Why Live Food is bad for lion fish?

[luckyk0505]

I dont understand why it is bad for lion fish..
in wild.. they eat live fish.. why cant in fish tank?
are they bad If I feed him a demsel?

 

[kev]

LuckyK,
Its only bad to feed your lionfish live freshwater fish. If you wanted to feed it a live saltwater fish every now and then thats fine. But when you feed with live SW fish, you risk introducing diseases to your tank(which I wouldnt do.)
Kev

 

[cboyfan2020]

As well as getting blood,guts, etc into the water which will make it nasty.

 

[azeritis]

And making an aggresive fish even more aggressive. And probably making it harder for him to accept other food later on. And paying more money...
Now if all of the above are not a problem for you, then you should go ahead and feed live fish...
PS. In my original set up a few years ago I had a picasso, a clow triger, and a lion that I regularly feed live fresh water feeders and the fish were doing great.

 

[aquaman623]

I have a Lion that I feed both live and frozen food. There is no "blood or guts". At first he wanted live only. Now he eats both but prefers live. I have had no problems.

 

[rich1515]

I called my friend that owns my LFS and told her the lion that I bought for my 110 has only eaten once or twice since I got him...she told me to bring him back and she would get him trained on frozen food and then he can come home!

 

[spanish dancer]

One time, the owner of the fish store I go to found a huge bristleworm about 8 inches long in his coral tank. He took it out and put it in the pufferfish's tank hoping that the pufferfish would eat it; unfortunately, the lionfish beat the puffer to it. The next day, the lionfish was dead!

 

[grouperhead]

Freshwater feeders are nutritionaly void, full of fat, and can introduce a myriad of unknowst pathogens into your tank. Feeding saltwater fish (lions in particular) live feeders as a main part of their diet will lead to the deposition of fat on the liver. This will eventually kill the fish. No telling what else is in those fish. All frozen preperations are much healthier and safer. Many a lionfish has died from fatty liver deposits, why add yours to the list? Bo

 

[ophiura]

Yeah, I mean, when was the last time an Indo-Pacific reef fish encountered and Asian freshwater carp? Now if you want to waste more than a few bucks on damsels, well, what the heck. But I would prefer you just send that excess money to me (OK, or a group like the Nature Conservancy) and stick to frozen foods. It is far cheaper, easier, and in many ways healthier than feeding live foods (especially if you go the cheap feeder goldfish route, and lets face it, damsels ain't much healthier than feeder goldfish - cramped tanks, diseased and disposable). It is murphy's law that a .10 feeder goldfish will take out your $150 lion.