Hawkfish and Gobies

[Lowstorm]

Are Hawkfish safe with small gobies?
My current list of fish in a 125 gallon is;
2 Blackfoot clownfish
1 yellow tang
1 sailfin blenny
1 diamond goby
2 monster shrimp gobies
1 pistol shrimp with the monster gobies.

On the way is a trio of carberryi anthias.

Seems like a medium stocked tank.
I'd like to round out my tank list with eviota type gobies.
My sig. Other is trying his heart out to understand my tank... and loves the longnose Hawkfish. I was reading up and it says they may eat small fish?!?! Uhoh I love little fish!

I'm not overly worried about the pistol and monster gobies. They've been hiding and are suuuuper shy. Just worried about future tiny gobies.

 

[4FordFamily]

If a goby can fit in a hawkfish's mouth, it'll eat it.

That said, longnose hawk feed less on fish than other hawkfish and are pretty docile.

 

[Lowstorm]

Awesome thanks. I'll go for a smaller Hawkfish and see how it goes.

 

[xctorrez]

I had a geometric hawkish that was pretty small in size and one of the smallest hawks available. It seemed to get along fine with my small gobies fine for months. One day I was feeding my fish and could have sworn I saw it go after one of my masked gobies. The next morning I could not find one of the masked gobies not a red head goby. This was strange bc they were always out and about and never in hiding. When I looked at my hawk he was swollen like a balloon. Looked like it was about to pop. It had eaten 2 gobies in 1 night. My tank had 6 small gobies at the time. I took him out before he had a chance to make any more room in his tummy

 

[4FordFamily]

I had a geometric hawkish that was pretty small in size and one of the smallest hawks available. It seemed to get along fine with my small gobies fine for months. One day I was feeding my fish and could have sworn I saw it go after one of my masked gobies. The next morning I could not find one of the masked gobies not a red head goby. This was strange bc they were always out and about and never in hiding. When I looked at my hawk he was swollen like a balloon. Looked like it was about to pop. It had eaten 2 gobies in 1 night. My tank had 6 small gobies at the time. I took him out before he had a chance to make any more room in his tummy

Yup about 12 years ago when I was newer to the hobby, I had an arceye hawk (shaped like a flame hawk but much more aggressive and pink/orange in color) that was probably 3" long. I added a 2.5" yellow watchman goby and a firefish. In less than 5 seconds the watchman was eaten (I had no idea the hawk could open its mouth that wide) and within 5 minutes both were gobbled up. I was in shock.

"Well, there went $45" I told my wife! That arceye was so fat I thought it was going to die or explode. Nope.

I sold that little turd the next week. Neat fish but I opted for the more beautiful and more docile flame hawk.

 

[eatbreakfast]

I love longnose and flame hawks in a tank. They are great with most tankmates, but they will eat trimma and eviota gobies.

 

[Lowstorm]

Alright. Well, I'll get him one anyhow. Hopefully a long nose won't go after almost 3 inch long monsters!!!

 

[Empress]

Bad idea IMO.

 

[becks]

I had a 4" longnose hawkfish who was incredibly peaceful and never showed any signs of aggression and no one ever bothered him

 

[puffy127]

I have a pair of longnose hawkfish and they harass my royal gramma. He stays in his cave and hardly ever comes out. Same as my goby/shrimp pair.

 

[laga77]

I have a 4 inch Golden Hawkfish in a tank with a 1 inch female Spotted Mandarin. She will even swim right next to him while hunting pods. No problems so far.

 

[Lowstorm]

Kinda sounds like a 50/50 chance. I'm going to get him one. For sure! I can put off my gobies since my bioload is getting kinda high and they may get lost in the busy tank that I have. So many fishies! Then focusing more on corals, yay.