what are some solutions for getting a lionfish to eat?

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vTEC

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jul 4, 2005
Messages
37
Location
Ontario, Canada
Alrighty... here goes:

I brough my lionfish home from work last night. He was partially eating there, and hasn't eating anything since i got home. Now I know I shouldn't expect him to eat because its a new environment.

I know there are a few ways to get him to eat eventually, and of course knowing my luck... I found out that he was started on LIVE FOODS, after I had purchased him.

The only way he'll eat a live minnow/shrip etc... is if its wriggling pathetically in front of his face for about 5 minutes then he'd eat it.

Apparently there's a feeding stick you can get for lionfish, and other predatory fish, and was wondering if maybe i should give that a shot and see how he'll react to that.

If there are any other options let me know.

And I have the option though, that if he doesnt eat, I can always bring him back to work. I love having that authority
 
awesome!!! Thanks fluff!!!

I bought some feeder guppies today... just to at least get him interested in feeding.. then maybe switch him over to brine shrimp...

he possibly ate one guppy.. but we'll have to see
 
LIMentality420 said:
try a goldfish

Goldfish are a terrible food choice and not one I would recommend. If you "have" to feed live, ghost shrimp and guppies are a better choice. But, even then, only if you know they are healthy feeders.
 
Just get Frozen silversides place it on your stick and wiggle it in front of your lion, if it is a Volitan than usually when they get hungry enough they eat, If we are talking a dwarf that can be a little trickier to get it to eat. I would try to avoid live foods.

Kaye
 
just my luck that my lionfish is a DWARF...

its no biggie getting him feeder guppies, or ghost shrimp.. i work at an Aquarium... so my feeders are free... and all my fish are 25% off... im going to try him on a variety of different stuff to see what he likes best...
i can get frozen saltwater food from the local grocery store, so im going to try some cut up shrimp, maybe some squid.. whatever they eat in the wild..

I did some research and they will eat squid, any kind of fish thats in bite sized pieces, and some other foods.

So i'll see how this goes.... :mrgreen:
 
I have a dwarf and he's never been hard to feed. It will even eat flake food from the surface. Be patient. He may be stubborn but if he gets hungry enough, he should eat.
 
"Be patient. He may be stubborn but if he gets hungry enough, he should eat."

I agree be patient your dwarf will come around, I have one that was easy to get on frozen & one that was hard to get one frozen. It will all depnd on the fish, but I would still try to get this dwarf on Frozen over Live.

Kaye
 
Hey good news everyone!!!!

I bought some ghost shrimp.. and holy cow.. he's eaten all the ones ive put in the tank...

so i figure.. ill start putting some frozen brine shrimp in thetank as well later on tonight and see how he reacts to that...

thanks everyone for helping me...

- Lauren -
vTEC
 
Good Luck, try dropping a small piece of krill near the lion and see if it goes for that.
One of my Dwarfs would not eat until I just dropped the food in and now it is smooth sailing...

Kaye
 
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