Lionfish Question?

[bacchus_fl]

I was just feeding my lionfish and when he extented his mouth to grab one of the shrimp his upper lip seems to have gotten stuck in the extented position.
Has anybody every seen this happen before and if so is there a way to fix it? Should I be worried and try to fix it for him or just leave it be?
Any advice would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Jason

 

[lion_crazz]

He probably hyper-extended his jaw. This is very common in lionfish and should be a concern for you because it might prevent him from eating. He will have to fix it on his own, but in the mean time, try feeding him very small pieces of food, as he will not be able to take in anything of large size.

 

[bacchus_fl]

About how long might it take to correct itself?
If worse comes to worse and he doesn't eat by the end of the week is there anything I can to help correct it?
Thanks,
Jason

 

[lion_crazz]

It may take a while. Try feeding it very small things, like ghost shrimp or tiny pieces of krill that won't be an effort to ingest. He is going to have to heal the jaw himself because if you tried to relocate it, you may wind up hurting it in the long run. Just don't panic him anymore than he needs to be. You may want to consider trying to hand feed it almost, or putting the food on the feeding stick so that he does not have to do much work trying to "hunt" down the food.