Things With Stings Reef is a collection of all things venomous

Every so often reefkeepers push the boundaries of what’s possible in an aquarium. Tom Hone is one such aquarist, who through passion, drive and determination has introduced a world-class collection of venomous fish species to his 146-gallon mixed reef.

His passion for predatory saltwater fish started seven years ago when he added a pair of Marine Betta, Calloplesiops altivelis, to his tank, followed by some Waspfish species, Paracentropogon zonatus and Ablabys taenianotus, a year later. He told us he got fed up with reef fish like wrasses and tangs fighting and killing each other all the time so wanted to try something different.

36 venomous fish in one tank

Fast forward six years and his latest setup now contains 36 venomous fish, spanning 17 species from 10 genera, with another four Scorpionfish he is yet to identify. That’s on top of the Regal Tang, Scopas Tang, Clownfish, Sixline Wrasse, Marine Betta, and Skeletor Eel that cohabit with them. We needed to find out more…  

“The tank is a Waterbox Frag 145.5, so 1536x643x410mm and 554L total volume, and has only been set up for 6 months,” Tom tells Reef Builders, “The corals and fish were moved across from a previous tank that was set up 2.5 years ago.”

“I don’t keep any motile inverts. They wouldn’t last 10 seconds in this tank! Initially, I tried to keep them with a few reef fish but quickly realized that wasn’t a good idea – I lost a few fairy wrasses to Leaf Scorpionfish, and the Rhinopias has been known to grab another fish accidentally during feeding time, but it always spits them out!” 

Pet fish with personalities

“I’ve always had a penchant for oddball fish since my tropical days. Also, I really like the personalities of the Scorpaenidae – they really do act like a pet once settled. My Cockatoo Waspfish will come and sit in my hand and when I turn the pumps off for feeding time all the fish come and line up at the front of the glass waiting to be fed.”

“I usually spend a few months training any newcomers to eat frozen food. I start by skewering a live River shrimp (Palaemon varians,) on a feeding stick, and then over a period of time, I replace live with freshly dead and then eventually frozen. By the time they take a frozen shrimp you can get them to eat anything at all from the stick. Then it’s not usually too long until they will eat from the water column or off the substrate.”

“The Rhinopias is a bit of a diva however and really only eats live food, or from the feeding stick. Don’t underestimate the time and investment to wean some predatory fish onto dead food. Some of mine took months!”

Beware of the Popeye Sea Goblin

“I’ve never been stung. I’m incredibly careful when working on the tank and especially with the Inimicus didactylus. The horrible clownfish that lives in the tank with them has done far more damage to me than any of my venomous fish but be careful! Whilst a sting from most of my species is unlikely to hospitalize, you never know what sort of reaction you might have until it happens.”

“Fish on my wishlist include Choridactylus multibarbus, Richardsonichthys leucogaster, Minous trachycephalus and Paraploactis obessi. I’ve had the latter before and it’s a very cool fish. The other three I’ve never heard of landing in the UK.”

Tom’s current stock list