hello

I have never owned a salt water aquarium, but I currently own 6 freshwater tanks. I am interested in graduating to salt water animals. I have been in the hobby for about 12 years and I've kept hundreds of fish of all levels of difficulties. The next challenge i'm looking forward to is keeping a lionfish.

 

Welcome to 3reef.

We have some great members here with advanced knowledge of Lion Fish.

 

I would suggest mentioning Lion Fish in the title .

 

Lions are very rewarding fish. The volitan i had tended to be a lot lazier than i expected, he would tend to sleep a good chunk of the day before becoming more active in the evening. You'll definitely want a good sized tank as these guys take up a lot of room once the start moving around. I'd suggest at least a 75g but even that will get small for a few of these guys. Biggest thing to keep in mind is a lion will limit what you can add to the tank... Basically, anything small enough to fit in its mouth is subject to becoming a meal. Mine left my snails/crabs alone for the most part but keeping him fed helped in that regard. What desires do you have for your tank past a lion? Corals? Oh and of course, keep in mind these guys pack a nasty wallup of a sting. Someone just posted a couple days ago their first hand experience with this! Not a fun thing for sure so make sure you are familiar with the first aid just in case...

 

Welcome to 3reef.

 

oh, welcome to 3reef! another thought on the lion... he was a blast to feed, especially watching him go after a ghost shrimp or guppy! Pretty sweet.

one last thing (for now) non lion related... since you're coming from fresh water be aware... DO NOT vacuum your sand bed! Bad things can happen if you do. Won't go into all the details but basically sand in a SW tank acts like a sponge trapping all kinds of nasty stuff, harbors good stuff too. Problem is when you disturb it you release those nasties back into the water column and potentiality kill off some of the good stuff too. Either way, bad jojo.

 

hi and welcome