lion fish not eating

brainboygw · 02-02-2008, 09:23 PM

Hi,
I have a volitan lionfish that I've had for about five months. He used to eat 1-2 frozen krill a day and would swim over when I put them in the water. Over the last few weeks, he's seemed less and less interested and has stopped eating all together for the most part. Even when I use the tongs to get it close to him, he, seems uninterested.
Is this normal? If not are there other things I should try feeding him? Any other ideas? -Greg

gm333 · 02-02-2008, 10:38 PM

He might have a problem, try giving him some live ghost shrimp, sometimes live foods will help with finicky eaters. How are your parameters in the tank? Any new changes lately?

brainboygw · 02-03-2008, 10:24 AM

Thanx for responding. The water is pretty clean. I had one filter go down but replaced it. When it came back online, that's right when he stopped eating. The salt concentration has been creeping down very slightly (less salty) - still within the safe margins. I just upped it but he was not eating before I raised the concentration. I'll give the shrimp a try. Thanx!

frednwilma1999 · 02-03-2008, 01:07 PM

Live food should trigger his appetite. Salinity 1.022. Good luck ,keep us posted Jeff...

Tommy Gun · 02-03-2008, 01:17 PM

You might also want to try a garlic soak...this has worked well for me to get a few fish to eat, including my dwarf lion.

brainboygw · 02-03-2008, 04:56 PM

What's a garlic soak?

Tommy Gun · 02-03-2008, 07:31 PM

http://www.aquariumguys.com/garlicxtreme.html

unclejed · 02-09-2008, 01:52 PM

In all books I have read and from lfs, lions require live food be it guppies, small mollies or shrimp. I know, you are thinking, those fish are fresh water. Yes, they love them. I had a lion once and that is what I fed it. The lion true to it's name will lay in ambush and then strike. The beauty of the fresh water fish is they only last a short time in salt so they slow down and the lion sees them as wounded I guess and boy do they go after them. I also fed it small gold fish but you will get gold scales floating around.

Tommy Gun · 02-09-2008, 07:11 PM

It is my understanding that feeding freshwater fish to a marine animal is not going to provide the correct nutrition and so while they may eat like pigs, they may not live as long as they otherwise could. For this reason, it is always better to make a strong attempt at getting your fish weened off of live foods and on to prepared foods. Additionally, I believe that feeding colorful fish like goldfish or mollies to a lionfish may result in some liver problems.

It is definitely possible to find lionfish which eat prepared foods and I am willing to bet that the books unclejed is reading are slightly older. While it isn't the exact same thing, I do have video of my dwarf lions eating frozen krill and mysis shrimp.

unclejed · 02-10-2008, 05:17 PM

6 of one 1/2 dozen of another!