Volitans Lion stopped eating

[dragonzim]

Hi all
First post here. I've got a Volitans Lionfish in my 75 gallon fish only tank that stopped eating about a week and a half ago. The fish is about 8-9 inches long and up until now has eaten very well. I have a number of other fish in the tank including a small Humu Humu trigger, a small Blue Throat trigger, Yellow Tang, Hippo tang and a small puffer. All of the fish are very healthy. My saliinity is at 1.021, PH is around 8.1, no phosphates, nitrates or nitrites. I feed the tank daily, a mixture of krill, chopped clams and mysis shrimp. Until he stopped eating the lion went after the frozen krill and clam immediately after it was put in the tank, then one day he just stopped. Now, the food can just float past his face and he wont go for it.
Anyone have any ideas? I love this fish and would hate to see it die. I havent had a chance to see if he would take live food, but he's eaten frozen since I got him over a year ago.
Thanks!

 

[ssg_mm]

Check to see if there's a goiter in the mouth or some type of blockage preventing swallowing. My lion just up and stopped eating because he couldn't swallow anything.
Not much help but hope your lion makes it.

 

[dragonzim]

Thanks for the suggestion. Now, what is a safe way to check in the lion's mouth? :notsure:

 

[dragonzim]

Bump

 

[cartman101]

Originally Posted by SSG_MM
Check to see if there's a goiter in the mouth or some type of blockage preventing swallowing. My lion just up and stopped eating because he couldn't swallow anything.
Not much help but hope your lion makes it.
That i believe is how my lion died, then he got a disease by my puffer

 

[aw2]

First of all, your tank is too small for a Lion that size.
Also, check your water again, using a different test kit...Lions are notorious for going on hunger strikes when there's nitrAte in the water. What are you using for filtration?

 

[dragonzim]

I've got an Eheim 2215 providing biological filtration, an AquaClear 110 doing mechanical filtration and an AquaC Remora protein skimmer.
I checked my water again last night. The nitrates were slightly elevated so I put a Hagen PhospahteNitrate remover in and am going to do a 20% change tonight.

 

[dragonzim]

My lion is still not eating! All my water levels are good. I can do another test tonight and post the exact readings. I did a 15 gallon water change this past weekend. I've tried different foods (krill, chopped clam, silversides) and still nothing. He doesnt seem to be getting any thinner, although his coloring looks a little darker than normal and now it looks like the very ends of his fins are wilting a little bit. I"ve never had a problem with him eating in the past. He's been on frozen food since I got him. I'm thinking about putting something live in there for him just to see if it gets his interest up.
At this point I am open to ANY other suggestions!!!!

 

[unleashed]

if you have another tank you can place him into might be a good idea.if lions have to cpmpete to hard for food and with niger and a huma hes df competing they will just stop eating.maybe you can get a couple very small damsels and place with him in a qt and see if he will eat them away from the other fish .I know damsels are 5+ bucks each but whats 10 bucks to save a cool fish

 

[dragonzim]

Thanks Unleashed!
I dont have another tank but last night I picked up a sheet of acylic last night that I am going to make a tank divider with. I'll check with my LFS tonight to see what kind of little tasty fishies I can get for him. They usually have damsels and chromis for 3 for $5 or so.

 

[unleashed]

Originally Posted by DragonZim
Thanks Unleashed!
I dont have another tank but last night I picked up a sheet of acylic last night that I am going to make a tank divider with. I'll check with my LFS tonight to see what kind of little tasty fishies I can get for him. They usually have damsels and chromis for 3 for $5 or so.
they do make a screen devider for aquariums maybe you can find one so the water flow isnt restricted.good deal just make sure your buying sw fish for him to eat fw fish arent a good or healthy choice

 

[dragonzim]

Originally Posted by unleashed
they do make a screen devider for aquariums maybe you can find one so the water flow isnt restricted.good deal just make sure your buying sw fish for him to eat fw fish arent a good or healthy choice

I was figuring that I would just drill a ton of holes in the acrylic so that the water flow wouldn't be affected.

 

[unleashed]

Originally Posted by DragonZim
I was figuring that I would just drill a ton of holes in the acrylic so that the water flow wouldn't be affected.
good thinking hope all works out for him good luck

 

[dragonzim]

I managed to crack the acrylic in half with the first hole I tried drilling last night. LFS didnt have any screen type dividers so its back to Home Depot tonight for another piece of acrylic. Is there a particular way to drill it that anyone knows about?

 

[unleashed]

place the acrylic on a flat surface make sure you using a drill bit made for plastic ,drill one side half way then flip over and drill the other to complete the hole. dont force the bit through let the drill do the work for you

 

[dragonzim]

Ahh, OK. I was trying to use a regular woodmetal drill bit. I'll have to get another one and try again.