Question about Purple Reef Lobsters

[Doglips56]

Thank you guys for the input. This was very helpful. We'll see if there's anyone who has conflicting experience, but if this is more or less the consensus on the thread, I'll be getting some clownfish soon. ^^

We’ve had one for at least six months. Only comes out at feeding time whether it’s dat or night. It hasn’t bothered anything and my snails breed like crazy. I wish it would eat the dangled bristle worms but it prefers the DIY “reef chili” we make fresh. I will say it’s scared of the fish or anything else that moves. I have a yellow kole eye tang that likes to hang out at the entrance of the lobster’s cave and the lobster is more afraid of the fish. It has grown a lot since we got it. I do wish it weren’t so reclusive because it’s pretty cool looking

 

[scott0187]

Hello, I just got my first Debelius purple reef lobster a few days ago. Its healthy enough, although it hides a lot. I don't have any fish in the tank, but I have some hermit crabs, snails, worms, hitchiker clams, tiny feather dusters, macroalgae, etc. So far it doesn't seem like the lobster's really gone after anything at all, although it's difficult to tell when he's only active and visible when the lights are completely off, it's nighttime, and I can't see anything lol.

I'm not crazy about getting a lot of saltwater fish, but I want to get a pair of ocellaris clownfish with it, as well as an orchard dottyback (and maybe a banggai cardinal fish). My tank's a 30 gallon, but I plan on upgrading to a 55 in the next year or so. The lobster is 2-3 inches, I would say. I really love that lobster and I know they live a long time, so I really would like to keep it in a reef tank longterm, and I'm fairly certain they won't eat corals. But I keep jumping back and forth between forums on this website and others about whether a reef lobster is safe with fish or not. Some talk about how they constantly had fish's fins torn apart from the lobster, others claim to have no issues. Some say as long as you keep it well-fed there should be no problems, others say it'll grow to be a killer.

I'm not overly concerned about my lobster eating a snail or two or a couple of hermit crabs, bristle worms, amphipods, etc. and I kept the female emerald crabs in the past with no issues, yet I see debates about crabs eating coral polyps as well.

Please, given the situation I just described, given that clowns sleep at the top of the tank and how fast orhid dottybacks can be when disturbed, how risky would it be to keep a lobster, well-fed, with just these fish (and also ornamental inverts like a blood red fire shrimp, tuxedo urchin, etc.)? And I would appreciate input from people who have actually kept these creatures in the past longterm, not just the reef keepers who have never dared tried it and never will.

I've had my purple lobster for 8 months with no issues. Today i bought a purple dottyback and when the lights went off i checked the tank and found the purple lobster eatting my purple dottyback. The purple dottyback was small around an inch. i assume that the dottyback went to sleep in the rock where the lobster is and ended up dying. very sad to see. i wouldn't recommend having the purple lobster if you're introducing small fish that sleep inside rock or caves. i feed my lobster small bits of frozen shrimp every 3 days when i spot feed my corals at night. this was a new fish that decided to camp in the wrong cave. my cleaner shrimp camp around that area now for 8 months and no issues to report. the purple lobster is very shy and mainly hunts at night if you dim down the blue light to the lowest you may see the lobster come out and travel a short distance. so i recommend feeding your lobster at night before you sleep so the rest of your sleeping fish can sleep in piece.

 

[arkal339]

I had 4 fatalities in the last 2 months killing really precious fish including a diamond butterfly, a yellow tang, a power brown tang as well as a convict tang, I would say use extreme caution. I lost some very expensive fish and now t is impossible for me the remove the lobster out as he hides under a big rock

 

[jmichaelh7]

Sorry about your losses . Now can you tell other reefers how positive you are it’s the purple reef lobster ? Advising information about the species without supporting information in this hobby is not recommended. If you don’t mind can you share more about your system? Do you run quarantine on your fish? Just to narrow the possible casualties out

had 4 fatalities in the last 2 months killing really precious fish including a diamond butterfly, a yellow tang, a power brown tang as well as a convict tang, I would say use extreme caution. I lost some very expensive fish and now t is impossible for me the remove the lobster out as he hides under a big roc

 

[Rkdunn1]

How often did you feed your lobster? Did it eat your fish/snails?

Yes they do eat fish and all of the snails.