Lionfish won't eat anything, but live food

[mightyoxjuice]

My lionfish will not any food unless it is alive. Any suggestions?
I have tried to use garlic soaked foods no results. I used shrimp, scallops and a recipe for mixed food still nothing works.
My wife made a mold out of the minced shrimp, scallops, and spinach in the shape of a fish. Then she attached it to a string and made it swim by the lion's cave. He came out right away and chased it until he realized that it was not live food.
Any help is appreciated.
By the way he has not eaten in about 1 week.

 

[kev]

Everytime I feed my fish, I turn off the filters. My lion quickly caught on to the fact that when the water stops, food is coming. All my other fish know this also. He'll go to the top and spit water out at me to feed him(I hand feed mine.) Don't be too worried, it took my lion two weeks to eat. Right now, I can only get it to eat silversides and formula 1. Mine wont touch certain foods like squid and clams. BTW, what typeof lion do you have?

 

[mightyoxjuice]

red volitan lionfish

 

[mightyoxjuice]

He likes eating ghost shrimp and goldfish which I know are bad for him.

 

[mightyoxjuice]

He is approximately 4" in length.

 

[mightyoxjuice]

He had ghost shrimp and scallops at the same time. When going after one of the ghost shrimp he also bit into the scallop (raw). After tasting the scallop he spit it out and would not eat it, of course he did not spit out the ghost shrimp.
This maybe a really stupid question, but what are silversides?

 

[angler1]

picky lions seem to be the problem of the day/week/month/year! my volitan will not eat anything unless it is swimming! haven't tried silversides though. he has me over the barrel right now, because I have smaller fish in the tank, I don't want to try starving him into submission. already lost a diamond goby to him.

 

[mightyoxjuice]

got him to eat krill that was dangling on a string, but the string was attached too well to the krill, so he spit it back out

 

[fishy88]

i would never put a string on its food unless it comes off really easy. i put a string on a sliver side and the string didnt come off when the lion got it so the string was in he body. it took a 1/2 hour to get it back out

 

[fishy88]

feeder sticks are alor better.

 

[mightyoxjuice]

Now he is eating like a pig. He ate 6 krill in one feeding all but one off of a string.

 

[blueberryboomer]

I'm having the same problem with ours, but I have started tricking him, he will normally only eat goldfish or Rosies, what I do is start with one or the other and have my frozen foods in hand, after he eats one of the live fish, I dangle a piece of Krill in the water at the top of tank, before he relizes its not alive he has sucked it in. Good Luck, Lisa

 

[mightyoxjuice]

Ok now he is eating fine..So I guess another question would be how often should he be fed? Everyday, every other day, every third day, any suggestions from anyone?
Thanks

 

[kappadoku]

Glad to see he finally is eating...
usually just a matter of waiting him out. But i think that was allready said. several times.

 

[mightyoxjuice]

He is eating extremely good now. Maybe a little too good.....my wife has been hand feeding now

 

[mightyoxjuice]

I have another fish in the tank with him, a domino damsel, but he won't eat that