lion fish
- Thread starter walleye
- Start date
unleashed
Active Member
well I have probably typed this a few dif places here today but wth ill do it again.goldfish are not good for salt water fish you should never feed bottom feeders to your fish they live on waste things that have passed through other fish even.can we say ack.but yest I went on a research rampage for live feeder fish for my new 10 in volitan lionfish.I also have a 4 in volitan in a sep tank.after alot of reading I found that giving live marine fish as feeders periodicly not as main diet mind you ,will keep him healthier .after hours and hours of typing and searching and posting and more readingI found the right answer.feeding your agressive fish a fresh water fish doent have the same nutrients that a SWF will have the diet is much differnt.you are basicly trying to mimic nature for you fish.how long does a goldfish or guppy or even ghost shrimp survive in salt water? an hour if your lucky.then it dawned onme what fish swims in both fresh and salt ?brackish !! ahha now what will acually acclimate to salt and be good for food and be reasonably priced I wrote a couple emails to a few diferent online suppliers and I got my answer :black mollies.they live in a normal salinaty of 1.015 not a huge difference.I have found that they are easily acclimated to salt.black mollies breed like crazy in the right enviroment but they are very hardy fish and their diet consist of the same as most omnivores of marine fish.there for the perfect feeder that can accually live in the tank until eaten.went to my local FWf store and odered them at bulk pricing.so if your fish is already eating live this might be a good start for you also.if you ask them about bulk pricing you might be able to get them at a good price and like i said they breed like guppies.they normally run in store 1.99 to 4.00 depending on the store or website im getting mine at .99 each
walleye
Member
i feed my sea horses baby guppys and they have lived up to 2 months in the salt water. dont ask me how but they even breed in the salt water. iam going to get a feeding stick when i go to the mainland this week. try to get them to start eating squid and cultfish. hope i can. thanks gary
lionkiller
Member
Some Guppies are also Brackish like Mollies. Ghost shrimp as well. I have acclimatted all three species to live in salt water. The Ghost shrimp aren't as easy to do and I had a 30% fatality rate on them, but once acclimatted, they bred. So now I have a salt water feeder/breeding tank.
big boy69
Member
I still wouldn't use the mollies.
If you want to keep live fish in the tank and eventually have them disappear, i would use green chromis.
I only have one left as of now because he keeps getting about one a week or every other week.
I thought they were just hiding from him, but i seen him get one last night right before i went to bed.
If you want to keep live fish in the tank and eventually have them disappear, i would use green chromis.
I only have one left as of now because he keeps getting about one a week or every other week.
I thought they were just hiding from him, but i seen him get one last night right before i went to bed.
unleashed
Active Member
I just thought i would share this with you.this is a very inforamtive page.http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-1...ture/index.htm
for anyone that owns or plans on owning a lion
for anyone that owns or plans on owning a lion
unleashed
Active Member
Originally posted by big Boy69
You can get them pretty cheap especially if you buy them in bulk.
It's just a more natural fish they would eat then Mollies.
Plus w/the Mollies, i think the fat in them isn't good for the Lion.
Plus they're a lot more comical to watch swim around.
well i got my mollies in today set them up in a 20 gal after acclimating them top theer own home i placed 5 mollies into my 125 with the lion within 2 min all 5 were gobbled up.so much for the fish lingering around for a while lol
unleashed
Active Member
Originally posted by walleye
mine is eating alot of ghostshrimp and gold fish. iam trying to get him off the gold fish. iam trying to get him to eat frozrn squid but no luck yet. someone said to put garlic extrack on it and that would make him eat it. does anyone know if that works. thanks gary
I dont know about garlic extract per say I use a product called xtreme garlic it smells like garlic but i dont beleive it accually contains garlic.although it seems pricey to purchase apox 18.00 per 1 or 2 oz bottle.compair the cost of a clove of garlic that can go bad and repete purchases 1 bottle last me a full yr.I have purchases 2 bottles in 2 yrs and one which was eaten by my garbage disposal 1/2 full.so cost wise you get your moneys worth and you know its good for your fish no ifs ands or buts.its made by kent marine products
fishieness
Active Member
ill have to try that xtream garlic stuff because i have a snowflake eel who will only eat krill. Ive fed him silversides on the feeder stick but he will just bite it, realize its not krill, and let go of it. He shows no interest at all in them. I even tried a live guppie onces just to try to intice him into eating fish, but he showed no interest. so i fed it to my little oscars and they literaaly swolloed it before it hit the water of the tank.
cubfan
Member
I fed my lion 6 ghost shrimp as a single meal, then I had to leave for 4 days. When I returned, I thawed a frozen krill and the lion went right for it. Contrary to common thinking, lions will NOT starve themselves to death. However, if you withhold food of 4 to 5 days, the lion should be about ready to eat just about anything. Make sure you are in control of the fish, not the other way around. Check out the aggressive forum, there are lots of great ideas about feeding lions over there.
unleashed
Active Member
Originally posted by cubfan
I fed my lion 6 ghost shrimp as a single meal, then I had to leave for 4 days. When I returned, I thawed a frozen krill and the lion went right for it. Contrary to common thinking, lions will NOT starve themselves to death. However, if you withhold food of 4 to 5 days, the lion should be about ready to eat just about anything. Make sure you are in control of the fish, not the other way around. Check out the aggressive forum, there are lots of great ideas about feeding lions over there.
unfortunatly you are mistaken about a lion wont starve them selves .they will do it!!lions only have to be fed every 3 or 4 days so to wait that length of time is very natural for them my first lion i had well over a yr and a half was a great eater then one day he just stopped eating acted completly normal just wouldnt eat that went on for 2 weeks before I placed him in qt never showed any signs of stress illness nothing but refused any type of feed it took a whole month in that qt with no food for him to finally pass away. as for the snowflake eel they will go 4 days up to 2 weeks with no food mine eats frozen krill soaked in garlic extreme he will only eat about once a week but then theer are times he wants food daily .if your fish arent eating you can drop the garlic extreme directly into the tank 1 drop per every 10 gal and they still get the benafits of it.i use it every day for my fish and ill swear by it I have had losses in fish within the last couple months but those fish I also had in my tank for 2 yrs they live quality lives.btw was 2 fish
walleye
Member
thanks guys i will get a bottle of garlic extreme the next time in town. so for now ill have to feed him ghost shrimp. ive heard alot of good thing about the garlic extreme and you guys have made up my mine. you know how people try to sell you things you dont need. lol. well thanks gary.