Tropical Fish Hobbyist - October 2010

I know this doesn’t sound like much fun, but your next step should be to do lots of homework on how to set up a saltwater tank because there isn’t nearly enough room in this column to tell you all that you need to know. Your parents can help you pick out some good books and find helpful sites on the Internet. A good reference for beginners to the saltwater hobby is The Simple Guide to Marine Aquariums (T.F.H. Publications, 2002). Also, there are far too many possible combinations of fish and invertebrates to mention here, but I’ll give you at least one example for both a 20-gallon and a 40-gallon that might help get you started.

For a 20-gallon tank, a possible combination would be one ocellaris or percula clownfish Amphiprion ocellaris or A. percula, one royal gramma Gramma loreto, one yellow shrimp goby Cryptocentrus cinctus, one colony of pulse coral Xenia sp., one colony of mushroom polyps (for example, Discosoma sp.), and one colony of green star polyps Pachyclavularia violacea.

For a 40-gallon tank, you might add the following to that list: one coral beauty angelfish Centropyge bispinosa, one Falco’s hawkfish Cirrhitichthys falco, one pajama cardinalfish Sphaeramia nematoptera, one Kenya tree coral Capnella sp., one toadstool leather coral Sarcophyton sp., and one finger leather coral Alcyonium sp.

Dwarf Lionfish
and Reef Tanks

I’m considering adding a dwarf lionfish, probably

Dendrochirus biocellatus or D. zebra, to my 55-gallon reef tank. First, would you consider both of these species to be reef-safe, and second, would you recommend either one over the other?

Ricardo Coelho via email

One could argue that the dwarf lionfishes you mention are reef-safe. However, one could also make the argument that they aren’t exactly reef-appropriate. That is, while they won’t eat or harass corals and other sessile invertebrates, they aren’t the best choice for reef systems for different reasons.

One reason is that they prefer more subdued lighting than is possible in the average tropical reef system loaded with light-hungry invertebrates. In fact, lionfishes are actually prone to vision loss when kept under intense illumination. You can compensate for this

Q
A

somewhat by providing caves in which the
specimen can seek refuge from the light, but
then you won’t really get to see all that much
of it. Another strike against keeping lionfishes
in a reef system is that even the so-called
dwarf varieties are really messy eaters and
heavy waste producers—i.e., serious water
polluters—which tends to be counterproductive

Ed Wong

Keeping smaller, more docile fish with a triggerfish, such as the Picasso trigger Rhinecanthus aculeatus, is always risky and best avoided.

Mark Smith

Dwarf lionfish Dendrochirus zebra ; since they are heavy polluters and sensitive to light, dwarf lionfish are generally not the best choice for reef setups.