First Lionfish

[Bar16]

Just got my first lionfish i have a 75g tank... This is my first fish in the tank the only thing i had in the tank before were one blue damsel and one yellow tail damsel and a few other damsels which didnt making throught the tank maturing process..anyway my only question is what shall i feed the guy its a big lion aprox 6-7 inches bought him for 100 bucks had to drive two hours to get him. Will he eat the damsels in the tank???

[Mahlhavoc]

He probably will eat them if they will fit in his mouth, if not, the damsels will harrass him to no end, nipping his fins etc . .

See if he will eat things 'non live' or try to teach him to, you'll be better off in the end, and so will he.

[mysis]

Feeder shrimp are good to get them eating, if you live near the ocean you can catch your own or the LFS will sell them 20c each, get about 15 or so.

[damkcore134]

dude 100 dollars, pretty pricy but definelty worth it how does it behave. I just got one too, in my 125, mines rather slugish.

[Bar16]

I just dumped about 20 shrimp in the tank and the he wont touch them is it ok to just leave them in there????

[FreddytheFish]

I don't know about leaving the shrimp in there, but I do know that when it gets hungry enough, it will eat.

You should also try to wean it onto frozen food, you can do this by spearing a piece of food on a feeder stick and wiggle it to make it appear like its alive.

Good Luck! Lions are awesome fish!

Freddy :dive2:

[edikpok]

I am not sure about your lionfish but i know that mine will eat only feeder fish or floating food. so i feed it mostly with koi food ( the little floating round balls) and give it a feeder fish on the weekends. he seems to love this set-up.

[AW2EOD]

I am not sure about your lionfish but i know that mine will eat only feeder fish or floating food. so i feed it mostly with koi food ( the little floating round balls) and give it a feeder fish on the weekends. he seems to love this set-up.


That's probably the worst diet I've ever heard of, for any saltwater fish.

Not only are those koi pellets worthless, when it comes to nutrition for saltwater fish, but feeding those feeder fish will only lead to liver and kidney disease and death.

You need to do much more research, my friend.

[Gealcath]

Feeding any type of fresh water food or freshwater fish to saltwater fish isnt a healthy diet and will cause health problems eventually, which is why its good to use stuff marine fish eat, like silversides (even salmon can work), or shrimp

[TKOS]

What type of lion?

[edikpok]

That's probably the worst diet I've ever heard of, for any saltwater fish.

Not only are those koi pellets worthless, when it comes to nutrition for saltwater fish, but feeding those feeder fish will only lead to liver and kidney disease and death.

You need to do much more research, my friend.

Perhaps I do need to do much more research but I have this lionfish for almost half a year and I've tried to feed it with brine shrimps, frozen shrimps, and different formulas's. The thing is that it wouldn't eat anything but floating food or the live feeder fish...
If you are saying that this diet is bad (perhaps you are right...), what should I use then? why won't you use feeder fish for your lionfish?
I did try to starve him for 3 days but he did not eat anything. As soon as I gave him his Koi balls again, he ate those like crazy.

[Gealcath]

Freshwater fish (like feeder goldfish) have a high fat content compared to saltwater fish, hence feeding a lionfish a feeder goldfish would be the same thing as eating a bigmac at burgerking, they will eventually die of liver failure.


One thing you can try is get some silversides and attach them to a stick and wiggle it around in front of the the lion, so it gives the apperance of live food.

[DansMarineTank]

I have never fed my lionfish live food, and he was not trained when i got him. It took me about a week to get him to eat frozen food. Now he eats anything i want him to I feed him a diet of

Mysis, Octopus, Squid, silversides, Krill alternating every feed. Heres how i done it

Lionfish are very cleaver fish and can quickly learn to associative certain people / situations with feeding time. What i done at first is I fed at the same time two days apart. using a net in the exact same place in the tank. you can do this using your koi pellets for the first couple of weeks this will get him to associatie the net with food, then its just a case of switching the koi food for say frozen squid (defrosted and chopped to the same size as the koi pellets) once you have him comming up to meet you when he sees the net you have him he will be so exited its feeding time that he will eat whatever you want him to.

This worked for me, good luck if you try it

[edikpok]

Gealcath, thank you for the explanation!
and DansMarineTank thank you too and I will try yout technique. Another thing is that Koi pellets float and the lionfish is used to that. How do I make the sea food to float?

Where do you guys get these silversides? is it OK to feed them with the regular octopus, squids, salmons fish (like the ones we eat)?

[Germanman]

my lion gets mollies and guppies saltwater feder shrimp ad will eat frozen silverides. to get them off live food dont feed them tell they take frozen but dont starve them longer than 5 days. and the now passed away viloton lion at my work was 10 lbs, 2.5' long, and lived for 8 years eating shrimp and goldfish. the moiiles i use are brackish fish and even whole salt mollies so that is another option.

[frobie]

I got a volitian lion back in september and he would never eat frozen. He was about 5-6 inches long. It is just a matter of breaking him in. I would toss a goldfish/mollie/shrimp in to get him excited. Then I would put some smelt or squid on the feeding stick and wiggle it around. He probably went 2-3 weeks without eating. You just have to tough it out. They can go quite awhile without eating. When he is hungry he will eventually eat. Now, I can just walk over to the tank and the bugger goes nuts. He starts dancing around and gets frantic. He'll eat everyday now, all frozen foods. I also soak the food in garlic attractant *Kent Marine* He comes to the top of the tank and I have to drop the food in from above, because he'll come out of the water to grab it. remember, you are tougher then the lion! break him in!

[mysis]

LOL, What do you think the minimum size tank should be for a FU MAN CHU Lionfish? thinking of starting a nano with just one of these guys in. i was hoping 20 gallons or less.