Fu Manchu Lionfish comparability with other fish?

[Leon Gorani]

what kind of other fish can you keep a 1.5 inch fu Manchu Lionfish with? I want to get one and I also want to get a pair of clownfish but is that going to be okay? What type of fish can you mix with the fu Manchu Lionfish? How long does it take for it to grow full size? I also have coral in my tank and live aquaria.com says that they are reef safe with caution. So that’s a 50/50 chance of it being okay with corals?

 

[nereefpat]

Clowns would not be good tankmates. A 1.5" fu will soon be a 4-5" fu.

Lions will be totally coral safe, but not necessarily safe with motile inverts, like shrimp or crabs. Also not safe with fish small enough to swallow.

 

[WVNed]

You have 2 considerations. Fish the Lion cant eat. Fish that wont let the lion eat it's food.
I have a small angel and a bristle tooth tang in with my small fuzzy lion. They dont pay any attention to the live shrimp I give him.

 

[lion king]

Fu's don't grow that fast but are extremely challenging to feed. Many don't take dead food or won't take enough dead food to sustain long term. So do very careful research into feeding and a willingness to feed live food is a must if you are serious about keeping a fu. Fed well you'll likely get about an inch or a little over in a year's time. Maroon clowns would be safe but occelaris clowns would be a risk. If sized properly, in theory by the time a 1.5" fu got large enough to eat full grown clowns it likely wouldn't happen, For some reason lions seem to never end up well in clown tanks, I suspect it's lack of dedication to feeding the lions properly.

Lions don't bother corals, the "with caution" is because of shrimp, they also won't bother hard bodied inverts.

 

[Leon Gorani]

Okay than

Fu's don't grow that fast but are extremely challenging to feed. Many don't take dead food or won't take enough dead food to sustain long term. So do very careful research into feeding and a willingness to feed live food is a must if you are serious about keeping a fu. Fed well you'll likely get about an inch or a little over in a year's time. Maroon clowns would be safe but occelaris clowns would be a risk. If sized properly, in theory by the time a 1.5" fu got large enough to eat full grown clowns it likely wouldn't happen, For some reason lions seem to never end up well in clown tanks, I suspect it's lack of dedication to feeding the lions properly.

Lions don't bother corals, the "with caution" is because of shrimp, they also won't bother hard bodied inverts.

Okay I have some Duncan’s, green star polyps, and simple corals like that so I don’t want to risk it because I planned on buying more corals in the future. Would a fu Manchu nip at those types of corals?
So what do you actually have to feed them? Little pieces of real shrimp or actual living food?

 

[Leon Gorani]

Clowns would not be good tankmates. A 1.5" fu will soon be a 4-5" fu.

Lions will be totally coral safe, but not necessarily safe with motile inverts, like shrimp or crabs. Also not safe with fish small enough to swallow.

How long does it take for them to grow full size?

 

[nereefpat]

Like @lion king and I stated, they won't bother corals, at all.

Feeding: Good frozen options would be krill, uncooked cocktail shrimp, PE (it's bigger) mysis, chunks of grocery store seafood. Live stuff would be ghost shrimp, especially if you can gut load them. Guppies, rosies, and similar may be an option. I would stay away from goldfish. For a large dwarf lion, if you want to feed live, you might look into breeding mollies or even convict cichlids or similar.

For growth...I haven't kept a fu, just a couple fuzzy dwarfs. If fed properly, they grow. I would not recommend clowns as tankmates.