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While I'm sure some have had long term success with some notoriously difficult to feed ambush predators, I have never met any in person. Fish like the dwarf and medium bodied lions, anglers, and scorpionfish from my experience tend to live longer in captivity, and be more active and vibrant, when fed live food as a substantial amount of their total food.
I know common knowledge today is the 1st order of business is to get them on dead food. Live food is expensive and securing a source for some can be challenging. I know it isn't possible most times to continue a live diet when your predator is housed in a community tank. But if you ever decide; do a predator tank and feed live foods to experience the lions, scorps, and anglers in a more natural way. The hunting and stalking activity is one of the main attractions of these beast, and just as with land predators kept in captivity; you need to stimulate and enrich their environment. I am sure there is something nutritionally beneficial to feeding live food as well.
Many times these fish will take dead food for a while, then just stop eating. Next time you start doing research on feeding fish like dwarf lions, medium bodied lions, anglers, and scorpions; try and find out the real scoop on how long these guys are being kept on a dead only diet. There are likely a few reasons these guys decline after being fed a dead diet, sometimes maybe it's just boredom and it's their way of committing suicide. Sometimes with the dwarf lions, people expect them to eat from the water column, and over time they just languish away.
I feed a live feeding at least once a week, and most times include live in each feeding. I've kept fuzzys for as long as 10 years, and my current longest resident is a 7 year old fu manchu. My volitan get a good variety of dead food, volitans seem to take dead food easily and I have kept them over 10 years on a dead only diet. Here's my current lineup.
I know common knowledge today is the 1st order of business is to get them on dead food. Live food is expensive and securing a source for some can be challenging. I know it isn't possible most times to continue a live diet when your predator is housed in a community tank. But if you ever decide; do a predator tank and feed live foods to experience the lions, scorps, and anglers in a more natural way. The hunting and stalking activity is one of the main attractions of these beast, and just as with land predators kept in captivity; you need to stimulate and enrich their environment. I am sure there is something nutritionally beneficial to feeding live food as well.
Many times these fish will take dead food for a while, then just stop eating. Next time you start doing research on feeding fish like dwarf lions, medium bodied lions, anglers, and scorpions; try and find out the real scoop on how long these guys are being kept on a dead only diet. There are likely a few reasons these guys decline after being fed a dead diet, sometimes maybe it's just boredom and it's their way of committing suicide. Sometimes with the dwarf lions, people expect them to eat from the water column, and over time they just languish away.
I feed a live feeding at least once a week, and most times include live in each feeding. I've kept fuzzys for as long as 10 years, and my current longest resident is a 7 year old fu manchu. My volitan get a good variety of dead food, volitans seem to take dead food easily and I have kept them over 10 years on a dead only diet. Here's my current lineup.