New Volitan Lion

erhodejr

Member
I have just purchased a new Volitan and he doesnt seem to want to eat, It is still a baby and I cant seem to find anything that it will eat, I know they need to eat often when they're juveniles, it's been 2 days and it's only eaten 1 krill. Any suggestions would help.
Thanks in advance
 

erhodejr

Member
The fish is currently only 2 inches, I will be moving it into a 125 in a couple months. I was told to try brine shrimp and it seems to be eating that. Do the brine have enough nutrients for it?
Thanks in advance
 

moraym

Active Member
Contact the store and figure out what they were feeding it, and if it was eating before it left the store.
I have always weaned lions onto frozen (thawed) foods by feeding them live feeders for a solid week, and letting them eat until they're full. Then feeding nothing for a week, and then introducing the thawed or fresh seafood.
As jwtrojan said, these live feeders should be a means to an end, not a staple themself. Wean off live feeders as soon as possible.
And since the fish is a juvenile, if the store was feeding live foods, I would maintain that diet for about 10-14 days to put some weight on the lion, and then perform the above procedure to wean him off the live.
 

moraym

Active Member
as far as the brine is concerned, no, brine does not have enough nutrition to be the sole item in a growing lions diet. Definitely get the lion eating more substantial foods.
 

cgpuffers

Member
Give It Some More Time My Puffer took Three Days To Start Eating And They're Pigs So just Contact The LFS Find Out What He Ate And If Worse Comes To Worst Feed him Live Food(No Goldfish or Guppies, Damsels Or Silversides)
 

robandmel

Member
When they say white boneless fish what kind are the talking about? It may be a dumb question..... Like what tunafish or something?
 

clowny123

Member
for my lion it took a long time to eat but when i gave it feeder guppies it ate like a beast and after feeding it guppies move it to krill
 

conogre

Member
Put some live mollies in with it for now, worry about a balanced diet later when it's not in danger of starving to death (the mollies will stay alive forever in a saltwater tank, plus if not eten, will have live babies which WILL be.
Anyone feeding brine shrimp to a lionfish likes dead lionfish...they don't SELL P. volitans small enough to live on them.
Krill are too small for even a 6 month old lionfish as well.
At 6 months old, mine are about 8" long (from about 2") and eat whole shrimp that are crayfish sized.
Living by the ocean helps!:)
 

lion_crazz

Active Member
My volitan started on a ghost sprimp diet and was eventually weaned off of that onto frozen food. Now, he will eat anything I put in the tank basically (even pieces of the sheets of dried seaweed I put in there, lol).
Keep working at it. Even if you have to feed him live for some time, don't give up. However, I would not worry about starving too much. Adult volitans can go up to 6 months in the wild without eating, and I have even seen juveniles go a month without eating anything.
When you do eventually try frozen food for him, throw it in the current so it looks like it is moving. This will make the lion want to chase it down without realizing that it is not alive.
 

conogre

Member
lion_crazz, I have to wonder where comments like "wild lionfish can live up to a month without eating" come from.
In the wild lionfish hunt about 3 times a day with about 8 hours between hunting trips.........in shallower water, the hunts are usually at dawn, dusk and in the midle of the night.
Each hunt usually ends up with 2-3 small fish and then they go back and lay around until they get hungry again.
This "gorging until they burst" thing is NOT a wild behavior, but rather a result of captivity where they are kept in borderline starvation conditions then allowed to pig out...in short, you're teaching the animal to be greedy, and would probably react the same way if that's the only way YOU were allowed to eat.
P. volians will actually team up and hunt in a pack, much like pelicans, driving the fish in front of them until they are cornered and can be picked off at leisure.
If food was so scarce that it was a month between feedings, you'd be able to tell because there wouldn't be any lionfish there, or any groupers or much of anything else.
There's just too much food available in the ocean except in the extreme depths.
Divers can stay down what, an hour?
How then would anyone know what a wild lionfish does for a month at a time?
That's people just talking without thinking first and often doing some real damge by doing it.
 

conogre

Member
thanks...no apology needed.
I'm gradually finding out that the "correct" way, known for years is largely BS....be careful about automatically accepting info just because it comes from an "expert".
Two lionfish species bred so far.**grin**
 
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