What to feed a Lionfish

[lionfish99]

Hey I'm brand new to this and I have already started my tanks cycling process, I'm absolutly in love with the Lionfish, and I've looked at books, sites online, and everywhere else. I'm just curious if anyone has any "helpful hints" for me. But I have one important question about food. I know they can be fed fish food pellets, but I would prefer something a little more natural. (I can use feeder fish my girlfriend says that is un ethical) I'm curious to what other food sources I have to choose from. Thank you soo much to anyone that answers.

 

[fishieness]

feeder fish would be good, as long as they are saltwater!!! if they are freshwater your lion will die prematurly because they will not be getting enough vitamins that they need, or form fatty liver disease. Live feeder shrimp. you can order those online. Krill, silversides. frozen meaty foods. You may need to start with live foods to get him to eat at first, but she should be weened off them to frozen food....and im mixing the sexes ofyour future lion. oh well. Its good not to be biased anyways./ sorry, back on topic.... live foods will cost a bundle, esspecualy as the lion gets older, so weened to frozen foods is a good idea. Also grocery store FRESH seafood like squid, shrimp, some fish. anythign saltwater and meaty is good

 

[lion_crazz]

The previous post hit it on the head. Anything that has saltwater origins is great. Ghost shrimp can be used to wean them to frozen however. You usually will find these at the lfs for 5-10 for a dollar. Ghost shrimp are a freshwater invert, but freshwater inverts and freshwater fish are two totally different things. Freshwater inverts are not unhealthy, whereas freshwater fish are.

 

[harlequin]

I dont know where you live on the map but if you live near salt water you should be able to go and catch grass shrimp. They are easy enough to catch in grassy areas(thus the name). These work great especially if you set up a little SW tank to keep them in. I used to do this when I had a lion, I would simply go down and catch a hundred or so every few weeks and pull them out and feed them to the lion when needed. When feeding you should give it several pieces of whatever a day until full grown, then you can slack down to a good meal every other day or so.
I didnt see what sized tank you had but if its a 55 then an antennatta or radiata is about as big as you can get for it. Antennattas adapt easily to prepared food and I was able to feed my old one by hand with no problems. And remember to feed diverse food once you get him/her on prepared foods too.

 

[arrissa]

just my opinion, but I like to see the fish eat frozen food at the store before I get the fish so I don't have to worry about the weening. When I bought my lion, I had the store feed it mysis and it ate it. Still does, it's doing fine on frozen. I would ask the store to feed it for you if they claim it will eat frozen, and not having to ween it and the 'ifs' that come with that will make things easier for you.

 

[fishieness]

i doubt many lfs's would feed their fish live food. that costs a lot of money, and the whole point is for them to make as much money as they can. Someone correct me if im wrong, but the whole point of feeding and when weening to frozen foods is to get the fish to eat in the first place. They can be very picky eaters and it is sometimes hard to get them to eat. So the live foods get the to eat.periode. it is not intended to get them to eat somethings besides what the fish store feeds them. The mysis check would be a good idea, because the lion would probably have a much easier time eating frozen if that was ALL he was ever fed.
someone correct me if im wrong, but this is jsut how i always looked at it. But weather your buying a lion or not, it is always good to get the store to feed the fish anyways.

 

[lion_crazz]

On the contrary. I know at least the fish stores I have seen and worked with that they all feed them live (ghost shrimp) because very few come in accepting frozen. To hope to see them eat mysis is asking a lot of a fish store and the lionfish stock, and you will very rarely find a lion that you like if you will only take one that eats frozen (unless it comes from a customer's established tank). Just my two cents.

 

[jonny bolt]

I have had a Dwarf Lion for 3 or 4 weeks now, and I love him. He was a bit picky when I first put him in my tank. But after a few days, he started to eat tetra jumbo shrimp if I let it float on top. After a few weeks, he started to eat the pieces right out of my fingers. I also have frozen Silversides in the freezer, and have been trying to hand feed him pieces of that, but he has only eaten one or two pieces so far. I have to make sure I cut the pieces really small so he can fit them in his mouth, he's still small, only about 2-to-2.5" total length. If he doesnt immediately go for pieces of food, then he wont bother with them at all.....if they start to drop to the bottom, he doesnt go for it. I also treat my fish with live Brine Shrimp every so often, and the Lion loves to "stalk" them lol. He'll pick one out of the bunch, stalk it, then gulp it up.....then repeat process till he is full. He's quite a character. I also picked up a "HatchNFeeder" brine shrimp corral, but havent managed to hatch a single brine shrimp in about 2 weeks of having it. Figures lol.

 

[haze123]

hey I use the HatchNFeeder from SF Bay brand and it works great. All you have to do is get those pre mixed packets and mix it with kinda warm water and fill the top part with water. what ill do some times to make them hatch is leave a light on in the room and put the hatchery right under the light sence shrimp are attracted to light and they swim from the box part to the glass vile part at the top. Sometimes I notice when I dont have any that havent hatched within 24 hours ill lightly knock on the top peace to get all the air bubbles out, the air bubbles just collect over time from water evaperating (spelling). Try that and see if that works out. My Dwaf puffers love them.

 

[jer4916]

I feed my V-lion, Shrimp that i bought at Sams, its salad shrimp (normal shrimp,just small) ..i put them in warm water to thaw them out...and my lion eats it right out of my hand
Every once and awhile though you should buy him a live fish...like a damsel or something...its good for them to eat live food once and awhile...i give mine one, once a month or so...plus its fun to watch

 

[lionfish99]

Thanks. About the live fish once a month. I read they are very very hard to get to eat regular food if you give them live fish. That they would crave the live fish and not want anything else. True???

 

[380reef]

true

 

[jer4916]

idk,...thats how i was told to feed my lion, and my lion is uber happy and is active, and has doubled in size in the past 2 months....so i would assume its correct.