# Lionfish for beginners?



## Guest (Jul 3, 2005)

Hi everyone,
I'm very interested in Lionfish. All I know is that they are posinous and have spikey spines. My question is, are they good for beginner aquariasts? I would really like some kind of tropical fish :fish: If a lionfish is not the best can anyone recommend one :help: 
Thanks,
Chris Moore


----------



## predator (Jan 28, 2005)

Am i in freshwater? i could swear im in Freshwater... I mean are there FW lions? I've always heard them called toad fish... and if thats actually what your looking for i do bleive they are really BW.


----------



## Guest (Jul 3, 2005)

http://www.marinedepotlive.com/fish-lions.html
These kinds of lion fishes.


----------



## shev (Jan 18, 2005)

Thats what I was thinking too predator. or FW stone fish. same thing.

those are saltwater fish.


----------



## maxpayne_lhp (Jan 19, 2005)

Rite, never heard about freshwater ones. I used to mistake with the butterly fish.
AqyaFish. I think these fish are hard to keep, but all depends, how long have you been with marine fish keeping?


----------



## blakeoe (Apr 27, 2005)

The ones on the given link are salt water. That's why they have "reef compatability".


----------



## Osiris (Jan 18, 2005)

yea if MODERATOR would plz move it lol, (gotta give them hard time ) but i have no expereince with them yet, have you done SW before? or is this your first tank for SW?


----------



## Guest (Jul 3, 2005)

MalawianPro said:


> yea if MODERATOR would plz move it lol, (gotta give them hard time ) but i have no expereince with them yet, have you done SW before? or is this your first tank for SW?


Well I was just wondering if they were for beginners. It would be my first time with a Sat Water tank. Are they any SW fish that are good for beginners? And do you have any tips?
Thanks,
Chris Moore


----------



## Osiris (Jan 18, 2005)

Yea damsels or clownfish would be a good start for your tank, something like that requires more care for then your normal sw fish. Good rule of thumb is after 6mos-1 yr start getting into the more complicated ones. and that way ur tank has well matured too.


----------



## Guest (Jul 3, 2005)

MalawianPro said:


> Yea damsels or clownfish would be a good start for your tank, something like that requires more care for then your normal sw fish. Good rule of thumb is after 6mos-1 yr start getting into the more complicated ones. and that way ur tank has well matured too.


Thanks for your :help:  What fish get along with damsels or clownfish?


----------



## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

hold on here... okay first lets get down to the basics... A) do you have a tank? B) how long have you kept freshwater? C) Do you know about the nitrogen cycle? D) How much money are we dealing with?

Saltwater is a lot of money... if you are thinking of spending 50 dollars on this aquarium that can be the cost of a lionfish itself! (depending on the speices of coarse) If you've done freshwater for at least a few years, have kept them successfully without replacing them or having deaths I would say yes to saltwater. If youre parents could also be invovled in this step into the deep end, then that would also be a great thing. Lionfish are infact, very hardy, as long as you see them eat at your lfs (not live foods, dry or frozen is KEY). But being a preditor and a somewhat large fish, these fish need larger tanks, 75 gallon minimum for a dwarf and some other larger fish that won't fit in their mouths. 125 gallon minimum for the larger lions mainly because of the huge bioload they are on your tank. Damsels are good hardy fish as well, but they are severely over rated as a "beginner" fish. Damsels can be down right mean! If you do get a damsel it should be added last to your tank to prevent a full furry of aggression. A clownfish is much more compatible with saltwater community fish (especially perculas). Things that would go well with a clown would be gobies, grammas, cardinalfish, chromis, dartfish, reef safe wrasses, tangs (if you've got a big tank), and anthias.
If you dont' know any of the terms I used... look them up in our extensive glossary for further clarification in the FYI section.
Good luck and welcome to the forums!


----------



## Osiris (Jan 18, 2005)

OMG ok i drank too much last night it's confirmed, dang reception weddings, i'll just pop in when i'm back to normal, get your setup going first then we'll talk. 

Damsels are all based on personalities i had a pair that got their a** beat by my clownfish surprisngly. I actually sold that pair to someone and their still getin beat by his clownfish now lol


----------



## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

lol... definately a personality thing... I think you got lucky though... I have two right now and they have limited me to 4 fish in a 55 gallon tank! (mainly because if it's not aggressive, it doesn't make it) It also depends on the species... some say yellow tailed damsels are less agressive as well as 4 lined... I can attest though, 3 lined damsels are NOT community fish... killed a gramma, a clown, and a keyhole angelfish.


----------



## Osiris (Jan 18, 2005)

wow them devils, not to mention have to literally tear apart a tank to catch them. I had one of them black ones with specs of sparkling blue was pretty cool but died in move of tank. I am setting up a 46g bow next weekend, going to get it to house a lionfish lol thye sell pretty much only smal ones here...


----------

