Alternative Lionfish foods...

[MichaelsLilGray]

Ive been feeding him little minnows and the occasional molly... and ghost shrimp. I tried to feed him a gutted and cleaned raw shrimp from the coast... and he wouldnt even touch it.. is there a trick to getting him to eat frozen foods? or is there a frozen food im not looking at that i need to be?

Id prefer keeping him away from goldfish ..silversides.. and just ghost shrimp.. the golds and silvers have to much fat in them.. and the ghost shrimp are to **** expensive. lol

 

[melosu58]

I personally like the silversides. I`ve never had one but I do know a few that do have them and they feed them silversides. I have also heard that you dont want to feed FW fish to your lionfish. Maybe someone with some experience can chime in.

 

[Innovator]

If not shrimp try silversides (smelt has much more fat than silversides), squid, crab meat, and various non-fatty/greasy marine fish (capelin, orange roughy, haddock, etc.)

 

[BucJason]

try to make the frozen food look alive. Drop in front of the powerhead and let it flow in the current so it's moving. If he's not afraid of your hand wiggle it in front of him so he thinks it's alive. Once they get used to it and realize it's food, they'll readily eat it and you won't have to do this anymore.

 

[Jayinked]

I feed my Lionfish , alittle of everything, at least once a week he will get live food like the ghost shrimp or small goldfish. Anyother time he it Silversides and krill. You can tell he rather eat live food , he is more into the chase and kill than just eating the frozen food. The droping infront of powerhead is a good idea to. I think they are more into live food. If you let frozon food drop to bottom , mine will just hover over the top of it tell antother fish starts to eat or the current moves frozon fish. Hope this helps out.

 

[sw-addict]

I no longer have lions, but I trained mine to eat frozen foods using a long piece of rigid air line tubing with the thawed food on the end. The fish cant see the tubing and you get to play puppet master(also works on eels).

 

[Innovator]

Agreed and is what I use for feeding many predator types. Just to note the feeding of live food, especially concerning fish of the carp family, does eventually cause liver problems because of the high fat content and many times feeding live foods in conjunction with frozen causes the animal to lose interest altogether with prepared. Just passing along...

 

[melosu58]

Good info James.

 

[rob_mango]

there is a clear rod that you can buy with a little hook on it so u can dance all kinds of frozen food on it for feeding

 

[MichaelsLilGray]

I have the hook for the frozen foods.. so you guys are sayin no live after you get them to eat frozen? peroid?

 

[Innovator]

I would not. There is no point in tempting an animal off of prepared with a live animal that fails the nutritional aspect you can offer in prepared foods (might want to look into ThiaminE).

 

[austinsdad]

Last week I tried something for the first time. Went to the fresh seafood distributor in my area. Got a piece of squid, 1/2 lb of shrimp (peeled it), 1/2 lb of scallops, and a piece of white fish filet. Put all that in a blender with generous amounts of shredded nori (for the vegetables), Garlic Guard, and Zoe (vitamin). Got that nice and mushy. Flattened it out in a zip lock and froze it. Now, I pick a piece off, let it thaw in the net hanging into the tank water for 3 minutes.

My fish love it!! I'd imagine a lion would also love fresh meat!

 

[MichaelsLilGray]

it it doesnt wiggle infront of him.. he doesnt want it xD

 

[austinsdad]

My return pumps kinda mimic the movement of the food.