Lion Fish Eating Habits

[muskyhunte]

My lion fish will only eat the ghost shrimp or gupies I put in the tank. I tryed slider and other frozen foods. He just wont eat the frozen foods. It seems like his food needs to be live for him to eat. Any feeding tips?
Is there any thing wrong with feeding him live foods?
:help:
I have attached a picture of my eel.

 

[jamos6]

dont feed him for a day or so that way he wil be hungry. Then get some silversides and put them in the flow of current and he will think they are swimming and eat them. I had to do that with some of my fish in the past and it seems to work pretty good.

 

[liontamer]

Yea, and try wiggling it too. Once it gets used to eating food from you, it will expect anything that u drop into the tank to be food...

 

[puffrbware]

How big is your lion and what type is he? I have a baby Violitan about 5 in and loves frozen silversides. when i put in the fish iwait for him to see it and let go when approching to eat. My lion tends to lose interest in food if he just sees it lying on the sand bed.

 

[muskyhunte]

I have a dwarf fuzzy lionfish and he is about 3 inches. I will try the silver slide. Any other ideas.

 

[ryan]

They can go awhile without eating. Try not feeding him for about 2 or 3 days. Then you can try silversides, or krill work really good. Just put the food on the end of a feeding stick or some hard plastic tubing and wiggle the food inside the tank like its alive. Keep bothering him with it until he takes it. Good luck.

 

[muskyhunte]

Is there any thing wrong with feeding him the live ghost shrimp and the gupies / rosey reds? I only feed this fish once a week.
When I was wathcing him the other day I also noticed the fish giving off a substance from its mouth almost like a syrup or something like that. What is it.

 

[ryan]

I think the Ghost Shrimp are alright. You dont want to feed it to much fish though. Feeder fish do not offer them the nutrients they need. The feeder fish give them excess fat. If you do feed them ghost shrimp, or other live food make sure you feed your live food a lot before feeding them to the lionfish. This way the lionfish will be getting all the nutrients that his food ate.

 

[crenny]

had the same problem when i got my baby 3 inch red vilation. so what i did was frezz the rosies though one at a time and wiggle at the surface and hes been eating every day. Had him for about one week now.

 

[lion_crazz]

I would not recommend feeding him rosies any more. Rosies are unhealthy to a fish, and they can cause internal problems with your lion down the road if you keep up this practice. Guppies are okay, but still not good. I would stick to the ghost shrimp and mix in some silversides when you throw the ghosts in the water. Worst comes to worst, don't feed him for 3 or 4 days, and then throw in a few shrimp, and a good amount of silversides/krill. He might eat the silversides and krill just because he is so hungry, and then he will finally realize that that is good food as well. Continue this until he is eating all frozen, and needing no ghost shrimp to make him eat.

 

[muskyhunte]

I was wondering if it would help if I put the krill in the tank before the lights go out at nigh beings they are a nocturnal hunter. The same with the silver slide. Will this work. I read some articals on the net about this fish and every one saide this fish like to hunt at night. Is it worth a shot.
Also how much light should I keep on the tank during the day. Now I have the lights on a timer to come on around 11am and go off around 8pm. I am using only one bulb in my hood beacuse I know they dont like a lot of light.
Any information would help.

 

[liontamer]

Light isnt going to kill them, they arent light intolerant. They will go out during the daytime, but are more active at night, and DO feed when the light is on. In fact, if u put food in the tank, then turn off the lights, if the food is dead, they will never find it. They will eat wen the light is on. If u have live foods in there (like, wen they are larger, damsel fishes and such) then they will hunt them at nightime, or even snag em during the light, It doesnt really matter.

 

[muskyhunte]

Thanks for the info.

 

[kms]

I agree with crazz. I had a horrible experience with rosies. I had my Lion for a few months, just enough to get aquainted with her personality. She loved rosies, but would accept krill and sometimes squid on a skewer that I could wiggle around. After three months i asked my buddy who had a lion also how his was doing. He said it died from feeding her the wrong food!:nope: Apparently, rosies are fatty and pass on very bad bacteria, causing a stomach infection or something. I was devastated. A few days later, I found mine stuck to the filter. I learned two lessons. First, there are no freshwater fish in the ocean so why feed saltwater fish, freshwater garbage? And second, it serves me right for attempting a lion in a 45. What a newbie. We all make mistakes, right? RIP - Mufasa!