Recommendations for Aggressive Tank

I'm getting a 100 Gallon tank this week to keep predatorial fish in. I will be housing a Volitan Lion fish for sure. I'm curious what other fish might be appropriate for this tank.

I'm considering the following:

Snowflake Eel
Porcupine Puffer
Trigger (HumaHuma or Niger)
Panther Grouper

The tank/stand/hood is black, and on a friends advice, I'm going to buy Black Caribsea sand. It will be lit with one VHO Actinic. I'd like this to be a show tank with Fish, and a few large pieces of live rock. Any ideas or suggestions are appreciated.


Edited by Ryan Willden

Nice. Thanks Suzy. Should be fun...

What do you feed lions and eels and so forth?  When I kept my fresh water tanks I once kept pacu and an oscar.  I fed them guppies and sometimes crickets.  Oh yea,  and every fly that ever buzzed into my house became fish food back then too.

I was just wondering what kinds of live food for large agressive marine fish?

Oh yea,  and isn't it expensive to buy live food all the time?  Do you raise your own live food for these kinds of fish?  I mean we aren't talking about green water here.

Edited by SandyReef

The lions at Scripps Aquarium were eating frozen beef heart. LBS
says hers was eating frozen everything. Ours is only eating ghost
shrimp thus far, but she's gotta be getting hungry! Watching
everybody else eat those yummy frozen krill! The eel eats everything
he can get his snout on!

I would definetly go with the eel very cool. also I do belive that you wouldnt have a problem with a puffer. Good luck. Please post pics when you get it going

I don't like Grouper because I think they are kind of boring, I'm not sure they are environmentally friendly to collect (because of breeding patterns), and they don't look like impressive saltwater fish to me. 

I guess I look at them the way my wife looks at Green Chromis and says "You wan't to buy that?!  Why don't you buy a salt water fish?" (and yes she says it with an interabang)

Adam

CaribSea Black Sand is not aragonite. Even without coral I wouldn't recommend it unless you have some aragonite substrate elsewhere in the system. If you use LR that will help. Deep Oolitic in a sump would do the trick IMO.
What about connecting the Predator tank to the Reef through piping? That would definitely do the filtration.

I love Panther Groupers. They are looking.

Saltwater mollies are the best foodyou could possibly use for predators. Since you are near Sea Base, just place a flock/school of them in the tank and watch their numbers dwindle over time. The Mollies eat flack food and algae! That would also allow the large Volitan to be fed well enough to keep the dwarf in the same tank, IMO.

Some food for thought...

I got a Miniatus Grouper, and they are eye popping goregous!  Unlike Panther Groupers, they dont spend all day sulking, or hiding in the back ground.  They have a max size of about 16 inches unlike Panther Groupers which can get to 27 inches from what I have read.  The other reason I chose the Miniatus over the Pather is the Panther's color  seems to to fad a bit as they get older.  Miniatus...Its 7 inches long and holding its color very well.

I thought about the Snow Flake eel thing too.  But then I saw a Jewel Moray.  Its a bit smaller than a snow flake length wise  but its a much stockier built eel.  I like the color markings more than I do on the Snow Flake too.  Like most eels he stays hidden most of the time coming out only when its feeding time or when just the moon lights are on

Both are really cool critters and nicely colored.  Both eat cut scallops. clams, shrimp or fish most readily.  One word of caution, if its close to being mouth size...then its on the menu in no uncertain terms!!!  The only clean up crew that has survived in the tank is large snails and hermits.  If I had a bigger tank I would try to have a couple of these groupers dispite the warning about multiple groupers in a tank, cuase they are just that vividly colored.  Give them a look!