What a sad day.

kamee

kamee

Member
Oh man. I come home from work to find my Blackfin Lionfish Floating up on the top of the water dead as a rock. For any of you that have seen this beautiful fish, you can understand how upset I am. I made my tank just for him. *sniff*
Not really sure what went wrong, I had him in a 75g with about 75lbs of liverock. Plenty of filtration, skimmer etc. Tank mates never even came close to bothering him, and he was a very active and agressive feeder. Was on a staple diet of shrimp, and mysis shrimp.
Did an immediate water test, and everything came up perfect. Only thing I noticed, that his one eye was slightly cloudier than the other, but man. He was doing perfect right before I left for work.
You can NEVER find these fish for sale.
 
conogre

conogre

Member
Mysis shrimp?
My black's about 13" long and wouldn't even notice something that small, with the three reds about the same at around 10" and they are only about 7 months old.
How long did you have it?
Pop eye kills gradually and slowly...you'd have noticed it not eating for at least a couple of weeks.
Truly sorry about your lion.....my 6 are my favorites, with the scorpionfish right behind them.
 
conogre

conogre

Member
I've got to ask...how big was it?
Many people are given 100% incorrect information about Lionfish and unintentionally starve them, thinking they are doing the right thing.
My dwarf Fuzzies have spawned 62 times so far and my P. russellii for the 1st time a few days ago.
At 6 months old that lionfish should have been a minimum of6"- 8" long and close to 1/2 pound in weight..that's normal/average for a P. volitans.
 
conogre

conogre

Member
OK..if it helps, it may not be anything you did.
Lionfish and scorpionfish "shed" just like a snake or lizard, only it's a thick/mucous slime layer which they do by giving a sudden jerk and shooting forward violently, leaving little pieces of slimy grey mucous in a cloud around where they just were.
In the confines of a tank, I've seen them leap completely out of the water while doing this....over the years I've lost 2 lionfish two jumping out this way, one I found on the floor the next morning while the other one hit the light and killed itself from the impact.
I've also lost several scorpionfish this same way...now ALL of my aquariums are covered with the 1/2" white "egg crating" they use with flourescent lights in drop cielings. These are flexible enough so that it doesn't kill them from impact.
All of my lionfish are fed a basic diet of frozen whole (this means shell and all, cut up to the right sized pieces for younger fish) food shrimp obtained at the grocery store along with pieces of marine fish flesh from the same place (NOT silversides...IMO these are too oily, and in a tank with no exercise they build up fat deposits around the heart and organs, even if fed every other day.
Fish fed on non-oily feeders (grunts, pinfish, mojaras) stay trimmer and healthier.
A treat of live mollies every week or so also gives them exercise in the form of actual hunting..the mollies need not be acclimated and will survive in the marine tank forever if not eaten immediately.
Young lions are fed lightly 2-3 times daily until they reach about 4".
 
conogre

conogre

Member
LOL!
That's a picture taken about 9 months ago in my 125 at about 4"-5" each...they're now about 10"-12" each and residing in my 300.
Who squealed about my glass not being clean?
I'll try to get a new one tonight or in the am and get it posted for you.
If you think they were inpressive THEN...well, they're not cubs anymore:D
 
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