Lion Fish question.

[Jmlorfam]

So I am adding a dwarf lion fish to the tank. Researched the care for this guy and learned his dietary needs. Ordered the fish at my LFS and was told that they only stock fresh water feeder fish/shrimp. Until i train him to take other foods, can he eat fish/shrimp from freshwater. And how will these meals handle being placed in a saltwater tank? I am hoping this is normal and wont be an issue. In the mean time I am setting up a hasty 10gal freshwater tank (lunchbox if you will ) so i can keep a adequate stock.

[Hondatek]

I would skip the fw fish and just use fw shrimp if it's needed. When I had to ween my lion I used sw grass shrimp weekly with whole frozen krill in between to get him started.

[nikki_kaiser]

When I had my lion fish I fed him FW fish sometimes. I mixed it up but that was a few years ago. I had him a year and a half but had to get rid of him because I moved. He was healthy and happy. New research comes out all the time though so maybe that's not what people are doing these days. I never had any issues though. He did eat a blue damsel that I could never catch however I must admit that did not upset me! They are really cool fish!

[huma-huma]

I beliee alot of it has to do with where your LFS gets their lions from. I happened to stumble across a gorgeous black volitan at petco (yes petco) for 44 bucks. What i did was actually had an employee feed him a silverside while i was there. He ate it without hesitation and i never had to "wean" him onto anything. Hopefully the same occurs for you, but if it doesnt, just go with a slight variety of fw feeders until you get him switched over. Be careful though because ive heard that prolonged feeding of fw feeders to a lionfish can cause a fatal digestive disease/problem

[Jmlorfam]

Thank You all for the advice. He is adjusting nicely, he has found some prime real estate (no arguments from his tank mates ), and is eating without hesitation.

[lovefishys]

Lion fish are my favorite! They can be a little difficult to switch to prepared food. Our 1st took 3 month to get off ghost shrimp. Now her favorite is frozen krill. Our 2nd we were able to switch in 3 days.