best eats for a dwarf lion/snowflake eel

[jr8budcar]

I am going to get a dwarf lion and a snowflake eel this weekend. What is the best food and proper way of feeding my dwarf and eel. I have frozen brine shrimp is that good?? The lfs says give him goldfish the fist week but I think I read on here not to do this so what do you guys think, I want to do it right!!:jumping:

 

[moraym]

Yeah, don't feed him goldfish. Not healthy at all. If you absolutely must feed them live food to get them started eating, feed them ghost shrimp (should be at your LFS) or if you have to feed FW feeders, guppies are a little cleaner than feeder goldfish.
I started my SFE and dwarf lion on frozen squid, silversides, krill. (all available at your LFS)
I then started going to the grocery and purchasing uncooked shrimp, squid, and other fresh seafood as they got older.

 

[jr8budcar]

thanks, I knew that I had read that goldfish was not good for them . Thanks for the frozen food ideas I will do that. Do you have to put the food right in front of the lion or will it eat it as it is floating around the tank melting. Did I read somethin about a feeder stick or am I thinking of somethin else!?

 

[moraym]

Dwarf lions can sometimes be finicky to start feeding at first, especially if you're trying to feed them something that they will not recognize by instinct as food - such as thawed frozen foods.
With all of my lions, encompassing about every possible lion available, I only needed to feed live for one week. I then feed nothing for one week, and then the lion should be willing to eat thawed food from a feeding stick.
Also, all of my LFSs feed their in-stock lions guppies, so check with your local store where you bought him to see (a) if he was feeding and (b) what he was eating. I'd buy a lion that is already eating, even if it is live fish.
Feed live, even guppies, for one week. Get the lion full, then don't feed for a week solid, and then he should be willing to take thawed krill or silversides, this worked for all of my dwarf lions, and they were all started out eating guppies at the LFS.
Eventually your lion's feeding mode will coincide with you putting anything in the top of the tank. My lions were so used to being fed frozen, that when i opened the top of the tank for anything they'd go into feeding mode. They would eat anything that hit the top of the water and dropped. It was actually quite humorous, they even inhaled and then spit out antibiotic tablets I dropped in the top.

 

[moraym]

As for my SFE, I started him by hand-feeding him frozen krill. He never needed anything live. You may not want to hand feed with the lion in there, so just use a feeding stick to get the food down to the SFE.

 

[jr8budcar]

how many guppies should i buy? do i put them all in the tank? sorry for all the questions you have already been so helpful. Thanks so much

 

[moraym]

Well, ghost shrimp would be the better route to go. More natural in the diet, and more nutritional.
As far as guppies go, I think I fed mine 3-6 guppies over the day (mine were very small though). And i only did this to match the regimen he was being fed at the LFS.

 

[jr8budcar]

thank u so much:cheer:

 

[civicracer]

how often should you feed a fuzzy dwarf frozen silversides?

 

[moraym]

I just feed lions a few times, 3-4, a week, depending on the amount of food i feed and how hungry they are at the time

 

[unleashed]

I had both in my tank together for over a yr they did very well together brine shrimp unfortunatly is over rated it has the nutritional value for fish that popcorn has to humans.basicly not much sell alot and for a cheep price thats why it sells so fast (its cheep)vit fortified foods is your best bet mysis shrimp they all love squid krill SFE can be kinda tricky when you first get them they arent normally apt to eat right away you can start them both off with stick feeding some people use bamboo skewers but the stick sometimes scares the fish and they arent always as long as you would like them to be clear plastic tubes work the best some LFS sell them they are blunt at both ends i found i lost alot of food that way I jst cut the tip of one end and made it like a 2 pronged fork holds on better but the fish and eel can still snatch it off quickly and easily.I have always presoaked my frozen foods in fresh water with garlic(garlic extreme)help boost immune system and it accually entices the fish to eat the food.feed your most agressive eaters first if you dont your lion and eel my get detoured away from the food.the lion and your SFE are very dosile eaters they dont do well in competition for food.they will just go hungry by choice. I also feed daily .

 

[unleashed]

sorry to do this again my last post was long enough but I have to ask is your LFS a petland??or all fish?have you ever heard of goldfish or guppies in the ocean? you want to feed them a diet as close to nature would as possible.