?'s on Fuzzy lion

[skip_16157]

I have just received my first Fuzzy lion by mail. I understand that feeding them frozen foods is a challenge. The pet store was feeding it live foods.

Has anyone had any success with certain foods? I have only had it 2 days and I am no overly-excited about him not eating. i'm just curious as to what some have had success with. Live foods are not readily available for me as was the case for this fish. My theory is if your hungry your going to eat!

I am very suprised on how active this fish is. They are one of the main reasons why I have decided to get into the hobby.

 

[reefrunner69]

I have had success getting Lions to eat silversides (Pro Salt), and Krill (also Pro Salt). I usually start feeding live, and try to slowly reduce the number of feeders they are eating, as well as how often. When I feel they are sufficiently hungry, I add in a couple of silversides or krill in with the feeders. The lion has come to associate the dropping of the fish into the water with a meal. If your lucky, he'll tag the slow movig frozne food first. If he does and doesn't spit it out..start reducing the number of live feeders while increasing the number of frozen. Oh, I should point out, I try to add the feeders one to two at a time so he hits them as soon as they hit the water, it doesn't register when you slip the frozen mickey in on him. Also make sure you thaw the frozen food before feeding.

My theory is if your hungry your going to eat!

While this works for people...it doesn't always work in the fish world. Lot's of fish (lions and mandarins to name a couple) will starve to death before accepting prepared foods. So be sneaky and get him eating the frozen

 

[skip_16157]

What do you mean by "feeders".
Can you buy live shrimp and silversides.
Do you just drop them in and the lion will chase them.

 

[reefrunner69]

By feeders I mean feeder guppies, feeder goldfish or feeder shrimp. All FW critters and do not contain the appropriate lipids and fatty acids for SW predators. I don't know of anyplace that sell appropritely sized SW feeder fish.

 

[aimeovaldi]

I have had my fuzzy dwarf lion about a month so far and he still refuses frozed or prepared foods. He will only eat live food. I would suggest that you set up a guppy breeding tank, convert the gupies to salt water ( relatively easy to do... this also is possible for mollies) and feed live to the lion if he refuses to eat prepared foods. Feeder goldfish have too high a fat content to be the only food source for the lion. Be certain that you feed the guppies or mollies good quality food in a mixed variation of nutrient values and supplement them with algae disks. A 5 or 10 gallon can hold a great number of guppies or a sufficient number of mollies. Good luck.

 

[michealprater]

My dwarf fuzzy lion readily accepts all frozen foods. I guess I got lucky. He does enjoy the occational live treat though.

 

[reefrunner69]

I would suggest that you set up a guppy breeding tank, convert the gupies to salt water ( relatively easy to do... this also is possible for mollies) and feed live to the lion if he refuses to eat prepared foods.

Just want to point out, that even though they have been converted to SW...these are still FW fish...physiologically speaking. They, just like the goldfish, do not contain the proper ratios of lipids and fatty acids for long term health of the fish. I certainly understand aimeovaldi's perdicament...the lion will live a hell of alot longer eating FW feeders, than not eating at all...but I would consider it a last resort. I would also continue to try to wean the lion off of live FW feeders.

 

[skip_16157]

Micheal, you say you were successful.

What methods and foods did you use?


Can you make a storage tank for ghost shrimp. They seem to be the only live SW feeders I can get and they are 1 hour away?

 

[aimeovaldi]

Actually, in the wild, a great percentage of guppies are high brackish fish. Yhey have a greater level of nutritional value than goldfish as goldfish are cold water and guppies are tropical. Being cold water, goldfish have vastly larger stores of fatty tissue than do tropicals. Fat is lipid. Lipid is fatty. I do believe that FW feeders is not an ideal meal plan and will keep attempting to feed him prepared foods. Thanks for the info.

 

[michealprater]

Skip, to be honest, I did not have to do anything. The owner at my LFS had already gotten him to eat frozen.

Tony, I think we bought our dwarfs a couple of days apart. Dean had to in his quarintine and I picked the one I saw eat frozen. The other one didnt. Maybe that was the one you got.

I keep ghost shrimp in my freshwater tank and feed one once in awhile as a treat.

If you setup a small tank for ghost shrimp, I believe they will breed. At least my uncle had luck doing that one time.

 

[skip_16157]

Can you stock ghost shrimp in with your tropical fish?

 

[reefrunner69]

Provided the fish are not of a size that they could eat them...I don't see why not.