Help! Lion won't eat frozen

[shifty99]

Hello, all. I have had a small(5" long) volitan lion now for two and a half weeks. He won't eat anything but goldfish. I know this is not good for him or the rest of the fish in the tank. I am trying to get him to eat frozen mysis shrimp and all tropicals1. Went so far as to buy a feeding stick and waggle the frozen cuisine in front of him. He just stares at it for a minute and slowly moves off. I even have to net my trigger to try to feed the lion or else the trigger devours the shrimp when it hits the water. Anyway, the lion hasn't eaten in 4 days as I told myself when he gets hungry enough, he'll eat the frozen, but now I am thinking of going back down to my LFS for more goldfish or gohst shrimp. I know this is common with lions, but I am frustrated. I also know that some of you have had this experience. What do I do? Stick to my guns? Give him a little live treat and be more patient with it? Please give me suggestions,Thanx

 

[Devilishturtles]

Try soaking the frozen in some garlic. Garlic is sometimes used to entice finicky eaters. May or may not help with your lion fish, but worth a try.

 

[Innovator]

4 days is quite common and I would start to worry if past 10+ days. Most volitans will not bother with such small food offerings such as mysis or even cubed food varieties IME. Do use whole shrimp, squid heads w/tentacles, or other non-greasy/fatty fish, which can also be injected with selco/vitachem, etc. If you have to feed live, enriched ghost shrimp is the better choice until you can wean it onto prepared foods. I am not sure what type of feeding stick you have, but rigid airline tubing works well since it is somewhat clear. You can try wriggling the food on the lr and mimic prey to see if the interest is captured

 

[shifty99]

Thanx for the replies, the all tropicals I am feeding is frozen and in the shape of small salad type shrimp. Should I stick with that or go to the grocery store for fresh shrimp? I will coat my next offering in garlic and try to find a piece if rigid airline as the stick I have is cumbersome and obvious.

 

[Innovator]

Raw or cooked (pink) frozen shrimp is fine as long as the quality is there (doesn't disintegrate) and doesn't have any added outside preservatives.

 

[melosu58]

I was going to say the same about the mysis as it seems too small for the Lionfish. I`ve heard others talk about using frozen krill with garlic.

 

[shifty99]

Well, just got back from the store and tried to feed him shrimp soaked in garlic on a clear stick. My wife even tried to entice him with it and then it looked hard not to eat(ha ha). Seriously this is getting ridiculous, but I'm not giving up. Day 5 without him eating and we leave Saturday morning for the weekend. I'll try it again tomorrow.

 

[Mackey256]

I had the same problems with my two lions. I switched over to Krill soaked in garlic and they will eat that up like it's going out of style. Perhaps that can help you out.

Good luck.

 

[Kohan Bros.]

firstly id just say feed him ghost shrimp instead of gold fish. plain and simple gold fish will put a shorten the lifespan of saltwater fish. plenty of articles out there. id feed ghost shrimp and put the food you plan on feeding in the water at the same time. after a while remove the ghost shrimp starve him for a couple days and see if it doesnt work just keep repeating the process. and if u never goes to frozen your not going to hurt his long term longgevity by feeding him goldfish

 

[shifty99]

Still not eating, but he does seem more interested in my offerings lataly. A few people have mentioned krill, is that something I can buy at the grocery store or should I try my LFS?

 

[Tomd]

Yuo can get it at an LFS, I actually buy some stuff like this at a Chinese market near me.

 

[Innovator]

You can also try silversides, but if this lionfish is looking rather emaciated do feed enriched ghost shrimp.

 

[Tomd]

Ghost shrimp are excellent to get them to start eating, let me also recommend mysis soaked in garlic. It is imporatnt to feed varied.

It is quite common for these guys to be overfed at LFS's as well.

Check out Frank Marini's articles on lionfish care - he talks about getting them to feed and a proper diet (guppies/tuffies/comets are a big no-no).

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...ture/index.php

Here is another articel on nutrition. Some like to feed Tuffies but this is really not a good idea:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...ture/index.php

 

[melosu58]

I cant get either one of those to come up. Dont know if its me or not.

 

[Innovator]

Won't open for me either, but here is the husbandry article by F. Marini:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-11/fm/feature/index.php

 

[Tomd]

Hmm. I will have to figure that out, thanks. It has been 5 months since I was a mod at a site I used all my links...sorry

 

[monster]

I agree with all the comments about krill. I recently bought a lion and it initially only ate live fish. Over the course of a week I would dance a piece of krill in front of it trying to entice it to eat (no garlic). Now, ever time I place krill in the tank the lion is all over it. Moving the krill around was essential to get the lion to eat. It took time (and the lion in the meantime fed on live fish) but krill worked better than anything else, including store bought shrimp.

 

[dramsfan]

Hello, all. I have had a small(5" long) volitan lion now for two and a half weeks. He won't eat anything but goldfish. I know this is not good for him or the rest of the fish in the tank. I am trying to get him to eat frozen mysis shrimp and all tropicals1. Went so far as to buy a feeding stick and waggle the frozen cuisine in front of him. He just stares at it for a minute and slowly moves off. I even have to net my trigger to try to feed the lion or else the trigger devours the shrimp when it hits the water. Anyway, the lion hasn't eaten in 4 days as I told myself when he gets hungry enough, he'll eat the frozen, but now I am thinking of going back down to my LFS for more goldfish or gohst shrimp. I know this is common with lions, but I am frustrated. I also know that some of you have had this experience. What do I do? Stick to my guns? Give him a little live treat and be more patient with it? Please give me suggestions,Thanx

I feed my lion Gamma and krill. I soak it in bottled water for a few minutes and then feed. He LOVES it. He will almost jump out of the tank to get the food when fed. He was stubborn for a couple of days but did fine.

 

[shifty99]

well, thans for all of the great advice, but I still have had no luck with getting him to eat non-living offerings. I have tried almost everything that has been suggested and I guess he is one of a kind. I am very surprised that he has still not eaten the two very small damsels that are in there with him beceause it's sometimes 5 or 6 days until I can get to my LFS to get more gohst shrimp, but I am not giving up yet, I will wiggle a thawed krill in front of him again tonight!!!

 

[i have crabs]

any luck yet? i got mine trained on frozen by holding goldfish by the tail in one corner of the tank untill he would come and get it,once trained on that i started slipping in silversides,shrimp and frozen krill and now he only eats frozen foods