Lionfish troubles...

[da1jewfish]

I have been trying to get him to eat frozen anything for 2 weeks without success. I have used the feeding stick trying to mimic live food and he isn't interested. The last time I saw him eat was about a week ago.
Does anyone see any bad long-term effects to gut-loading fresh water feeders with any marine food and feeding those to him?

[Rick2203]

i have a fuzzy dwarf had him about 2 months, he is very picky , you have to sit there and watch them eat, i feed mine frozen mysis cubes, he loves it, and krill, i cut it up into small pieces, since he doesnt like big chunks, i dont understand the guy ate about 4 damsels i had in the tank , yet i have to cut pieces of krill small if not he wont eat it whole , thank god he took care of those.

[da1jewfish]

wow, how exactly do you do it? do u have to hand feed him? if so isn't he scared of the syringe or whatever you use?
A problem that I have is the other pigs in the tank eat all the food before the lion decides he doesn't want it.

[justinl]

what kind of lion do you have? note that lions can go on long stretches of time fasting. a month isnt unheard of. FW feeders will eventually cause fatty liver disease. just because it's filled with SW food doesnt make a difference. That would be like taking a stick of butter, sticking a stalk of celery in it and calling it healthy.

that said FW feeders can be helpful in the short term just to initiate a feeding response. but youll want to wean the lion on to marine feed sooner rather than later.

read.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...ture/index.php

[dendro982]

I had mine lionfish for an year on FW ghost shrimp, gut loaded with saltwater shrimp, fish and marine pellets for carnivores, until it jumped off from open top tank. Had no choice - tried all possible ways of weaning, it didn't work. Now have the second mombassa - the story repeats. Starved it for 5 days - still the same, live food only. But no troubles with volitan - it weaned very fast.

For how long maximum you all starved your lions safely, before they started to eat the thawed food?
I would not risk to keep fish starving for a month - it could become the one way road...

[da1jewfish]

Originally posted by dendro982

For how long maximum you all starved your lions safely, before they started to eat the thawed food?
I would not risk to keep fish starving for a month - it could become the one way road...

Good question. anyone?

I have a dwarf zebra
Mine will eat live without any problems. Do you guys have to put the frozenn right in its face? or does he go to it on its own?

[sunkool]

Maybe its karma.

[dendro982]

Do you guys have to put the frozen right in its face? or does he go to it on its own?

LFS sell the transparent acrylic thing, feeding prong. The fish is supposed not to see transparent objects in the water. The thawed piece of the frozen food - not too big, not too small, and try different food - is attached to the sharpened end. Movements, imitating the live prey, here and there, back and forth, should be convincingly enough for a lion to jump and gulp the piece. I was successful fisher of the wild fish, but not good enough to convince mombasa.

Because of gulping, the method was improved, the feeding prong was replaced by thin transparent rigid acrylic tubing (from LFS) with piece of transparent fishing line, going through it, free end ~4"(10 cm). If the fish puts itself onto the holding device during gulping - the fishline will be easily pulled back from the top side of the tubing.
Other fish ate from this device (but not from the prong), except the lion.

For some people, splashing food at the surface helped.
The food with both eyes visible, helped too, body can be cut to the size. Starving fish up to 5 days helped some people too.

For others - putting the thawed piece of mysis shrimp cube (or piece of krill) into the fishing net, together with live ghost shrimp, or separately. Lion is accustomed to eat from the fish net - may try the other piece.

For my volitan worked another thing - just dropping pieces into the tank - all other fish eats, he started to eat too.

Links: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 .

Now - entertaining part, old photos of my lionfishes, ready to eat:

The hand is not mine - I'm with camera

[Rick2203]

i just use a turkey baster, or whatever u call those things, as soon as i stick it in the tank he comes running to it, once you have them eating they are pretty responsive to you when you put the food in the tank, you have to be very patient tho, because they are very slow eaters, you have to put in a bit of food at a time, sometimes it will sit there and just look at it, sometimes it will jump to it.

[Rick2203]

and i dont feed it everyday i feed it every couple of days, make sure hes hungry.

[da1jewfish]

thanks all... I am trying everything and I will let you know the outcome.