Flying Guard

[MSB123]

Hey guys! As some of you know, I'm restocking my 180 minimalist reef. I have about 50 lbs of rock, and a 1" deep sandbed and lots of mushrooms and softies and LPS. I was looking at this fish, The Flying Gunrad- http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+46+358&pcatid=358
The stocking so far: Purple tang, Dwarf fuzzy lionfish, Golden Moray, bluejaw triggerfish, blue tang, and possibly the gunrad. Should I do it? Thanks in advance!
-MSB

 

[Claus84]

I would think you would need a lot of open sand space for one of these, 180g so pretty optimistic of LA IMO. I don't know if you have ever seen a fully grown gurnard but they are fairly substantial and cover a can cover lot of ground pretty quickly

 

[MSB123]

I have, My tank is pretty sparsely scaped and he will eventually go into a 300-gallon frag tank I have- 96x60x16

 

[MSB123]

I just want a small one (2-3") for now in my 180- just wondering if it will be enough swimming room- bottom is 72x24

 

[Claus84]

Hopefully someone with experience of keeping them will chime in, I haven't tried to keep one have just caught adults of other similar sized gurnard species here in the UK so have an idea of how bulky they can be. The footprint on that 300 though sounds great!

 

[MSB123]

it really is- lights can be a pain though- im running 8 Radion XR30w's

 

[MSB123]

Big startup costs

 

[MSB123]

w

Hopefully someone with experience of keeping them will chime in, I haven't tried to keep one have just caught adults of other similar sized gurnard species here in the UK so have an idea of how bulky they can be. The footprint on that 300 though sounds great!

what size do you see the most often?

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Very pretty fish and the cool factor is up there as well. I've only ever seen one in person and it was at a public aquarium. It was around 1 foot long and probably just shy of 2 feet wide with its fins spread out so it definitely needs plenty of space. It only ever spread its fins all the way out when another fish was near or when it was moving, but it didn't really move all that much.

 

[MSB123]

I really like the purple variant- to complement the purple tang, and i like its spread- like my lionfish

 

[Claus84]

Big startup costs

I bet! must look awesome though, I've always been a fan of big shallow tanks, room for lots of interesting aquascaping, islands etc

 

[MSB123]

yeah! Totally

 

[MSB123]

Its so hard to clean the back of the tank!

 

[Claus84]

w

what size do you see the most often?

Usually catch tub gurnards in trawls over here, they do quite a bit bigger than flying I think but have I've caught quite a few at 12"+ and they are chunky, armoured beasts! Also caught tiny baby red and tub gurnards around 1" which look awesome. I'd imagine one around that size would last a while in a 180 but don't know anything about ease of keeping small ones. Would certainly make an unusual, colourful addition!

 

[Zack K]

I don’t think you will be able to find one. As much as I loved mine they are VERY delicate, and can munch on any bottom dwellers. They also do get large. I think if the Aquascape was minimalist enough, you could get away with it. But like I said to start. They rarely come into the hobby IME