The Anatomy of a Predator Tank

lion king

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I get many questions in regards to putting together a predator tank, so I thought I would put together some thoughts and guidelines to putting together a predator tank. First off my definition of a predator tank, means the fish are still living as predators in captivity, not be fed dead food as their primary diet. For more info on my thoughts in feeding please visit some of my other threads. Feeding these creatures is always the primary consideration, and tank size does come into play. Trying to keep some the species I will mention will be very difficult to keep in a large community tank.

Tank size: 1st lets decide what you want to keep, there are some small scorps and anglers would could be kept in a tank as small as a 20g, while the 75/90g is my favorite tank for a multiple pred set up. A 40B also gives you some good options, as well as some small multiple species in the aio's like a bc29/30. @0g ideas include the wartskin angler, and the pygmy red rooster waspfish. The bc29/30 opens up options like the leaf fish and the yellow spot scorp, as well as your medium sized anglers like the sargassum or marble mouth. The 40B could house the fu manchu, some of your medium size scorps like the barbfish and many similar cousins, a cockatoo waspfish, orange banded stingfish, sea goblin, and a number of anglers including the painted and even the giant. Some of these fish may seem too large for the tanks I'm recommending, as you may see larger tank recommendations; but all of these fish are sedentary in nature and will not grow to their full wild size in captivity. Now my favorite tank; the 75/90. While the 55g could house the fuzzy and zebra lions, a 75/90g is so much better. This tank also allows for a multiple collection including the dwarf and all the medium bodied lions, as well as the holy grail, the rhino. Keeping multiple species together presents a very tricky challenge in feeding so just be aware of that. While I do feed a dead diet to my volitan lions, including the russels and miles, I do still consider them a predator. These lions will do well in a community tank but really does need something in the 180g range. Unless keeping a species tank of eels, other than the ribbon eel, I don't feed them live. The ribbon eel is a case all it's on, and needs at least a 125g, and needs to have live food included for long term success. Pebble tooth eels are better for tanks including fish; but if you are determined to keep a fang tooth with fish, plan on at least a 180g. The smaller fang tooths like the jeweled and goldentail could live together in a 75/90g. while I would be a bit more leery of the fimbriated or black edged. Eventually the tessa will be the only inhabitant in most tanks. Mantis shrimp may also interest some, the most popular one, the peacock, needs at least a 40B, visit the Mantis Forum for more info.

Set up: filtration and lighting. A predator tank can be a fowler or a reef, none of these guys will mess with corals, other than maybe perching on your favorite brain. They will make food of shrimp and the eels maybe other crustaceans, The lions, scorps, and anglers, will not bother hard bodied inverts or urchins and starfish and such. In a reef your lighting will be determined by the corals you are keeping. In a fowler, simple blue and white leds will suffice. In a fowler only run your lights for your viewing pleasure, I run mine from 5pm to 11pm. In a fowler subdued lighting not only creates an ambiance, the preds do enjoy it more and are more active, and as a bonus it keeps the algae growth to a minimum. The must have for filtration is a skimmer and a refugium. In a fowler with these 2 items you can literally be very low maintenance, rarely making water changes and very little cleaning. Try for a skimmer one size up and a refugium about 20% of your display volume. In the aio's the skimmers that go in the back chambers are useless; I have done extensive testing to find very little if any reduction in the formation of nitrates and phosphates. If they worked they would remove the organics which in turn would slow down and limit the production of nitrates and phosphates, they don't. Try to include a refugium in the back chamber or include a macro reactor. If you are using hob equipment, there are a number of hob refugiums and skimmer that work very well.You can also include macro in the display, some of the species actually live among macro in the wild. If the lighting is too high for their liking, they will spend their daylight hours tucked away in a cave.

Scape and flow. You will design your scape to the individual species. Always start your research in the wild, try and include aspects of your scape that will emulate where they live in the wild. The lions like caves and perches, while some of scorps will also enjoy perches but may also like crevices to tuck into. Some anglers like caves while others enjoy multi level perches. The sea goblin likes to bury itself, so a sand bed is necessary. Always include some open sandbed for your scorps and anglers. Most won't mind lps reef flow but sps flow will limit the level of activity in your lions. The leaf fish and cockatoo waspfish will be more active in lesser flow, most of your preds will just tuck away if the flow is too much.

You can always click my name and "find all threads" for pics of some of my tanks and feeding tips. These were just my thoughts of the day, I hope some of you get some ideas that work for you.
 
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lion king

lion king

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Great additions, maybe the best, REFUGIUMS and ALAGAE REACTORS. Make sure you have enough rock and/or added biological media, run an oversized protein skimmer and a refugium or algae reactor, and never do another water change. I know this is elementary, but lets see how this works.

In a predator take you are usually feeding on a gorge/fast feeding cycle, this means you can get alot of waste dumped in all at once or in a shorten cycle. This presents an environment for an ammonia spike, it seems to happen often as this seems to be the culprit in many issues. You want open swim space and substrate to cruise but make sure you have enough rock to support the bacteria necessary to manage the waste. You can also add biological media to a sump or even a hob filter. My favorite is Seachem Matrix, even check out the variety for ponds, it's kind of like added rock rubble to a sump.

The protein skimmer, I like running one size up or at least at the top end of recommended sizes. The protein skimmer will remove organics prior to the break down into problematic substances.

MACRO, my favorite, running macro algae will remove nitrates and phosphates. There's alot of good things macro can do for your tank, I'll let you reefers do some more research on your own to understand more on the contribution macro can make. I like caulerpa, gracillaria, and ulva in my refugiums; but chaeto is also the go to option for many. There are hob refugiums and algae reactors. You can run what I call a sidecar refugium where you drop a pump in the skimmer section of your pump and go to a separate tank. If you are not broadcast feeding, the filter sock is unnecessary, and you can even convert this section to a refugium.

1st pic, the converted sock section on an eshopps sump under a 90g. I made a frame with eggcrate and 1/4" netting to prevent the macro from flowing through, and a Tunze submersible led refugium light. I raised the protein skimmer on a riser and raised the water level up to the top of the sock section. 2nd pic, a 40B sidecar on a 210g. You could use something like a 20g on a 75/90, and customize your own configuration. You can purchase many preconfigured algae reactors of make your own like I did in this thread.


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