Basic Stocking Questions

[ctopherl]

• 54g DT with 11g sump, tank is almost 2 months old
• Current fish: two clowns, two banggai cardinals, royal gramma, lawnmower blenny
• Have a mixture of softies and LPS
• One emerald crab, one pompom crab, one astrea snail

I am looking to add: flame hawkfish, flame/coral beauty/potter's (haven't decided-going for most coral safe) dwarf angel, and mandarin way down the road when I get a fuge with pods going.

Eventually would also like to add a tuxedo urchin and maybe a basic starfish but don't think that's relevant.

Questions:

1. Should I be concerned about my blenny, inverts or future mandarin with the flame hawk?
2. Does it matter if I add the hawkfish or angel first? My LFS said it doesn't matter, but suggested not adding angel until I have most/all of my corals set as they are more likely to nip at new corals than established corals?

Also open to alternatives on the dwarf angel that (1) won't jump (we don't have a lid) and (2) won't decimate my pods population with the eventual mandarin (wrasse, anthias seem to have this issue).

 

[Hugh Mann]

The Flame Hawk should be safe with the other fish, however they can and will target inverts. Mine murdered a couple hermit crabs and snails before it settled in and started eating frozen. After that it was fine.

Flame Hawks will also jump. Mine tried. Alot. At least once a week it would try and jump. I'd strongly consider a lid, because flame Hawks are awesome fish.

I kept mine with a lemonpeel angel. They didn't really interact very much, so you should be fine with a Coral beauty.

 

[ctopherl]

The Flame Hawk should be safe with the other fish, however they can and will target inverts. Mine murdered a couple hermit crabs and snails before it settled in and started eating frozen. After that it was fine.

Flame Hawks will also jump. Mine tried. Alot. At least once a week it would try and jump. I'd strongly consider a lid, because flame Hawks are awesome fish.

I kept mine with a lemonpeel angel. They didn't really interact very much, so you should be fine with a Coral beauty.

This is great insight thanks!

I've seen a whole lot of anecdotes online about flame hawks devouring shrimp but nothing about snails/crabs until now.

I also don't feel like I've seen too many complaints of them jumping oddly enough so this is really helpful, albeit disheartening.

Any concerns about the flame hawk with a lawnmower blenny or mandarin that you know of?

 

[Hugh Mann]

Maybe mine was weird in regards to the jumping, but it definitely tried.

I honestly can't say how it would be with a blenny or mandarin, as I haven't kept either. I lean towards aggressive/predatory fish mostly. However, I kept it with
Lemonpeel Angel
Tomini Tang
Cleaner wrasse
Dwarf fuzzy lionfish
Greyfaced moray eel
Marine betta
Lyretail anthias
The only issue was with the Lionfish, as they both occupied similar territory, and the lion would on occasion think it could make lunch out of the Hawk.