Part of my Mother's Day gift (Fu Manchu Lion)

btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Here's our new addition:
Still in the bag (No, he was not Quarantined. He's in a tank by himself, so I guess you can call that QT'ing him. We will not be adding any other fish with him)


Here his is today in his new favorite spot:


Here's his tank mate (we needed something in there to clean up his mess - they get along fine):

The tank:

Dinner (feeder shrimp are coming, but for now, these will do):
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
He's in a 14G BioCube for now. He's about 2 1/2 inches. He has ate one frozen PE Mysis, and honestly, I think it was either a) accident or b) he was starving. He does eat guppies and mollies, but only live. I have no attempted freshly killed yet.
Tell me if I'm wrong, but, I wanted him to adjust to the new tank, etc before I really attempted converting him to frozen. Should I start immediately?
I am introducing a small fish net with every feeding of live. I intend to use the feeding net for fresh killed/etc once I'm ready.
He and the Coral Banded had a small stand off, but they know their roles and all seems to be calm now. As a precaution, I placed another branch rock in the corner of the tank that the shrimp can get in and out of, but the lion can not. Once the shrimp learned to stay off of the lions little perching spot, everything seems to be good now *fingers crossed that I don't come home to a dead coral banded one day*. I won't be super upset, the shrimp was only $10. I just needed something in there other than 2 tiny hermits and a couple snails to clean up.
So, there's a side of me that doesn't want to convert him. I know, I'm nuts. But it's soooo darn cool to watch him hunt. Any downside if I were to choose not to convert him and just keep him in his own tank and feed him live forever? No, I haven't made up my mind yet, but there is a part of me that LOVES watching him hunt down his prey.
Also, the baby mollies. How many should he be eating and how often? He INHALED 5 today. Other than the one PE mysis shrimp, that is all he's had since Sunday. He did eat a larger guppy on Sunday morning. The mollies/guppies are being fed Spirulina enriched brine shrimp. Anything else we should try with them to make them a little more nutritious for Mr. Lion.
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Any suggestions for my questions?
Man this forum is dead! Especially if you don't post in "Reef Tanks" or "New Hobbyists" lol
 
cranberry

cranberry

Active Member
The videos ads that would start over with every click had me running away. They seem to be missing.
Start to train him now. He'll still hunt the food on the stick.
Can you get some small ghost shrimp?
I would not trust that CB... ours would pinch the fish when he could get them. Sometimes he would catch a ride half way across the tank before letting go. The bigger they get, the meaner they get.
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Thanks for your reply Renee!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cranberry http:///forum/thread/385666/part-of-my-mother-s-day-gift-fu-manchu-lion#post_3383195
The videos ads that would start over with every click had me running away. They seem to be missing. I too, am getting tired of all the kinks with this site!
Start to train him now. He'll still hunt the food on the stick. I know he'll hunt the stick, but is there any harm to not training him? I'm just curious as to the downside of it, etc. Breeding fish/shrimp for him to eat is not an issue.
Can you get some small ghost shrimp? They're on order. It's what I plan on using with him. They were bumped from the last flight, so the LFS did not get them in as expected. I order some online, should be here next week. In the mean time, how much should he be eating of the baby Mollies? What about adults? Once we have the ghost shrimp, how many/how often? I trust your and Greg's opinion more than anyone else's here when it comes to this fish.
I would not trust that CB... ours would pinch the fish when he could get them. Sometimes he would catch a ride half way across the tank before letting go. The bigger they get, the meaner they get. CBS is not staying in there long term. I don't fully trust him either, and definitely won't as they get older. Thus far, all the aggression has come from the lion trying to see if he can eat the CBS. I had wanted to put in a large adult fire shrimp, but the LFS only had small ones. I have a large one in my refugium, but I couldn't catch him, so I tossed the CBS in there for the time being. I have some trochus and nassarius snails in there, but I just didn't think it was enough of a CUC. I'm so used to having shrimp in my tanks. I threw in 2 or 3 little hermits, but they're more interested in eating my Kelp than cleaning the tank.
I think I've all but memorized every second of your videos on feeding your Fu. The LFS told us to use the net method, similar to what you have listed on your site. I had planned on the "fishing" method that you mention. Any thoughts on both? Which method is a better idea for this type of fish and this size? I was thinking the fishing method.
Also, my Fu seems to only want to hang out where my Caulerpa grows. He has no interest being anywhere else on the rocks than tangled in the Caulerpa. Is this normal? He literally looks like he's stuck in it sometimes.
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
I know!
I've nudged him a few times with a spoon, and he does swim out of it just fine. It just looks odd.
 
