One day I want to set up a 75 gallon with a Russell’s lionfish. I was originally planning on housing the lionfish alone, but what are your thoughts? Coral sounds complicated to keep alive, and I have trouble enough keeping plants alive, plus there are some fake coral decorations that look very lifelike. Does paint on decorations come off in salt water?
It doesn’t really come off but if it’s not good quality it might bleach over time. I would make sure to get some good quality decor, maybe custom made if you want it to look really good.
They make some really nice looking fake corals today so i’m sure you’ll find some good ones! I’ll give a few other options though just to think about alternatives if you want.
you could always just do a FOWLR with some nice live rock! I’ve seen some really impressive ‘scapes done only with live rock! you could also get some barnacles (not alive ones just the…. husks? whatever they’re called, they sell just the shell parts and they look really nice placed between some rocks. small fish love to dart inside of them but i don’t think a lionfish would fit. you could also get shells or beach glass or something)
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Another option that I only found out about a couple years ago is Macro Algae!
You have to do some research because some of them can be as hard to take care of as some finicky corals (some are super easy tho) plus it’s a really unique look!
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some fish will eat it, which can be good or bad depending on how much you care about the macroalgae. I’m not sure if lionfish do or not.
Also there are some beginner types of coral that are easier to keep alive! I don’t know much about these but maybe someone on reefblr could give you some ideas.
