My Fuzzy Lion became a killer today

[murph145]

well i have been bosting how peaceful my bright yellow fuzzy dwarf lionfish has been since i have had him now over a year he hasnt ate one thing from my tank
well today he changed!
hes now a killer and has lived up to the reputations of Lion Fish!
since i set up my new 180G reef tank i have had no problems with him i was scared adding my female Lyertail anthias since they were so small about an inch each but he paid no attnetion to those guys at all
then i added a small lawn mower blenny no prob just ignored him as well
same with the false perc clowns not a problem
well today i added a yellow headed pearly jaw fish....
within 1 minute of adding it i was lookin to see where he was an there was my lion with a mouthfull of jawfish
only the tail hanging out i tried to catch the lion but no use he went behind some rock work!

so heres my delimma i think i need to get rid of him before he decides to eat other fish now that he knows he can
do u guys think he will now try to eat the anthias or was it just the color of the pearly headed jaw fish that resembled a piece of squidd since i do feed the lion squid every so often?
i might open a bid to u guys on who wants my fuzzy dwarf??

 

[seareef]

Its in his nature to eat other animals, I would remove him, now that he has tasted fish...quite literally he is going to want more, ...honestly im highly suprised he hasn't done this in the past.

 

[lion_crazz]

How big are the anthias? Can he fit them in his mouth?
That would be horrible if you had to give up your fuzzy dwarf. He is a beautiful species.

 

[murph145]

yup hes been a good fish but he seen the pearly jaw fish drop in and no sooner did he see him drop in did he swallow him up
im thinking he might have thought it was food and since it was a similar color as a peice of squid he swallowed it
only thing is i have had him so long and everyone likes him around here i dont really wanna let him go

 

[murph145]

yeah the anthias are smaller than the jaw fish he ate
but they have been in there for about 2 weeks now no problem he hasnt even looked at them funny this was the first time this has happened

 

[lion_crazz]

You have to think, the jawfish is a lot easier to eat also. The anthias are also probably always on the move, right?
Did you introduce the jawfish with the lights on or off?

 

[murph145]

i put him in with lights on and the lion was right there thinking it was feeding time that was probably my bad actually!
i shoulda done it with lights out so he didnt see him fall in
yeah the anthias are on the move all the time they are alot faster than the lion but the jaw fish just sat there at the bottom and the lion eyed him and ate him
its funny he didnt bother with the lawn mower blenny though

 

[lion_crazz]

Yeah, it sounds like you might have brought on the aggression a little bit. I have done the same thing without thinking. That is how I lost my first squirrelfish. I underestimated my lionfish and put the sqiurrel in with the lights on and my lion was after him in a matter of minutes.
I personally would keep the fish.

 

[fishieness]

keep his belly full and i would think he would be fine. at least form the experience with mine (which is not a lot), if they are hungary, they will eat. if they are not, they wont. you just might want to spot feed him until he pays no more attention.
i know mine will eat fish because the LFS was feeding him feeder guppies. but right now, he is only bigger than my clown, and that is by about 1/2 and inch or so, if even. i think iw ould give it another shot. he may jsut have eaten the jawfish because it was a new fish taht was added. maybe if you relocate him for a day in a QT every tiem you add a new fish and then add him back he wouldnt matter as much. Im not sure. but it would be a shame to loose a lion fish like that. although with the fanclub that he has on here, youw ould get a good amount of money.

 

[murph145]

yeah im guna try to keep him for now and keep an eye on him and see how he doeshe has a full belly for now thats for sure but anytime i add a smaller fish from now on im guna do it with A either the lights off or B put him in the sump for the day and let the new fish get in there without the lion seeing him being added
this same thing happened to me before when i had a FO tank with inverts i had a Panther grouper that swallowed my 30 buck red sexy shrimp in one swallow and the shrimp was as big as the grouper at the time!
it would be a sha,e to get rid of him but if the highest bid came in i might think of it lol j/k
u guys think i should shy away from any otehr smaller fish??
all i really wanted to add was maybe one more tang of sorts and a wrasse most likely a leopard wrasse i just dont want him to eat the anthias cuz they are so cute to watch

 

[debbie]

Oh no, sorry to hear about that. Knock on wood my fuzzy has not even tried to eat any of my fish. I also have a small bicolor blenny that I know was a chance I took big time. My lionfish was never given live foods so I hope that it stays that way. I feed her far to well, she always has a full belly and never shows any signs of aggression. Keep my fingers crossed..... :happyfish

 

[murph145]

most deffinately
i thought mine was feed well but i think im guna have to feed it a lil more to keep it happy i never feed it live food either but i think he thought it was a piece of squid which sucks

 

[unleashed]

Originally Posted by SeaReef
Its in his nature to eat other animals, I would remove him, now that he has tasted fish...quite literally he is going to want more, ...honestly im highly suprised he hasn't done this in the past.
i hate to tell you this but hes been tasting fish all of his life.now that hes older his eating habits will change and portion sizes too feed him daily if hes full he wont normaly hunt they only hunt when they are hungry.my lion in my has so far eaten a few chromis (he had some help with those) a moroon clown (that i seen him do the bugger) and a 5 inch dragon wrasse(btw my lion was at thet time 7 inches including his tail yes id say that one filed him up for a day)it is a chance you take with keeping fish eating fish.if you have a flame hawk when he gets bigger he will do the same thing.anglers ect its just par for the course.if i skip a pm feeding I lose a fish no ifs ands or buts.hes not going to wait for me to feed him when there is a smorgisborge sitting in his house. btw i have had my smaller lion over a yr and he was 1 1/2 inches then i always fed frozen prepared foods never live .that doesnt deture them its still fish dead or alive

 

[murph145]

true i think im just guna have to feed him more from now on

 

[unleashed]

i can totally relate though i have lost more fish due to being eaten by others at least they are healthy when they go