S

siptang

Guest
Very beautiful fish! I have never bought one personally because of terror stories of their frail mortality rate and how they jump out. I had a dwarf which jumped out and stung me while flopping on the wooden enclosure where the lights were. Had no idea it was there and it was chilling up there until I opened the tank to look for him.
Hope you have good luck feeding him. Only thing that I could do besides the stick trick was feed thawed mysis by the power head to spread them out tricking it that it's alive.
Also him chilling on the rock seems to be normal behavior because my dwarf fuzzy did that all the time as well.
Beautiful fish once again and good luck!
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Thanks!
He's really cool. Definitely knows that I'm the one adding his food to the tank.
I know that the perching is normal, but he seems to only want to do it in areas where caulerpa is growing and he seems to enjoy being in the thick of it.
 
cranberry

cranberry

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by BTLDreef http:///forum/thread/385666/part-of-my-mother-s-day-gift-fu-manchu-lion#post_3383384
I think I've all but memorized every second of your videos on feeding your Fu. The LFS told us to use the net method, similar to what you have listed on your site. I had planned on the "fishing" method that you mention. Any thoughts on both? Which method is a better idea for this type of fish and this size? I was thinking the fishing method.
Also, my Fu seems to only want to hang out where my Caulerpa grows. He has no interest being anywhere else on the rocks than tangled in the Caulerpa. Is this normal? He literally looks like he's stuck in it sometimes.
Definately go with the Super Sleuth Stick for this guy using the ghost shrimp method listed towards the bottom in the shrimp section. I need a header for that o_O
He's hiding. He probably is tangled at times, but he must fell secure all up in there.
I've had things live longer when converted to frozen verses staying on live... except seahorses. Back then I would collect fresh shrimp weekly for the horses. Breeding them just isn't the same. It also limits tankmates as feeding time can be especially difficult with a live-eater in the house.
We feed M-W-F until their bellies bulge a little.
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cranberry http:///forum/thread/385666/part-of-my-mother-s-day-gift-fu-manchu-lion#post_3383528
Definately go with the Super Sleuth Stick for this guy using the ghost shrimp method listed towards the bottom in the shrimp section. I need a header for that o_O
He's hiding. He probably is tangled at times, but he must fell secure all up in there.
I've had things live longer when converted to frozen verses staying on live... except seahorses. Back then I would collect fresh shrimp weekly for the horses. Breeding them just isn't the same. It also limits tankmates as feeding time can be especially difficult with a live-eater in the house.
We feed M-W-F until their bellies bulge a little.
I figured he was using it as a comfort thing, just needed conformation. This aggressive fish thing is very new to me, it's the one frontier in this hobby other than Sea Horses that I'm just starting to venture into.
That's what I needed to hear about converting him. It really is so neat to watch him hunt. Hopefully it will still be the same once converted.
Okay. I just don't want to under feed. It's hard to see his belly since he eats and then immediately returns to the comfort of the caulerpa.
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Update:
CBS was removed. He nipped at me and was starting to threaten the lion. Oh well, we tried. I just don't feel like there's enough CUC in there. We currently have 3-5 Nassarius (I only ever see 3), 3 large Trochus snails, and 3 Hermits. Any suggestions on what else to go in there?
The Lion eats PE Mysis when he feels like it. Will not touch it if there is fishing line, or anything else attached to it, but if I get it in the right flow, he'll attack it. He definitely still prefers live, but it's coming along.
He's very nocturnal. Did I miss this about these guys?
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Well, he died

I'm still not completely sure what happened. He started to accept PE Mysis and was coming around with Silverside slices (only got him to eat one). He still wanted live, that was his preference. We had once last Mollie left that was added to his tank, and he REFUSED to eat it and just all together stopped eating. I tried removing the Mollie and giving him silversides and PE Mysis again and he would just have no part of it. He started to only hang out on the overflow all day and night, and started to loose his color. Wasn't interested in anything anymore. At first I thought it was ich, but I'm still not positive, the few spots I "thought" I saw, ended up just being his coloration. It really sucks. Why do they have to just kick the bucket just as they start to come around and accept frozen? Honestly, I think with us moving, he just didn't get the attention he really deserved. I would try for a good 30-45 a day to get him to eat again, but for just about the past two weeks now, he just refused everything. I threw the Mollie back in to get rid of the little 2G she was in during the whole move. She's swim right past him, SLEPT NEXT TO HIM, he paid absolutely no attention. So now I have a Mollie tank .... great.... Honestly don't think I'm going to try another one of these guys, at least not any time soon.
 
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