Anyone with a school of Lookdowns?

[DylanE]

Currently planning a 310g upgrade. Dimensions are 96x24x31, so lots of water column space. Looking into Lookdowns, it seems they get quite large, but most sites recommend at least 150g for their tank size. Is anyone keeping these successfully in a reef? It'll be a somewhat predatory reef since I have a snowflake eel. I was thinking 3-4 to help fill the height of the tank.

 

[DylanE]

bump

 

[Cheese Griller]

Don't have any experience myself, but grew up going to many aquariums that displayed lookdowns. based on how I've seen them displayed there, they seem to prefer rounded tanks so that they can swim in one continuous line, which I think may be hard for them to do in a rectangular tank. I've also never seen them with any sort of hardscape, it's always just been a sandbed. I'm assuming this is because lookdowns are big swimmers, so no space should be wasted on rockwork when it could be used for swimming. I believe there's someone on here who has a Florida native pond style aquarium that has some lookdowns- I think they thrive better in that kind of setup since it has the maximum swimming area from a square footage perspective. I would say they really aren't great candidates for a reef tank under 600 gallons.

 

[Cthulukelele]

Maybe controversial opinion, but unless you're independently wealthy and have a home aquarium similar in size and scope to one of the exhibit wings of a fairly large public aquarium, lookdowns are better off remaining in the ocean

 

[Cthulukelele]

Just for clarity on that opinion, a full sized lookdown can reach almost 20(!!!) inches long. Outside the tail which is only a few inches long, they're almost completely circular in build so nearly that tall. Let's say the tail is 4 inches long. That leaves a nearly 16 inch diameter circle as the body. To use a visual aid, a 16 inch diameter depending on the pizza place you go to is either a large or extra large pizza. Now imagine a group of 6 extra large pizzas trying to comfortably swim in a shoal in a tank.

 

[DylanE]

Just for clarity on that opinion, a full sized lookdown can reach almost 20(!!!) inches long. Outside the tail which is only a few inches long, they're almost completely circular in build so nearly that tall. Let's say the tail is 4 inches long. That leaves a nearly 16 inch diameter circle as the body. To use a visual aid, a 16 inch diameter depending on the pizza place you go to is either a large or extra large pizza. Now imagine a group of 6 extra large pizzas trying to comfortably swim in a shoal in a tank.

Ah! I didn't realize they got THAT big. All the sites I saw them on listed 100-150g as a min size. My tank will be big, but not "supports a school of large pizzas in the water column" big. I'll go with anthias and chromis, after all.