Lionfish eats all food before eel

[cc777371]

My snowflake eel doesn't get a chance to eat because my lion-fish eats all the live feeder fish first. I put in 3 fish at separate times last night near the eel and the lion fish ate all three. Now his stomach is very bloated and he just lays down. Any ideas?

 

[geridoc]

Years ago I had a similar problem with a lionfish. I thought I could solve it by feeding the eel with a feeding stick, but the lion went after that, too. Finally my wife an I worked out a system in which i would use the feeding stick to feed the eel while my wife used an algae scraper to slap the lion on the nose whenever he paid attention to the stick. It only took a few days and the lion learned to ignore the stick. Carnivores are pretty smart, and figure out which food is theirs, so long as they can rely on the source

 

[crimzy]

If you thaw out some frozen food it should sink and the lion may not go for it. Squid is probably the strongest smelling for the eel but anything meaty should work.

 

[saxman]

It's best to wean your fishes off of the feeders (hopefully, you're not feeding your fishes goldfish or rosy reds, as they really are poor choices nutritionally, and they can cause health issues down the road, generally Thiamine (B1) deficiency and incorrect HUFA's, which often results in CNS disorders (clamped fins, anorexia, seizures, early death, etc).

Once you wean the fishes, they will indeed get the hang of your feeding style, and will generally wait their turn IME with lionfishes, altho fuzzies are kind of a hopeless case, LOL. The thing with fuzzies is they tend to crowd the surface at feeding time, so an eel might be OK in that instance.