I recently purchased a Dwarf Zebra Lionfish about a week ago. To this day I have not been able to get him to eat anything to my knowledge. I have tried dried krill, frozen krill, even guppies. He will not eat anything, or even show interest for that matter. Can someone please give me some advice on how to get this little guy to eat?
Lionfish Won't Eat-Need Help
- Thread starter ishharris
- Start date
redsea reefer
Well-Known Member
The lionfish doesnt want to eat something thats not alive and wiggling or darting away from it Its crucial to have a power jet aimed in the area your going to feed to blow the small food bits around , tricking the lion into thinking that it has live food l I just bought a lionfish the other day too. I got mine the small silversides . He eats them. I spear the frozen (thawed for feeding in a small cup of tank water) silverside with a marshmello/hotdog spear like for bbq's. I got the flat type you can use for small shishe kabobs not the round type with two ends for hotdogs. I put the thawed silver side on it sideways not up and down where you might cut the silverside in half (just barely hanging onto the end of the tip). I then i put it infront of the lions nose, i wiggle it back and forth, the silverside kind of vibrates and makes little popping movements . I keep that up until the fish will get aggressive towards it, follow it a few inches and flare its fins outward and aim its head downwards. Then i let it go into the strong current. I cant stress enough that it helps A TON to have a power jet aimed in the feeding area so the silver side or other frozen item will whip and sweep around infront of the lionfish when you wiggle it harder to make it fall off infront of the lion. Hope that helps . I heard you can also try to feed fw feeders as a last resort but only for a few days as you start mixing in the other food sources and weaning the lion off the fw feeders.
Shagon
Member
Lionfish also need the food above them to see it. There is a write up floating around that talks about putting some very heavy mono filament fishing line on the end of a feeding stick. This allows the food to wiggle a little and look like its alive. Did you ask the FS owner what he was feeding the lion fish and did you see it eat?
I did not see the lion eat, but he is in very healthy condition. My lfs was having an "out of bag" special, meaning you buy them before they are removed from the shipping bags and you save a ton of money. I know it is a risky thing to do, but I am confident in myself and willing to live with my decisions. lol I have another lion fish as well as a scorpion fish in the same tank and I have NO PROBLEMS feeding the both of them. I think he is just being stubborn. I am trying different methods and will get him to eat eventually. I think he is still really shy and skiddish. I may end up trying the fishing line idea, i just don't want him to end up hurt. I don't think it is at all his instinct, seeing as he won't even make an attempt at live food. As for feeding peppermint shrimp, Who has the money to do that honestly? Thank you for all the advice and I will try and keep you posted on whether or not he begins to eat.
Has he eaten anything yet ? If you all ready have other lionfish then you know alot more about them than i do LOL. I just got my first set of lionfish this week. I got them a couple days apart, the smaller of the two that i got first ate a frozen silverside an hour after being released from the bag , the larger one that came 2 days later pouted and skulked the first 24 hours, refusing any food offered till the morning of 3 day when i broke down and went to lfs and brought him home 5 feeders . He had a mini feeding frenzy, snapping 4 of 5 up before the smaller one even knew they were in the tank. After he ate he no longer skulked and will approach the glass when i walk into the room now. Since then he did also eat a couple of mysis shrimp i dumped into the water column but that just ended up making a mess for me to clean up later since they stopped feeding on them as soon as they settled to the sand and stopped being blown around . If he hasnt eaten yet, could he be sick ? I noticed that one fish feeding makes the other jump into feeding mode, maybe your fish is a bit under the weather if he is with other lions and is only one still not eating.
I got him to eat today. I put him in a holding foam cooler to isolate him. He ate 2 feeder guppies almost instantly. He is a little smaller than the other lionfish so I guess maybe he is just intimidated. I have also noticed he does not move near as fast. I guess I will just have to isolate him every time he needs to eat. It is worth it to have him though, he is a BEAUTIFUL fish.