How often do you feed your lionfish?

[dsmccain]

Hello,
Just another Lionfish post. I never imagined owning one, but I bought one Saturday, hes only about 3-4 inches. Hes slower than the other fish and doesn't quite eat frozen yet. I did put 6 ghost shrimp in the tank and he ate them up in less than 5 minutes.
I'm going to start keeping ghost shrimp and gutload them with frozen food. But how often would you recommend putting shrimp in the tank, and how many at a time?

 

[jstdv8]

It's best if you ween him onto frozen foods like silver sides. The ghost shrimp are a nice treat but even gutloaded are gonna have a hard time keeping up with his nutritional needs as he gets bigger.
Take one of those shrimp in a small tongs, like the kind you might move small things around in your tank with. and wiggle it in front of him, this may take soem time but sooner or later he will get so hungry he will have to eat it. once he does give him another one the same way. then try a small chunk of silverside. you'll probbaly have to wiggle it around in there to make it look alive but eventually he will come and get it.
I used to leave my tongs right in front of the tanka nd when my lion would see me pick them up he would swim to the glass and follow my hand with the tongs in it wereever I moved.
I fed my lion every 3 days, but rememebr when trying to tong feed them they can last weeks without eating in the wild. they are oppertunistic feeders, so they don't HAVE to have food all the time. this makes it easier, becasue he will get so hungry eventually he won't be able to resist. just like you and a twinkie

 

[dsmccain]

Well said, thanks. The local store owner said to try to get him to eat frozen foods, which is what I want because thats what the rest of them eat. He did say that if he don't eat, let him kind of starve himself to the point where he will eat anything.
The store owner's quote was "Heck, even I will eat a salad if I get hungry enough"

 

[jstdv8]

hahahaha

 

[m-barbour]

and also when weened onto frozen you can determine how fast you may want your lion to grow. In the wild they try to eat as much as they can as fast as they can to grow fast and reduce the threat of larger pred, so if you want him to grow fast you may feed him once a day, if you would like to slow the process once every couple or few days. I use to feed my 5 inch volitan until his belly was a little plump, usually about 1.5 pieces of krill or silversides a night. Remember to feed a variety of frozen to ensure nutrients as lions are known to get lockjaw if only fed only a couple different foods, then its just ugly from there. I have also heard feeding them at night (after 5pm) is best and will help ween due to them being nocturnal and wanting to feed at night. Just my .02. good luck with the adorable creature

 

[saxman]

We feed our Scorpaenformes 3x a week (M-W-F). As mentioned, a varied diet is the key to success with these fish, actually any fish needs nutritional variety. The best place to get your lion food is the grocer's seafood counter or local fish market. Small amounts of "people food" are actually cheaper than the "fish food" you get at the LFS in many cases.
Shell-on uncooked table shrimp, SW fish flesh (tuna, snapper, salmon, smelt, silversides, etc), squid, scallops, octopus are all great foods. Cut them into bite-sized chunks and present them with a feeding stick. We use a modified "stealth" acrylic feeding stick for all of our preds, and it works REALLY well.
Here's an article that should help you a lot: http://www.lionfishlair.com/feedingtechniques/toolsofthetrade.shtml
Also, Google Frank Marini Lionfish and read his excellent article on lionfish care. Frank also has an excellent book out entitled Lionfishes and Other Scropionfishes which is available from Amazon. A must have for lion-lovers.
HTH