help with lion

mie

mie

Active Member
Well i bought a small vilotan lion two weeks ago and i still cant get it to eat.
There are two small green chromis in the tank that it could problably eat and it shows no interest. I have tried fedding it silversides, shrimp, squid, brine and nothing is working, I will wave the food in front of its face and all it does is swim away.
Any help would be great.
 
srfisher17

srfisher17

Active Member
Originally Posted by mie
http:///forum/post/2454261
No on both. Where can i get live ghost shrimp? Will the other larger fish triger, and clown eat them first?
Sometimes you just have to offer live food first. This is probably what the lfs did; they don't have to deal with the long-term effects. A few live guppies, as a last resort, will not hurt a lionfish. Some folks will disagree; but, the fatty deposits that cause lionfish problems are a long-term event. Give him a few guppies,(mollies are better ,If he's big enough), ghost shrimp or salt water feeder shrimp. At this point, IMO, it is much more important to get him eating SOMETHING than to argue about what to feed him. Once he's feeding on live foods, he should be much easier to wean over to frozen. If you have to feed enough to let the other fish get some, that's fine. This is another reason to always QT; lions are not really aggressive fish, they are predators and are usually easier to get eating when by themselves. Getting food to a lion can be an ongoing problem when aggressive eaters, like triggers, are tankmates. You may have to feed him with a feeding stick or tongs for quite a while.
 
120fowlr

120fowlr

New Member
What I do is soak a silverside in garlic and it goes nuts over it. I got my Russelli to eat right away.
 
srfisher17

srfisher17

Active Member
Originally Posted by 120FOWLR
http:///forum/post/2454362
What I do is soak a silverside in garlic and it goes nuts over it. I got my Russelli to eat right away.
Fresh garlic is great; but after 2 weeks, I sure would get live food asap.
 
mie

mie

Active Member
Ok i just got back from the lfs and put in ten small feeder guppies and the trigger and blue devil damsel ate like four of them, two died right away, and the lion scarfed down the others. Thank god he is finally eating.
 
dangalla

dangalla

Member
yeah i was gonna say the only thing me and my buddy could get his to eat was guppies, some people say its not good for them to eat freshwater fish but we never had a problem
 
mie

mie

Active Member
Ok trying to post a sweet pic but this new forum change sucks and i cant upload a pic.
Why fix it if it aint broke?
 
srfisher17

srfisher17

Active Member
Originally Posted by dangalla
http:///forum/post/2454708
yeah i was gonna say the only thing me and my buddy could get his to eat was guppies, some people say its not good for them to eat freshwater fish but we never had a problem
A steady diet of FW feeders is terrible (probably fatal) for any SW fish; they're too fatty. However, in an emergency (like a hunger strike by a new one) they're ok. Some folks will say ANY FW feeder will do damage; but,IMO, if you wean them ASAP, they'll be fine. The fatty deposits take time to build up.
 
shrimpi

shrimpi

Active Member
I started my old dwarf on live ghost shrimp.
first- just throw them in the tank
then- stabthe live one with a long kabob sp.ear., or give it to him with prongs/tweezers so he gets used to getting food on the spearer.. or more importantly.."from you"
then- after he gets used to the human feedings, start to feed meat on the stick and alternate or put a ghost shrimp AND a peice of meat on the stick at the same time.
he will get it eventually

Good Luck
Jess
P.S even though ghost shrimp arent exactly nutritional get him to eat those first, something is better than nothing.
 
srfisher17

srfisher17

Active Member
Shrimpi;2455552 said:
I started my old dwarf on live ghost shrimp.
first- just throw them in the tank
then- stabthe live one with a long kabob sp.ear., or give it to him with prongs/tweezers so he gets used to getting food on the spearer.. or more importantly.."from you"
then- after he gets used to the human feedings, start to feed meat on the stick and alternate or put a ghost shrimp AND a peice of meat on the stick at the same time.
he will get it eventually

Good Luck
Jess
P.S even though ghost shrimp arent exactly nutritional get him to eat those first, something is better than nothing.[/QUOTE
Amen! Nutrition is a long-term thing. If you ran across a starving kid and all you had, or all he would eat, was a Hershey bar, would you worry about nutrition? The biggest problem with live FW feeders, IMO, is that its so neat watching loins "hunt" that it can become habit forming. But thats why damsels are cheap.
] BTW, I'd really watch the trigger & damsel around the lion. Both of these fish can really stress even a large lion; their flowing fins are irresistible targets. Lions are not good at defending themselves against quick, nippy tankmates.
Click to expand...
 
mie

mie

Active Member
Here is a pic of him.
Thanks for your help everyone, He is definatly interested in the forzen thawed food being offered just not quite ready yet, so we will do another guppy feeding tonight.
Also the trigger and the damsel are not even close to harrasing him, all behaving perfect.
However when i tossed a few guppies into the tank the trigger and damsel were machines chasing and eating.
 
srfisher17

srfisher17

Active Member
As Shrimpi said above; I'd go from live to a feeding stick. I use a piece of rigid airline tubing cut to make a dull point. Stab a piece of fresh shrimp, squid (great) , silverside, etc. Add garlic or selcon. Use the stick to make it look alive. Going from live food to frozen is quite a jump, the feeding stick makes the move easier. I have a full grown Volitan that I still feed with a stick, or big plastic tweezers, just because he's spoiled...plus he is slow and this helps me get food to him before his tankmates scarf everything. These fish will get very tame if they're hand fed....really gets thse beautiful fish up-front with fins spread, when they see you.
 
mie

mie

Active Member
Sirfisher,
Thanks for the info i am quickly adoring this fish about as much as my trigger.
Today's feeding of guppies was very good, and the lion now is recognizing me and what actions indicate food. when i pu the net in the tank with the guppies the lion swims right up to it and waits for the guppies to come out.
 
srfisher17

srfisher17

Active Member
Originally Posted by mie
http:///forum/post/2458802
Sirfisher,
Thanks for the info i am quickly adoring this fish about as much as my trigger.
Today's feeding of guppies was very good, and the lion now is recognizing me and what actions indicate food. when i pu the net in the tank with the guppies the lion swims right up to it and waits for the guppies to come out.
Great! Now its time to get him eating healthier food. He may go on a hunger strike for a while, because of the guppies. But, the longer you wait, the harder it will be. Like others have said, pieces of raw seafood, with fresh garlic, would be a good 1st choice. BTW, how big is this guy? Healthy Volitans grow incredibly fast and will usually end up eating any fish, shrimp, etc that they can swallow whole. If this guy is in with the fish & inverts listed on your profile--many of them will be lunch down the road.
 
mie

mie

Active Member
Ok it's update time.
I put in the new lights, 400 watt halide, 95 watt vho, fish were a little scared for a few days. But got the lion to eat silverside two days in a row, i used the net and he swam up to it and out came the silverside, he did not hesitate. Now dealing with bubbles from my pump and new carbon in the pump the mushrooms ar not to happy, kind of got me concerned.
 
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