Flame Hawkfish Compatibility

[rooneyj889]

Hey all, I currently have a 75 gallon and am in the early stages of stocking it. Currently have 2 clowns, a royal gramma, yellow watchman, cleaner shrimp, pistol shrimp, two emerald crabs and some snails and hermits. Also have an exquisite firefish, melanarus wrasse and carpenters flasher wrasse on the way. However, one fish I would really love to put in the tank is a flame hawkfish. However, I also know they can eat inverts and stuff but I wanted to get everyones experiences with him and their thoughts.

 

[BighohoReef]

Hawkfish in general are pretty passive once they are acclimated to the tank. You already have fish that have established territory as long as there is plenty of room for the hawkfish to swim and perch you should be fine.

Couple things to do if you can:

• QT if you can if not at least do a treatment of methylene blue or safety stop.
• Acclimate in a bag or clear container so that the other fish can swim up and inspect the hawkfish.
• If you are feeding regularly you shouldn't have any issue with it eating your inverts, I've never had an issue.
• And if all else fails post again and we'll help solve the problem

 

[ctopherl]

Hey all, I currently have a 75 gallon and am in the early stages of stocking it. Currently have 2 clowns, a royal gramma, yellow watchman, cleaner shrimp, pistol shrimp, two emerald crabs and some snails and hermits. Also have an exquisite firefish, melanarus wrasse and carpenters flasher wrasse on the way. However, one fish I would really love to put in the tank is a flame hawkfish. However, I also know they can eat inverts and stuff but I wanted to get everyones experiences with him and their thoughts.

I added a flame hawk ~2 weeks ago. Super fun to watch!

I have not tried it, but I have seen that they will demolish shrimp so Id be wary of that.

I have an emerald crab and some astrea snails and he doesn’t notice them. I don’t think this would be safe with some other hawk species, though.

They perch on rocks and jump on food below them so there may be some risk with your goby depending on size.

If my hawk gets on the rocks too close to my gramma’s hole, the gramma will swim at the hawk with mouth open. I’ve never actually seen a bite and the hawk quickly adjusted to straight up ignoring the gramma so it’s kind of funny now.

This is in a 54g DT.

Edit-I will also say he’s a super aggressive eater at feeding time so if you have some shy fish you may have to target feed them. He doesn’t care about the other fish, but will swipe food from in front of them.

 

[CindyKz]

Super fun to watch. Great personality and color.

Mine will chase shrimp into hiding and bully smaller fish. I am fairly certain he killed a spot tail blenny. This was in a much smaller tank though. I just upgraded him into a 75 gal and it will be interesting how he reacts to new fish ( he leaves the established ones alone , including a much smaller pink streaked wrasse).

I agree with the comment above regarding the goby. If you try it, add the goby first.

 

[Mjl714]

I also have a 75 gallon, two clowns, flame hawk, kole tang, melanarus and yellow coris wrasses and a starry blenny. The only current trouble is the clowns chase the hawk periodically. However, the hawk doesn’t really appear intimidated by the clowns so it seems that they are making it work.

 

[AZReef13]

I was wondering what everyones thoughts are about a Flamehawk, and a captive breed mandarin, she is 2.6 years still small side. About 1. to 1.5 inches? would I have issues with the hawkfish?

 

[WH1TE Z0MB1E]

I also have a 75 gallon, two clowns, flame hawk, kole tang, melanarus and yellow coris wrasses and a starry blenny. The only current trouble is the clowns chase the hawk periodically. However, the hawk doesn’t really appear intimidated by the clowns so it seems that they are making it work.

How do the yellow coris and the melanarus get along? I have a Melanarus and would love the yellow pop of a coris but I don’t think they would get along being the same genus

 

[Flame2hawk]

I have a beautiful deep red pair of Flame hawks. Love them. Model citizens. Dont have any shrimp so cant tell you what they would do if one day I were to add one. I’ve heard some pretty bad stories about them in this regard but have also read that if the shrimp are well established before hand s/b ok. Good luck.

 

[HeidiR]

I just lost my fire shrimp, thought it was my bi-color Angel, but now I am realizing it was probably my flame hawk fish.

 

[lion king]

Flame hawks are aggressive, in a 75g you will likely be ok, they are one of those 50/50 fish; model citizen/demon. My flame hunts live ghost shrimp for a living, but if you are wondering how your cleaner shrimp may fair, check out this thread; Will the flame hawk fish eat cleaner shrimp? | Page 2 | REEF2REEF Saltwater and Reef Aquarium Forum
Mine also takes out snails, hermits and emeralds will also fall into that 50/50 range.