Suddenly Shy Lionfish

td3025 · Jun 19, 2016

I've had my fuzzy dwarf lion for about 8 months now. When I first got him, he was in my 75 gallon tank. Due to some money issues plus the tank crashing I eventually downsized to a 35 gallon. I know he'll need at least a 50 gallon when he's full grown, but as of now he's only 3-4 inches and has almost the entire tank to himself. And I'm definitely going to size back up when I get things all together.

Anyways, he's always been extremely outgoing. Would greet me for food, eat anything I offer him, etc. And suddenly out of nowhere the last 6 or so days he's been hiding 24/7, uninterested in food from as far as I can see.

A few weeks ago I added a small lawnmower blenny to the tank. That is the ONLY other tank mate in the entire tank other than some corals. Would the new addition cause him to suddenly become shy?

I know Lionfish generally like to hide a lot but since he never used to I was just wondering what would cause the sudden change!

He's still alert, moving his eyes around a lot and often moving to different hiding spots. But never coming fully out. Not even during feeding time.

Like I said it's a 35 gal tank, Just him, a lawnmower blenny, and some corals. No changes in tank levels. Literally no change except the new blenny!

Also he's used to being around other fish so idk why a blenny would scare him into hiding lol, in the 75 he shared the tank with a reef with clowns, wrasses, chromis, a dwarf angel, etc.

Lionfish Lair · Jun 19, 2016

Has the temperature in your house been stable? Has the tank been any warmer? If you can grab a few general pictures, that would be great.

He doesn't need a 50g. It's perfectly fine in a 35g with the right aquascaping.

How many weeks is a few for the blenny? 2-3? 3-4? or more?

eatbreakfast · Jun 20, 2016

Have you done any major aquarium maintenance? Was there any recent uptick in activity near the tank, moving furniture, loud music for a party, rambunctious kids around? Did you qt the blenny? If you are feeding frozen is it possible that it thawed and refrozen or was left out overnight?

td3025 · Jun 20, 2016

Lionfish Lair said:
Has the temperature in your house been stable? Has the tank been any warmer? If you can grab a few general pictures, that would be great.

He doesn't need a 50g. It's perfectly fine in a 35g with the right aquascaping.

How many weeks is a few for the blenny? 2-3? 3-4? or more?

I'll try to get pictures! He's in a tough spot to photograph.

I've had the blenny for a total of 4 weeks. 2 weeks in qt, 2 weeks in the tank.

Temp in my house has been stable at about 74-76 degrees.
Temp in tank has been stable at 78
and that's good to know! I was worried he wouldn't be happy in the 35 for the time being but since I knew I was upgrading in the future I didn't wanna give him up.

td3025 · Jun 20, 2016

eatbreakfast said:
Have you done any major aquarium maintenance? Was there any recent uptick in activity near the tank, moving furniture, loud music for a party, rambunctious kids around? Did you qt the blenny? If you are feeding frozen is it possible that it thawed and refrozen or was left out overnight?

I did recently move the rocks around a little, would that be enough to send him into hiding?
No other changes in environment. The rocks weren't dramatically moved though. And he's never hidden before due to aquarium maintenance so it's weird that he would now

I did qt the blenny for 2 weeks prior to introducing him to the tank. Let me say though the blenny is a PIG. he eats so much food, goes for frozen even. I wasn't expecting that, i've never had a lawnmower be that way.

For the lion, he eats mysis and small silverslides, I let it thaw before feeding and then he normally greets me at the front and takes it right from me. Now he never comes out, and even when I spot feed he ignores the food

td3025 · Jun 25, 2016

Okay finally got an answer now a week later.

So my lionfish went 1 week and 6 days without eating and in hiding.
I think the hiding was a coincidence, as I moved the rock around JUST enough to create a few cave like structures he seems to enjoy.
The feeding thing was the real issue though.

At first, i thought he wasn't eating due to whatever made him hide. But like I said, new rock structure = more space to hide.

The food was entirely unrelated. A few weeks ago I went out of town and had a friend watch all my animals.
I own a bunch of other animals along with my reef tank including an Axolotl who likes to eat night crawlers.
turns out, my friend gave my lionfish a very small piece of a living nightcrawler one night (not sure exactly even how dangerous that was, never did I tell him to do that. Don't know how fish digest large pieces of worm or the nutritional content it has on them)

But ever since then my lionfish HAS been eating less and less and now to the point where he went 1week and 6 days without even taking a nibble of his silverslides, krill, shrimp, etc.

Today I first tried garlic to tempt him, absolutely nothing happened. Then, a crab picked up a piece of silverslide and started moving it and my lion's interest suddenly peaked and he came out and chased it around until he got close enough to see it was a dead chunk of silverslide.

that sparked the idea in me about the live food, which is when I learned my friend gave him an earthworm.
Today I offered him some ghost shrimp and bam, he's suddenly active and eating.

So I guess I just have to make the switch to live food now. Problem solved, I think?

td3025 · Jun 25, 2016

Can someone- if anyone knows, tell me if it's bad that a lionfish ingested an earthworm? Like I said, for fish who would never naturally come in contact with earthworms I don't know if that can have any harm on his tummy. He's seemingly back to normal now that he's on live food though, so I don't believe it did any damage.

eatbreakfast · Jun 25, 2016

There is no harm in him eating an earthworm. They are quite nutritious.

