A predator tank is a fantastic display of often quite large and brightly coloured fish that you can’t keep safely with smaller fish. A couple of things with predator tanks is that your fish will be bigger, your feedings will be larger and so your nitrate levels will be larger therefore you need to have very good filtration. It also means you probably can’t keep any invertebrates (coral).

Some more nitrate resistant invertebrates might survive. The other thing is you won’t be able to pack your tank full of fish either because of these higher waste outputs. So be cautious in adding new fish always make sure your filter is coping adequately as many predatory fish are quite expensive.

Some suggestions are fish like scorpion and lion fish, these guys don’t swim around  much rather they lurk around the tank waiting for prey. I found that for the one I kept I had to actually move the white bait I was using as food around as though it were alive to get the scorpion fish to start feeding. A barramundi or polka dot cod is another great personality, they also lurk but when they swim around they have this really interesting rollicking motion to their movement. They also grow to be quite large.

You can also keep fish like parrot and trigger fish which take great delight in biting up your expensive coral and eating it. These fish are spectacular and some have amazing colours and can grow very large too. Moray eels are nocturnal predators and are pretty still at during the day but at night time prowl around looking for food. They will settle in to a diurnal type of feeding routine though after a little while.

Sharks are also really good fun, a variety of small cat sharks and other bottom feeding /anything –they-can-catch  sharks are really different from anything you can put in a reef tank. They waddle about on their fins, or swim about looking for food and can be quite striking in their appearance. My favorite is the harlequin tusk fish which is actually a type of wrasse and it is a stunning orange and white and blue stripes. They are however extremely sensitive and sometimes pretty difficult to keep.

As you may have guessed you will want a big tank to house some big fish as some grow far beyond 30cm. I would personally recommend a tank at least 6 foot to house the bigger fish. It isn’t fair on them nor will they live very well or long if they are housed inappropriately There is a myth fish only grow as big as their tank they do only get as big as their tank because they generally die when their environment is too small.

So get yourself a big tank, a big filter and a big skimmer and you too can get ready to house the bad boys of the reef with bad attitudes and big appetites.

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