Dwarf Lionfish

[pfitz44]

Ok... I wnat to get a dwarf lionfish... i have a 55 gal tank, finished cycle about 3 weeks ago. Gonna add him in maybe after christmas.... Want to know EVERYHTRING about them... My dad had a V. Lion in his tank, and i loved it! but uanfortuatly, he didnt knowwhat he was doing... he had it in a 55.... and fed it just guppies....
My main concern is it eating my other fish. I know the full size lions will eat clowns and what not, but will the dwarfs??

~Fitzy

 

[zensaiyan]

anything that will fit in its mouth is food. the mouth may look small but it's not. be very very careful.

 

[angelsrock]

Originally Posted by zensaiyan
anything that will fit in its mouth is food. the mouth may look small but it's not. be very very careful.
not necessarily, i had a dwarf for almost 2 years. i had him in with a bunch of stuff he should normally not have gone with, but you have to wait to add stuff like this until you have a lot of rock work and you have him eating only foods that aren't living like silversides and krill. the only way to get him to start eating this is to wait until he eats anything as soon as it hits the water and then start throwing the krill and silversides. also they are nocturnal so the only time you'll really see them during the day is when you're feeding them. i had mine in with 4 cleaner shrimp, a blood shrimp, a peppermint shrimp, a coral banded shrimp and a couple other little things as well including damsels that could easily be swallowed.

 

[rberhow]

I must say, that in our experience, our dwarf lion has never went after our fish or shrimp. He is in with a false percula and a fire shrimp and has never even so much as looked at him. Might just be a one time piece of luck for us but just wanted to let you know it might be possible. BTW, our false perc and our fire shrimp are rather small too. Both are barely over an inch. In fact, our peppermint shrimp were bigger than our fire shrimp.

 

[harndog]

I have also been considering a lion for my reef. It's good to know there has been some success with shrimp and crabs. Have any of you guys had any trouble getting them to eat at first????

 

[angelsrock]

Originally Posted by Harndog
I have also been considering a lion for my reef. It's good to know there has been some success with shrimp and crabs. Have any of you guys had any trouble getting them to eat at first????
only with frozen and freeze dried foods, live food they should take right away

 

[my way]

Originally Posted by Harndog
I have also been considering a lion for my reef. It's good to know there has been some success with shrimp and crabs. Have any of you guys had any trouble getting them to eat at first????

I don't know if I got lucky but mine will even eat flake food.

 

[danedodger]

Lionfish are little piggies so I would think that it's probably not too hard to train them to eat all sorts of things. It just depends on what they're used to and how you wean them over to other foods. And there is always the chance that no matter how long they've not eaten another fish that they may someday if it will fit in their mouth. That being said though if you train them onto other foods and keep them well fed the chances are certainly greater that they won't eat smaller animals in your tank. And then there's always the variable of the individual fish's personality too to change the odds one way or the other.

 

[pfitz44]

awsome!! thanks alot guys... big help in deciding to get me one!!!