My Black Volitan won't eat.

[unchained]

I have a 55 gal. tank with one damsel, one clown, and my lionfish. The water quality was read from test strips and is as follows:
Nitrate: 30 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
KH: 300 ppm
pH: ~8.4 (maybe a little higher)
salinity: 1.021
I am still inexperienced with lionfish (or any saltwater fish), though I have kept another lionfish alive long enough to grow from 3" to 9" in length before I sold it back to the fish store because none of the other fish in the tank would swim around. Although I am learning what foods are best for my lionfish, I have been feeding my current fish the same foods I fed my last lionfish (ghost shrimp, goldfish, and meal worms).
I'm pretty sure that I over-fed the lionfish and either my amonia or nitrates spiked. I can't think of any other reason why it has stopped eating. Last night I did a 10 gallon water change and added some stress coat. Today I added some pH balancing chemical to bring the pH down a little. I can't see any signs of ich or any other parasite or illness.
What more can I do? What more should I be looking for to determine what is wrong. How do I make the transition from live food to thawed food if or when it comes around to eating again?

 

[barkdog]

How long has he been in the tank? What are you trying to feed him?
He may not be eating prepared food yet. Often people have to transition the lionfish from live food to frozen. My lion eats anything now... mysis, spectrum, silversides.... pretty much anything I drop in.
By the way, 55 gallons is too small for a lion.
Admins: We should put a sticky subject up about lions not eating. This thread seems to appear once a week.

 

[unchained]

Oops, I seem to have deleted part of my original message that I wanted to keep. I have owned my fish for about 3 weeks. Since the first night I have owned him it has eaten goldfish. It has also eaten a couple of small meal worms and I am assuming a couple of ghost shrimp too.
I agree that there should be a sticky about feeding fish or maybe even a static html document that deals with feeding all types of fish.
As I mentioned in my first post, I think that I have over fed him and caused either my amonia or nitrate levels to spike. Could that cause my lionfish to lose his appetite for awhile? Should I be looking for something else?
ps. I have grown a lionfish from 3" to 9" in a 55 gallon tank, so I'm not convinced that my tank is too small.

 

[dragonzim]

Goldfish are no good for saltwater fish. They lack the proper nutrients and can cause liver disease. Your lion may look fine at 9 inches in a 55 but what happens when he gets to 15 inches or more? A 55 is WAY too small for a mature lion.

 

[zensaiyan]

goldfish are not good foods to feed a lion. they cause serious kidney problems. also, just because you grew a lion from 3 to 9 inches in a 55g tank doesn't mean that the fish should have been in the tank. i can grow a shark in a tiny tank, but it doesn't mean that it will live too long in there. probably just long enough to take up all the space, eat all the other fish, and then die. volitans get huge and require 2x as much room as you are giving it.

 

[unchained]

Enough already about the size of the tank and the food that I am feeding it. I get it already. As soon as I can afford a bigger tank I will get one. This tank should do fine until then. I am changing the food as soon as he starts eating again, which seems to be what everyone is neglecting to read.
What I have is a fish that won't eat and I don't know what to do about it? He has been eating fine for the 3 weeks I have had him and then all of a sudden it has no interest in food (past 3 days).

 

[lion_crazz]

Here are my problems with your tank and set-up and probably the reason(s) your lionfish is not doing well. If you correct these problems, your lionfish will start eating.
Originally Posted by Unchained
I have a 55 gal. tank with one damsel, one clown, and my lionfish.
Is this a volitan lionfish? Your tank is definitely too small. This fish grows to be 15". That is a future concern though. Continue reading for the immediate concerns.
Originally Posted by Unchained
test strips
Test strips are highly inaccurate, so I would suggest getting a better test kit.
Originally Posted by Unchained
Nitrate: 30 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
KH: 300 ppm
pH: ~8.4 (maybe a little higher)
salinity: 1.021
Your water quality is definitely off. Nitrates are a little too high, pH is not good if it is higher than 8.4, and more importantly, your alkalinity is off the charts.
Originally Posted by Unchained
I have been feeding my current fish the same foods I fed my last lionfish (ghost shrimp, goldfish, and meal worms).
This is not a very good diet, in my opinion. Goldfish will kill your lionfish by giving it fatty liver disease, meal worms are not nutritious. Ghost shrimp are okay, but I would gut load them in nutritious food until your lion beings taking frozen. Once he starts taking frozen, switch him to silversides, krill, and mysis shrimp, and squidd. Dose his food with vitamins like Zoe and VitaChem and Selcon.
Originally Posted by Unchained
Today I added some pH balancing chemical to bring the pH down a little.
What product did you add? You really need to work on your alkalinity/kH and your nitrates. I would start doing water changes that are 20-25%.

