Flame Hawk and inverts

hllb · Jan 17, 2020

I haven't had a flame hawk for years but they're my favorite hawk fish. What inverts would it take out? I have a peppermint shrimp, sally lightfoot (trying to catch this to get it out, so wouldn't care if it got eaten LOL), snails, hermits, emerald crab, micro brittle stars, and at least one stomatella.

I'm thinking the shrimp and stomatella would be most at risk? I'd like to add a skunk cleaner shrimp too.

hllb · Jan 17, 2020

Bumping

DangerDave · Jan 17, 2020

I love hawks, especially flame hawks, but do not have one. I’ve tried a couple times, giving them away each time. I’ve heard of well fed individuals leaving inverts alone. Mine never did, they went on an invert murder spree the moment they were put into my tank.

ScottR · Jan 17, 2020

I’m curious about this too. Will the flamehawk leave larger shrimps alone? My cleaner shrimp is about a year old and huge. If he eats that guy, it’d be a big meal. But if he goes after it, all the other inverts will go too

Pete Paschall · Jan 18, 2020

I just tore down a 100 gallon tank to prepare for a move where I will be setting up a new, larger tank. I have two smaller tanks that I am using to house some of the livestock that I kept that will go into the new tank, including a flame hawk and 2 cleaner shrimp. They all lived together for a year and a half with no problems, but the I found the cleaner shrimp dead in the small tank within a week. I got 2 more, thinking that maybe the move from one tank to another was too much for them. The 2 new ones lasted maybe a week. None of the 4 had been eaten, or had signs of even being chewed on. So I re-checked water parameters, thinking maybe nitrates or iodine were too high. Everything checked out fine, so yesterday I got 2 more. As it turns out, my wife was watching as the flame hawk rammed headfirst into one of the shrimp, killing it. He had no interest in making a meal out of it, just cold blooded. With that said, Harvey (the flame hawk) is my favorite fish.

Quietman · Jan 18, 2020

Man...I was really hoping this thread would turn out better. I had all but decided on purchasing one based on many reports of peaceful existence (and if it hadn't been for this cold snap I would have one now). My pistol shrimp is doing enough damage to my smaller snails, a flame hawk would likely have me buying a CUC just to feed it.

I know that I've read some flame hawks do not bother anything (particularly if they're the last added to tank) but CUCs do not out last fish so eventually, new will be added. And I always advise new aquarists to NOT go against species characteristics in the hopes you get the individual exception. "Getting lucky" is not a successful long term strategy. Time to take my own advice and am recommending same to the OP.

Waterislife · Jan 18, 2020

inverts

hllb · Jan 18, 2020

Yup, this is what I figured as well. Long nose hawk is a good option from what I’ve read though.

lion king · Jan 18, 2020

Their nature would be to hunt down your inverts, all of them, any reports of anything different is an exception or short lived. I'm a predator guy and the flame hawkfish is a sneaky cool predator.

SamsReef · Jan 18, 2020

My flame hawk was the reason for mysterious shrimp disappearance..aftet it was trapped and taken out, all shrimps now live in harmony.

My kids used to like the goofy way that flame hawk used to swim but...no place for a killer in my tank...

Sam

Barrett · Jan 18, 2020

My flame doesn’t touch any of my inverts, even my very small harlequin shrimp that has been in the tank for two months now. The hawk fish was in the tank for two years before I introduced any shrimp.

Quietman · Jan 18, 2020

Was going to edit earlier but I'll just throw in here.

I'm not saying there aren't individual exceptions as there are too many folks on here that have kept them successfully with inverts. And some are willing to accept CUC losses because off the looks/personality. They are a popular, attractive fish with "personality".

Flippers4pups · Jan 18, 2020

Quietman said:
Man...I was really hoping this thread would turn out better. I had all but decided on purchasing one based on many reports of peaceful existence (and if it hadn't been for this cold snap I would have one now). My pistol shrimp is doing enough damage to my smaller snails, a flame hawk would likely have me buying a CUC just to feed it.

I know that I've read some flame hawks do not bother anything (particularly if they're the last added to tank) but CUCs do not out last fish so eventually, new will be added. And I always advise new aquarists to NOT go against species characteristics in the hopes you get the individual exception. "Getting lucky" is not a successful long term strategy. Time to take my own advice and am recommending same to the OP.

As far as Hawks are concerned, out of all the Hawks, the long nose is the easiest to keep with inverts. Flames second, Flaco's and Arc's can be killers of not only inverts, but fish as well.

That's been my experience with them.

Iamjoefox · Jan 18, 2020

My long nose was a model citizen for over a year until I didn’t feed the tank for one day. Since that day he ate 3 peppermint shrimp and a yasha goby. He now resides in the sump.