Lionfish Lair · Jun 25, 2016

OMG!! If I'm ever in a conversation and look like I dropped off the earth, give me a @Lionfish Lair, if you can, so I find my way back. I've been using my iPad a lot and am losing track of things. I'm embarrassed.... going back to read.

Lionfish Lair · Jun 25, 2016

..... still embarrassed....

Earthworms are fine, but you have to be careful of the dirt they process. The worms themselves are very nutritious. I feed my lions eggs, fruit.... anything unprocessed.

Have you tried live guppies and ghosties?.... I guess I should ask, can you get live guppies/ghosties?

We'll get him converted to frozen.

td3025 · Jun 26, 2016

eatbreakfast said:
There is no harm in him eating an earthworm. They are quite nutritious.

Yay good to know <3

td3025 · Jun 26, 2016

Lionfish Lair said:
..... still embarrassed....

Earthworms are fine, but you have to be careful of the dirt they process. The worms themselves are very nutritious. I feed my lions eggs, fruit.... anything unprocessed.

Have you tried live guppies and ghosties?.... I guess I should ask, can you get live guppies/ghosties?

We'll get him converted to frozen.

Good to know! I never considered giving the earthworms to anything except my axolotl and I couldn't find anything online about it so I got worried. He liked the live ghost which I tried yesterday and that is when he finally ended his hunger strike.
I have access to ghost easier than guppies but there are a few places I know that have guppies small enough for him to eat.
I can make it happen either way. I just was hoping he'd stay on frozen and not lose all interest like he has

And don't worry about not seeing my reply earlier!!! There wasn't much to go on other than him being hidden a lot. It just took me awhile to think of trying live food for some reason

Lionfish Lair · Jun 26, 2016

Well, let's get him back on frozen. If shrimp are easier, use them. Around me it's hard to find good ghosties and they are way expensive. I would give him another feed of live, then switch to "injured" and the next thing I would do was offer frozen ghosties. Do you have a feeding stick?

I had a volitans go on a strike for 6 weeks and I threw 3 big ole mollies in his tank and he changed his mind about the whole ordeal. The next day he was back on frozen. I have fish go on mini hunger strikes all the time. Some are more prone than others. The Sphex lion I have makes me worry sometimes.

td3025 · Jun 26, 2016

Lionfish Lair said:
Well, let's get him back on frozen. If shrimp are easier, use them. Around me it's hard to find good ghosties and they are way expensive. I would give him another feed of live, then switch to "injured" and the next thing I would do was offer frozen ghosties. Do you have a feeding stick?

I had a volitans go on a strike for 6 weeks and I threw 3 big ole mollies in his tank and he changed his mind about the whole ordeal. The next day he was back on frozen. I have fish go on mini hunger strikes all the time. Some are more prone than others. The Sphex lion I have makes me worry sometimes.

The place I work at gets ghost every thursday, we run out crazy fast but I can normally get some every shipment. The problem with guppies is how small my lion is. He's only like 3 inches maybe. And most places around me don't sell any feeders small enough.

I do have a feeding stick! I'm glad there's some ways to try to reverse this sudden thirst for live. I was nervous that it was gonna have to be live meals forever now going forward. Hopefully this process will work

Now when you say injured what does that consist of! Like how would I make a ghost "injured".

td3025 · Jun 30, 2016

So I got guppies today and he ate them all. Looks like I know where to start with this

Lionfish Lair · Jun 30, 2016

You have any problems freezing a live guppy?

td3025 · Jul 1, 2016

Lionfish Lair said:
You have any problems freezing a live guppy?

It makes me sad to think of but I can suck it up and do it! Getting him back to frozen would be the best outcome so if a few guppies have to be sacrificed it will be done. I was sad to even give him live in the first place, but the second the guppies went in the tank he popped out and sucked them up like a vacuum. He's out of hiding now, back to his normal self. It was like he was throwing a fit until he got what he wanted, hah.

He's pretty small still, I had to get the tiniest guppies I could possibly find. One wasn't even half an inch bigger than the rest of them and he couldn't eat that one so I removed it

td3025 · Jul 1, 2016

Note that I turned on the light to take those pics and he was nice and dark because it's night time ^

His normal coloration is like this, took this when I first got him

Lionfish Lair · Jul 1, 2016

OMG! He is so cute!!

Of all the things you can do to a guppy, freezing them is pretty benign I figure. But I don't like doing it. I freeze them, thaw them and then thread them on a stick.

td3025 · Jul 2, 2016

Lionfish Lair said:
OMG! He is so cute!!

Of all the things you can do to a guppy, freezing them is pretty benign I figure. But I don't like doing it. I freeze them, thaw them and then thread them on a stick.

I'll try that next. Hopefully it'll help him go back towards frozen.
He does really seem to get a kick out of hunting them though. The second they're in the tank it's like he just knows and jumps out and goes on the hunt.

I really wanna get back to frozen though. I'm hoping his new drive for live wont interfere with the fact that I wanted this tank to be him and a pair of clowns. I wouldn't think a lion would go after clowns but I'll try to get decent sized ones just in case