I have a juvenile lionfish about 3 inches long. I bought him about 2 weeks ago from my LFS and they were feeding him live guppies. I was told he was eating a little bit of frozen food too..... total LIE. I cant get him to even show a little bit of interest in anything freeze dried, frozen, or anything else. Ive tried krill both frozen and dried. Ive tried shrimp, misis shrim, lobster. He will not touch anything but live food. Iv tried all of these on a feeding stick ... still nothing. Any help with this matter would be great, i need to get him off this live food.
Lionfish eating problem????
- Thread starter dengnath
- Start date
It can be tough to get a lionfish to eat anything other than live food.
One thing you can try is to get some shrimp or crab from a seafood store. Cut it in to "guppy size" fragments.
Then make a feeding tool using a 1/4 dowel about 18 inches long, and a wood tooth pick. Dill a small hole up the end of the dowel and mount the tooth pick there.
Use the feeding tool by putting a piece of shrimp or crab on the end, and using the tool to dangle the food right in front of the lionfish. The tool keeps your hands away from the spines.
Usually the lionfish will smell it, see it moving, and snap at it, and eat it. It may take a few tries, but it should work. Don't be afraid to let the fish go hungry. They can live for weeks with out eating, and hunger makes them try new foods.
One thing you can try is to get some shrimp or crab from a seafood store. Cut it in to "guppy size" fragments.
Then make a feeding tool using a 1/4 dowel about 18 inches long, and a wood tooth pick. Dill a small hole up the end of the dowel and mount the tooth pick there.
Use the feeding tool by putting a piece of shrimp or crab on the end, and using the tool to dangle the food right in front of the lionfish. The tool keeps your hands away from the spines.
Usually the lionfish will smell it, see it moving, and snap at it, and eat it. It may take a few tries, but it should work. Don't be afraid to let the fish go hungry. They can live for weeks with out eating, and hunger makes them try new foods.
LPK
Member
Maybe take him back? I know you don't really want to do this but its better than losing him. I had to take one back to a store and ended up getting a store credit. I then bought another one at another fish store and he eats shrimp right out of the end of a baster and tonight I even saw him grab a couple of Spectrum sinking pellets! Don't let them take your money and your lion fish starve because they lied...
mine was kinda the same way. I used rosie minnos, I would wait a few days and feed a live rosei and then a frozen silverside half. Then wait a few nore days and do it again. The lion may refuse the frozen food a few times. Then I would feed the frozen first and live second. If you have too wait a week till he is really hungry and then feed the frozen, make sure he sees it and he will go for it.
mikethebike7
Member
A guy in a saltwater fish store, who had at least forty years experience, told me that lionfish sometimes must be starved until they will eat frozen or dried food. He said that they can last at least six weeks without eating, although i personally wouldn't be able to do that to a fish. Perhaps mixing some live brine shrimp with some frozen (melted) brine shrimp might work.
LoyaltyNECO
Member
What type of Lionfish do you have? I have a Fuzzy Dwarf and was beginning to get VERY frustrated trying to convert him to frozen. What I've done is get him to eat live guppies and ghost shrimp. Then I've now moved to freezing the ghost shrimp (not feeding guppies anymore). Now I've begun to feed him a frozen ghost shrimp and then right after a very small piece of krill. He does have time where he doesn't want to go for the krill but I am noticing progress in him. Also, I've been feeding out of a baster so everytime he sees the baster in the water he goes into hunting mode and typically goes after anything that comes out. Hopefully that all makes sense and will help a little.