How much to feed?

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richardiv87

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Nov 22, 2004
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I have a volitan lionfish (about 5-6") and am feeding him every other day as instructed, but am not sure if I am overfeeding. Currently, he's eating live fish with a few shrimp pieces thrown at him for good measure. We feed him until all of the food we have gathered are gone, or he seems more disinterested than not (i.e. the damsels get the fish first). Last night he made a piggy of himself and ate 15 feeder minnows! Is this too much?

Also, I have a medium sized Snowflake eel (about 9 or 10"). As he has made himself a cave under the live rock, the shrimp we feed him gets taken away, and we never see it again, but dont know if he's eaten it, or just stored it there. How much do they usually eat, as I dont want rotting shrimp in the tank?

One last thing. We seem to be losing hermit crabs (am assuming that its nothing to do with items 1 or 2 at this point due to location of losses). Any idea why this may happen in a tank? The fish are all healthy.
 
I would feed the volitan either less at each feeding, or less frequently. I'd also work on getting him off feeders--FW fish do not meet the nutritional needs of a SW fish. They will take frozen prepared foods just fine, as well as raw cocktail shrimp.

The snowflake is likely eating--they don't stash food. Also, they prefer crustaceans, and is most likely chomping happily on the hermits every chance he gets.
 
OK, given the Snowflake is terrorizing the hermit crab community, how would I solve my algae (soon to be) problem? Hermits are probably expensive feeders. Will have to feed him more then. Such a cool animal!

Thanks about the Lion. I know its not good for him, but am in the middle of transitioning (and getting a feeding stick to boot).
 
Feeding the eel more is unlikely to reduce his predation--that's like putting a rabbit in with a bunch of carrots and then expecting it to only eat the pellets you add. Won't happen, sorry. The eel will hunt until the hermits are reduced to nothing, or just the really bright ones. Cleaning in a predator tank is mostly manual--the usual critters just don't survive. You can try snails, getting ones about 3 times the size of the eels head, or too tiny to be of interest, like ceriths, or limpets, with can usually stay attached to the glass or rocks tight enough to avoid becoming a snack.
 
Non-issue

:sad

I lost all the fish. The eel was hording the shrimp under the rock, and the ammonia went off the scale before I knew it. Now, only the eel and one damsel have survived (and all of the worms and hitch-hikers seem to be crawling out of the rock and dying also!!!

I guess an effective recycle is taking place and I'll try to start new. Did a water change, but did not help.
 
need help feeding Lionfish

Hi I'm having trouble getting my Lionfish to eat anything other than Rosy Reds. My other fish eat krill and several types of frozen foods. How do I get him to make the switch? Please help.
 
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I have an 8" volitan lionfish and feed him 1 frozen silverside fish every 4 days.
 
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