 

[dragonzim]

Also, its not all that uncommon for a lion to stop eating for a few days.

 

[barkdog]

Try tempting him to eat again with something like freeze dried krill, frozen mysys, or live ghost shrimp. You can buy a feeding stick to

[hr]
the krill or mysis with and make them dance around the tank to get him interested.
Oh, and by the way... your tank is too small and goldfish are a terrible diet.

 

[lion_crazz]

Originally Posted by DragonZim
Also, its not all that uncommon for a lion to stop eating for a few days.
Yes, but it will not end the feeding strike unless the water quality is corrected. Alk and nitrates need to come down.

 

[v-lioness]

Ok, your lion is not eating.........
When you try feeding this lion does it snap at the food?
Can this lion open its mouth?
How long has this lion been eating FW fish?
Are your lions eyes clear or cloudy looking?
Have you noticed your lion yawning (opening the mouth wide or re-adjusting it's jaw) the past few days?
I would avoid feeding any krill at this point, they just will not meet the nutritional needs your lion has to have.
I am asking these questions because feeding a lion Krill or FW feeders over time will not only cause fatty liver disease / fatty degeneration of internal organs, vision failure & in time they will be unable to swallow or can develop Lock jaw which can lead to starvation.
You should try small chunks of raw shrimp soaked in vitamins, place the shrimp on a feeder stick and wiggle it, if this lion will not look at the raw shrimp you can try silversides or frozen sand eels but they should be soaked in vitamins also.
You lion can go weeks with no food, I would not panic just yet ....... But lets go over what may be happening with your lion.
Kaye

 

[barkdog]

Originally Posted by V-Lioness
I would avoid feeding any krill at this point, they just will not meet the nutritional needs your lion has to have.
I am asking these questions because feeding a lion Krill or FW feeders over time will not only cause fatty liver disease / fatty degeneration of internal organs, vision failure & in time they will be unable to swallow or can develop Lock jaw which can lead to starvation.
Kaye
I didn't know that krill caused these problems. Learn something new everyday. Of course when I bought my lion last year, the LFS set me up with a can of krill to get him eating on. I'm glad I didn't continue to use it.

 

[lion_crazz]

Kaye, I am not sure how much I agree with your association between krill and freshwater feeders. I think there is a fine line between the two. Krill is usually loaded with vitamins and is always included in formulas of food. If it was unhealthy, why would reputable frozen food companies like Ocean Nutrition and Olsen include it in all of their formulas such as Formula A, B, 1, 2, Reef Formula, etc.
I think if you feed your lion (or any fish for that matter) a large enough variety loaded with vitamins, krill is perfectly fine. It seems to me that you are saying that feeding ONLY krill is unacceptable. I agree with this statement. Every fish needs variety and many different vitamins (Zoe, Selcon, VitaChem are all good starters).
Also, I am pretty sure krill will not cause fatty liver disease. I don't think they are high in fats, like freshwater feeder fish. I could be wrong on this one, but I am almost positive that their fat content is actually quite reasonable, whereas, the fat content of freshwater feeder fish is 6-10 times that of a lionfish's natural dietary needs.
Honestly, I still think it is water quality. Nitrates are a tad high, but more importanly, alk is way too high. The pH of the water is probably all over the place as well. What are you using to measure salinity? Have you gotten more accurate test kits yet (if you are still using test strips)?

