How do you get a lionfish to eat frozen food?
 

Just got a baby lionfish yesterday. LFS was feeding it baby goldfish.

I'd like to wean it off live food and feed it mysis shrimp, pellets, etc. like some other local linfish owners do but not sure how to do it.

Is it as simple as using tong sticks and just wiggling the food in front of the fish?

What species? You have a lot of fish and shrimp that could potentially become lionfish food if its large enough. Maybe not right away. But eventually even a small variety will probably start to eat some of what you have listed here.

There are some good ideas here:
Feeding help lionfish
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...onfish+feeding

Honestly i had the same problem with my old lionfish i could not get the little bugger to eat anything but live ghost shrimp and feeder fish. i bough silver sides and dangled them in the tank with a thicker fishing line and he didnt like it at fist but i didnt give up about 5 day to a week after he was introduced silversides he would beg at the surface of the water. he was definately the coolest fish. lots of personality

goldfish arent part of a lionfishes wild diet and isnt healthy for them, lfs and some hobbyst use them as either a last resort from starving or to keep it alive untill it sells.

dont quote me on this so check it out for yourself but i thought i read somewhere that ghostshrimp is a better alternartive.

silversides is a popular foor and so is making your own from fresh crab,shrimp,clams/mussels etc.

getting it to take the food is whats going to be tricky as lions are stalking hunters and they are not one to just swallow what lands in their face, they tend to follow its prey slowly and then strike very fast, they tend to almost swim motionless facing downwards using no energy then strike very quickly using up all the energy they have saved up.

basically if it doesnt look like food it may not be interested and if it moves to fast the lion wont bother trying to catch it.


sorry i couldnt be any more help but its just not an easy task getting a lion train ed onto food i guess the key is to add lots of food to the tank of different kinds and if it doesnt eat then remove the food as not to pollute the tank, its a game of roulette youll have to find what your lion will eat.if it absolutely will not take anything you m,ayt have to con sider buying it live food to keep it alive.

always try to buy fish that eat prepared foods or be prepared to accept that it could starve or die:(

again sorry i know there isnt much to go on here in the way of a solution

Thanks for all the responses. If it doesn't go with frozen food by the end of the week I will take it back to LFS. It's a Volitan.

Not gonna chance him sticking to live food and eating my clowns or shrimp when he is bigger. I have a lot of rock work right now so the shrimp and smaller fish hide in the rocks.

Ate one goldfish on July 26 from LFS. Stomach was bulging. Hasn't eaten anything since then. Brought it home the same day it ate the goldfish. Trying chopped cocktail shrimp, mysis shrimp, squid cubes, etc.

get some mollies and slowly aclimate them to our tanks salinty so they become full blown saltwater fish. Then just breed them and feed em to the lion. I dunno how much work that is but i know a couple guys on nano-reef that have successfully introduced mollies into their saltwater tanks.

Thing is I'm trying to get this fish off of live food for the sake of my chromis, damsels, cardinals, and clowns lol.

The LFS has a big 12" lionfish that eats flake food and pellets so I know it can be done lol.

don't have a Lionfish but think if I did, still would be worried it would be sucking up the clowns and others even if learned to eat frozen.

Well I don't like the idea of feeding live food because I have young kids and my daughter will be traumatized lol.

But in 4 months time or less I will have a dedicated predator tank for him and some other predators so it won't be an issue.

Try krill and silversides. I had a Volitan for 5 years and those were its favourites. It wouldn't even look at pellets or mysis and rarely ever ate clam or squid.

I had a fuzzy. When I first got it, I held a skewered krill gently pressed up on it's lips for 40 minutes while watching Seinfeld. It FINALLY grabbed it. It took a time, but pretty soon, the fish would instantly go after the krill. Most of my carnivores have been like this...aside from any triggerfish.

Id say just be persistant, try many times, different times of the day. try dancing the food in the tank, waving it around, shoving it right in the fishes face and holding it there.

He hides behind rocks until about midnight and comes out. Seen him twice this week. I drop silversides and inject mysis shrimp behind the rocks.

No clue if he is eating or not. Been 4 weeks since I visually saw him eating at the pet store.

with all the fish in your sig chances are he probably is intimidated to eat with the others ,maybe putting him in a tank by himself untill he eats is an option:)feeding a finiky fish is a challenge but feeding one with alot of other fish around just makes it even harder:)good luck bud:)

if hes hungry enough chances are he will knock off some smaller fish or def the cleaner shrimp...if he already hasnt;)

Id say ignore the mysis. I found no luck in just dropping silversides or krill into the tank. Once it hits the sand, my fish/eels would not touch it.

If it is hiding behind rocks, that might be a new issue all together, out of alll the lionfish I have seen, and the 3 I have owned all of them have pretty much stay perched in the open. When a fish hides in the rocks, it is usually a sign that it is stressed.

You need to get the fish in the open and intice it to eat.

A more drastic approach would be to isolate it, and force feed it until it is weened. i have never had to do this myself, but i have heard people doing it with varying success. The key is to make the fish ciomfortable, and remove distractions and stress.

It's been mentioned before but I'll stress it: You need to know what the fish's eating pattern is. Volitans are stalkers/hunters and will typically, until acclimated to other food, not touch anything that is obviously dead. If they see the food fall to the bottom they consider it dead and leave it alone. Try to make a silverside dance in the rocks near where he hangs out and see if that will entice him out. I am assuming he's a wild caught fish, so he's still going to have the wild feeding response until you teach him otherwise.

As reefwars said, if he's hiding and not picking off your smaller fish, then he's probably stressed out. Have you seen anyone picking on him?

A couple of weeks ago I saw a cleaner shrimp clean his mouth and a small chromis hover above his head...nothing lol.