Volitan Lion is struggling!

[hocky98]

I got a volitan lion and wolf eel 4 days ago from my lfs. Both fish came from the same tank, so they were familiar with each other. The eel looks to be doing very well and the lion looked great up until tonight. My tank cycled and I removed the 6 damsels that were in there. I fed the lion 6 feeder goldfish in the first 3 days, and today the lion is hanging at the bottom of the tank. I tested the water and all of my readings are fine with a nitrate of 10. It doesn't have any visable ailments, but is just sitting there and only moving around a little. The water temp raised up from 79 to 81 degrres, because my fireplace was on. That is the only real change to the tank.

 

[beth]

I'm afraid feeding lionfish goldfish is a dangereous affair. They lack nutrition and the fatty material of goldfish is seriously dangeous for the lion. In your situation, since you have only had this fish a few days, the excessive feeding of goldfish likely resulted in an intestinal blockage [very common].
Do you have a quarantine that you can move the fish to to try antibiotics?

 

[hocky98]

right now I only have the one tank and it is a fish only tank with a star, wolf eel, the volitan lion and 2 hermits. Should I try to let it pass? Is there anything I can do right now without another tank? Can I treat the fish in the main tank?

 

[hocky98]

It has been 3 days now. He is not breathing heavy and has no visable problems. He is still lumbering on the bottom of the tank. When I try to feed him frozen prawn, he swims over to me, but will not come up for food and will not eat. Will this pass?

 

[aquaman]

It can be hard to get the adjusted to eating food that is not still alive. You should try different food, go to you local grocery store to the sea food counter and look for clam, shrimp or other UNCOOKED food, the stronger the fishy smell the better in my experience. (This is cheaper that food for a pet store but not vitamin enriched) You should also try to moving the food around like a injured fish, not to much though, this will simulate its prey, and again start to get it used to eating prepared foods. Hope this helps.

 

[beth]

I can't advise adding antibiotics to your existing tank. Inverts and live rock will not tolerate antibiotics anyway.
Did you try posting in the Aggressive Forum to see if the hobbyist who keep these type fish have some further advise?
I'll just copy your thread over there.

 

[buddahjon]

i was told by someone at my lfs that adding garlic can spark some fish to eat.... i dont know if its true id like someone with more knowledge to back me up but, i hope it helps.

 

[aquaman]

buddahjon
I do not know about making a fish want to eat, but some studies have been done about the properties of garlic as a healing and preventative agent in the aquarium. garlic is sold at lfs and is the only kind that sound be used, as store bought may have pesticide or other chemicals in it