Poor dwarf lions keep dying

[grozier]

I'm having trouble and can't really find a clear answer. I have a 50g. tank 25lbs of live rock marineland pinguen filtration, also have 2 clowns, fire fish and a scopas tang. I have a choc. star and emerald crab as well. .
The problem I have is I can't seem to keep my dwarf lion's alive in my tank. All the prameter's are spot on. The first one I had for 2 days and he died, never seem him eat either(mistake for buying without seeing). He was about 3" in size total. I had him ordered at a lfs and picked him up the same day(maybe to much to quick).
The second one I let stay at the lfs for about a week before picking him up just n case. This one was about a 1 1/2" in size and was doing real good he ate the ghost shrimp about 2 a day for a week. I did a water change of about 10gal. checked the water about a hour after and all prameters were still spot on he was swimmimg around like all was fine. We went out of town and returned the next day and he was still fine. I went to feed him the the next day and we wasnt interested which was odd. He wasent swimming around just hiding(not normal). The next morning he was dead in the tank after having him a week to the day.
Would the water change out have caused any thing like stress? Does the cyanide they use to catch them play any role in his health? Can you get ones that arent poisioned?
I want one of these to take care of but I hate killing them.
Please guide me in the right direction.
Thanks, MIke

 

[smallreef]

If they were caught with cyanide yes that would kill them...
feeding 2 ghost shrimp a day was also a bit much... if you had put 2 live ones in teh tank and he went after them id wait atleast a day to feed again,, after a week or so id try to work in some frozen food...
did they have any torn fins or anything? if the lion was alot smaller than the tang it COULD have picked on it (doubtful but you never know someone elses fishs' personality)
Very small lionfishes are hard to keep alive, that being said there are a few people on here that have had great success with them..
maybe look for some threads with the words lionfish in them

 

[saxman]

*waves to Mike*
Hopefully most of your questions have been answered by the scorp nuts you've fallen in with lately (they're a crazy bunch).

However, in terms of cyanide poisoning, it still happens, but is a LOT less frequent than it was a few years ago. IME, D. zebra tends to be quite a bit more "touchy" than most of the other lionfish, and frequently comes in with worms or flukes which will kill them dead, dead, dead.
As mentioned tiny lionfish are more delicate, but we do prefer them that size. We have a lot of experience with juvie lions, and the hardest thing about keeping them is getting them the right sized food (just yesterday, I hand picked 50 small ghosties from the LFS's tank for a tiny yellow morph fuzzy we have). As you've found, your second fish was overfed, but it may or may not have been the issue.
If you try another lion, try to find a 3"+ specimen. That's large enuff to feed fairly easily, but still young enuff to wean more easily than a tiny or adult specimen. Raising your lionfish up from a juvie/sub-adult is really fun.