 

[kjord97]

My STORY,
I have had my 125 gal reef tank up and runnin for over 2 yrs. I just purchased a dwarf lionfish about 6 months ago. He was real shy and hid alot. I tried for weeks to get him to eat with no success. I had a hard enough time just trying to get him out of the back of the rocks. Well after 4 weeks of failing and I was ready to get rid of him, he finally ate a live ghost shrimp. For about 2 weeks i feed him ghost shrimp, slipping in frozen silversides ever other day. He never took the silver side ( the marron found them and put them into his anenome). I then found that people feed guppies, so i tried a few of those. With the guppies the lion can out more and for about a week of feedings he stayed out in the open. I have since been feeding krill and silver sides. He readily accepts frozen now. Always out and swimming and not shy anymore. He even follows my fingers on the tank. So currently he is living off of krill and silversides. Looks healthy and acts great.

 

[unleashed]

Originally Posted by barkdog
I didn't know that krill caused these problems. Learn something new everyday. Of course when I bought my lion last year, the LFS set me up with a can of krill to get him eating on. I'm glad I didn't continue to use it.
krill does not cause problems in sw fish .the most problems that do accure when feeding krill is lack of variety in other foods.no one food has 100% of the nutrients needed for any species especially predators. feeding only 1 or 2 species of pray can and will result in malnutrition and premature death in captive fish. feed your lions and other predatorial species a variety of shrimp ,krill, silverslides, scallops,squid, chunchs of raw fish ,crab, th list goes on.be sure everything you feed as a food is a marine life not fw.as for this [articular lion not eating yes I would have to blaim it on a few factors diet of course but water quality is a main issue. to be honest i couldnt tell you what the effects of KH at any range would be on an agressive tank.my aggresive has been running for 4 1/2 yrs and i have yet to test for cal, kh or alk..this tank is tested for ph sg ammonia nitrate and nitrites only.

 

[v-lioness]

Thank you unleashed.... It comes down to variety. Many people encourage Freeze dried krill or frozen krill but that's it when it comes to lions. If this lion is lacking the foods necessary in it's diet than krill would not be the choice of foods to feed right now. Freeze dried Krill is missing many micronutrients, including iodine, these foods will cause lock jaw if a variety of foods are not fed.
Kaye

 

[v-lioness]

Krill is usually loaded with vitamins and is always included in formulas of food. If it was unhealthy, why would reputable frozen food companies like Ocean Nutrition and Olsen include it in all of their formulas such as Formula A, B, 1, 2, Reef Formula, etc.
Why would these same companies use Brine Shrimp? This is another food source I see used to often..........
Kaye

 

[unleashed]

Originally Posted by V-Lioness
Why would these same companies use Brine Shrimp? This is another food source I see used to often..........
Kaye
freeze dried foods of any type loses some nutritional value. most of my fish wont even touch freeze dried krill. i o give it to my fish once ina great while when they make feel guilty for not feeding them every 5 minutes lol(spike has a way of doing this).krill does harbor alot of nutrients not even listed on the packaging such as a source of iodine which all fish need to prevent goiter same as with humans.and also a sourcce of protien. brine on the other hand is used as a filler in foods in a manner like corm meal is used in foods such as dog and cat foods.its cheep so a little goes a long way.majority of hobbiest beginners more so get caught up on the idea that just because the fish will eat it its good for them and is enough.fish stores stores use brine also because it cheep and the easiest form of foods to get wild caught fish to show they are eating before a purchase.I always recommend before any purchase of a new fish to see it eat frozen prepaired foods or even flaked or pellets but not live foods.

 

[lion_crazz]

Originally Posted by V-Lioness
Why would these same companies use Brine Shrimp? This is another food source I see used to often..........
Kaye
They offer brine shrimp because they know people buy it. If it's making money, it will stay on the market. However, you will notice that brine shrimp is not included in any of the formula foods that I mentioned.