Volitans lion still wont eat

[dragonzim]

I posted about a month ago about my lion that just stopped eating. He's about 8 inches or so long. My water parameters are all fine. PH 8.2, Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 0, Temp 78. I've tried everything from garlic soaking food to dangling silverfish in front of his face from a piece of fishing line and I cant even seem to get him interested in eating. Since this started his stripes have gone from a nice bright orangish color to the darker maroon that you see in adults. The strage thing is that after almost a month and a half without eating he really doesnt seem to be losing any weight. He's still a big fish and does not look sick at all. Its just really strange that when I put in food in the tank that it can actually hit him in the face and he just completely ignores it.
Does anyone know if lions are sight or smell hunters? I'm wondering if he's lost his vision, but he doesnt seem to bump into anything. I'm really at a loss here. I'd hate to lose this beautiful fish. Any ideas?
Thanks

 

[xfishf0odx]

i heard if you pet them on the back of the head that they will start eating.

no maybe you shouldn'd try that. toss some live ghost shrimp in the tank. he should gobble them up quick.

 

[dragonzim]

Unfortunately none of the LFS in my area have had any type of live feeder shrimp, ghost or otherwise. I ready to mail order some at this point.

 

[fedowner]

How about goldfish?

 

[debbie]

What about some guppies? You might want to try that and see what happens.
I know what you mean about beautiful fish, I have a fuzzy dwarf and just think it is the most awesome fish. Try some live fish though and see if he will eat that.
Good Luck......Deb

 

[unleashed]

lions are sight hunters I went through this a couple days ago my normally a pig lion just stopped eating my water quality was good I do weekly water changes 25% after 3 days of not eating I added melafix to the tank after one day of this hes eating again but ill keep treating for 7 days with melafix and do my normal water changes

 

[jcrim]

Are you sure your test kit is right? 0 Nitrates for an aggressive tank like yours doesn't sound right. Just a thought.

 

[dragonzim]

I didnt think that maybe my test kit was bad. I'll get a new one over the weekend and see how it goes. I'll also try the melaflex too. Cant hurt I guess. I'll also see what other little fish I can throw in there for him to try eating. I'd like to avoid goldfish, but I'll see if I can get some guppies.

 

[cartman101]

you aren't the only one

My lion still wont eat frozen...

 

[dragonzim]

The strange thing is that I had him on frozen since I got him. Never fed him live except once when I got some ghost shrimp just to watch him stalk some live prey.

 

[pcpope]

I just lost my volitan the other day, he ate krill for six months , seemed healthy, but when I switched him into a 265 a couple months ago, I noticed he wasn't as aggresive when it came to eating, the other fish were to fast, so I started feeding him early in the morning when the competition was sleeping. Worked for awile, the he started missing the food and watching it hit bottom. Was very suprised to saturday to find him dead. No sign of illness.

 

[sankysyuck]

It took me a very long time to get my volitan off live (aprox. 6 months). Eventually what worked for me was the ghost shrimp. I would feed him a live one then a dead one and eventually he ate just dead ones, now he eats almost anything.
I would def try the shrimp. I'm not sure where you live, but you can get tooooons of them from beaches. I get them in very large quanitys from one of mine.

 

[jonny bolt]

Originally Posted by PCPope
I just lost my volitan the other day, he ate krill for six months , seemed healthy, but when I switched him into a 265 a couple months ago, I noticed he wasn't as aggresive when it came to eating, the other fish were to fast, so I started feeding him early in the morning when the competition was sleeping. Worked for awile, the he started missing the food and watching it hit bottom. Was very suprised to saturday to find him dead. No sign of illness.

Same thing happened to my Fuzzy Dwarf. I fed him alot of krill, along with frozen silversides, and live brine shrimp. I just posted about this in another thread. Lions are known to go on hunger strike if they arent given a broad diet with variation. Feeding one just krill will definitely do it. I had my Lion eating out of my fingers, and I posted a video in Nov. of him taking off like a rocket after floating krill. Right after I made the videos, he stopped eating and died a month later.
I would definitely try to find some feeder shrimp. If your LFS doesnt have Ghost Shrimp (luckily one my LFS has em sometimes), then I would consider trying to find some Peppermint Shrimp or something to put in there lol. Something like that will cost more than the 39 cent Ghost Shrimp, but it might be enough to get him to eat and keep him alive. Just buy the cheapest Shrimp available. Something like that should trigger his natural feeding response.

 

[dragonzim]

I still havent been able to get my hands on any live shrimp but I did throw a bnuch of live feeder fish in yesterday just to see if I could trigger a response. Unfortunately, I didnt get one. I segregated the lion from my other fish so he wouldnt have any competition for the food. At least 2 or 3 of the feeders swam right in front of him and he didnt even react to them.

 

[jonny bolt]

Damn that sucks. I'm sorry. It sounds like there may be some sort of gut impaction going on with him. I think the best thing to do is keep an eye on him, and offer stuff to him every few days. A Lion can go, on average, 4-6 weeks without food. (Mine went 4, maybe a tad more). Hopefully at some point he will come around.

 

[dragonzim]

Originally Posted by Jonny Bolt
Damn that sucks. I'm sorry. It sounds like there may be some sort of gut impaction going on with him. I think the best thing to do is keep an eye on him, and offer stuff to him every few days. A Lion can go, on average, 4-6 weeks without food. (Mine went 4, maybe a tad more). Hopefully at some point he will come around.

Yeah I hope so. I did follow a suggestion above and get a new nitrate test kit. The new test showed nitrates of 20 so I did a 10 gallon change. I'll check them again tomorrow and do another change as well.

 

[jonny bolt]

Thats cool. Keep in mind though most tanks will always have a little nitrates. I've seen a few people who claim to have 0. But having a low number of nitrates in ones tank is not abnormal.

 

[dragonzim]

Originally Posted by Jonny Bolt
Thats cool. Keep in mind though most tanks will always have a little nitrates. I've seen a few people who claim to have 0. But having a low number of nitrates in ones tank is not abnormal.
Is 20 on the normal side? I still thought that was a bit high.

 

[sankysyuck]

Nirates don't really affect fish, if anything they affect then indirectly (i.e. hair algae, cyanobacteria) I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[jonny bolt]

yup, 0-20 is normal. I wouldnt really begin to seriously worry unless your 40+ ppm. Then water changes should begin lol