensive ones (ie replacing air stones every couple of weeks etc). I cant really say which are good because I have never used them, but I have heard that the Lee's brand air powered skimmers arent bad, once you fiddle with them and get them calibrated.

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Adam

Come see my website!
Adam@cichlidfish.com
Got ?'s about HITH? Read this to learn more!