Sooooo my Dwarf Lion passed away over the weekend while I was away. Willow (older people will get the connection) was an active member of my reef tank for over a year.
He was a stubborn SOB, only taking frozen krill and silversides a few times in his life. He enjoyed a steady stream of peppermints and ghosts. Got him for $50, spent $1k on food .
Most recently he went on a full on hunger strike because peppermints and ghosts were nowhere to be found at my LFS. So for almost a month no food. He didn’t look sick, actually he still looked full (not sure if he’d pick off an emerald crab, but my crabs are pretty big compared to his mouth.
Anyways, I was able to get some camel shrimp but they were also huge, so I cut one in half and fed him this past Friday. Then I left for the weekend and my son mentioned he hadn’t seen him all weekend. It was a pretty big camel shrimp, could it have killed him?
I found Willows skull this morning confirming he was dead. It was kind of wedged in some rocks. Could he have been hunting the other camel shrimp that escaped and got stuck? BTW his skull was picked clean.
Or could he actually have been sick from not eating for so long? I don't Have parameters but all other fish and inverts are fine…(Tomini, clowns, ornate leopard, chromis, crabs, urchin).
Kind of want some advice, I liked having him around, made the tank exciting and entertaining again, especially when he would eye the clowns but they stuck to their anemones… should I get another one or was I pushing my luck with my clowns and coral?
tldr…Lionfish didn’t eats for 3 weeks, ate camel shrimp, died, possible causes?
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