I bought a fuzzy lionfish from liveaquaria last week and it has been eating ghost shrimp. I tried feeding it silversides on fish line but it seemed afraid of it. I have two damsels in the tank with it and I noticed yesterday that it was eating some of the brine shrimp I was feeding the damsels. I thought maybe it was hungry so I tried the silversides again, and again it seemed afraid of them. Does anyone know how to get it to eat the silversides or anything else healthy?
Feeding fuzzy lionfish
- Thread starter tierbett
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Bumped your question up to the top of the list. Trying to get you an answer.
Reefkeepr1986
Active Member
I had a fuzzy dwarf a couple of years ago till it literally started eating all my small inverts but I couldn't get mine to eat anything else other than my cleaner crew so for you to have a Fuzzy dwarf eating I would just give it time and it may start eating other things you feed!! They are very shy when introduced into a new system but just keep throwing it food and it may just eat regularly!!
tierbett
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Haha! I'm sorry to hear that. It must have been an expensive fish to deep. Mine was pretty shy at first but I have had it for a week now and it has been swimming around a lot more. I guess I got lucky with this one. I guess I will just have to keep trying!
tierbett
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Yes. I had a peppermint shrimp in the tank before I put the lionfish in and a couple of dud ago I noticed it was gone. I also had hermit crabs that it does not bother and two damsels that are, as of now, to small for it to eat. They are really cool fish. I have only had it a week but I am completely happy with it!
darrell7456
Community Member
I had a Lionfish for 6yrs and could never get him to eat anything but live food. good luck
goldy26
Community Member
i have had a dwarf zebra lion fish for about 9 months. he's never gone after any of my clean up crew and on a rare (and probably lazy) occasion will let me cleaner pick at him a little. he only eats ghost shrimp or guppies though as well. i've tried getting him to eat frozen krill, but he will either inspect and disregard or eat it only to spit it back out (almost like he can tell it was frozen at some point in time). i'd be interested in seeing any tips/success others have had getting them to eat frozen. lion fish will only eat what they know they can swallow in one gulp, so i think as long as your clean up crew is up to snuff you should be fine, in my opinion.
on a side note, my lion will swim to the top of the tank and stick his mouth out of the water, spitting at me to feed him if i stand over the tank looking down. he's a really fun fish, so cool!
on a side note, my lion will swim to the top of the tank and stick his mouth out of the water, spitting at me to feed him if i stand over the tank looking down. he's a really fun fish, so cool!
I have had quite a few types of lionfish over the years and eventually got them all eating frozen, but some took longer. Fuzzy dwarfs were the easiest imo. Try small frozen/thawed krill. Mix a couple in with the ghost shrimp. Eventually use less and less live shrimp. If still not taking krill, stop feeding them for a week. Hungry lionfish is a brave one. You can also use monofilament fishing line to spear some frozen/thawed food and make it swim. Don't tie it on, just like it through so when the fish bites it comes free easy. Once they start taking dead food it's easy to vary their diet.
SeahorseKeeper
Where's the mysis?
Fuzzy dwarf lionfish are easy to wean to frozen. I would bet that you are feeding food that is a little to big.
Here is what I did to wean my fuzzy to frozen:
Here is what I did to wean my fuzzy to frozen:
- Feed ghost shrimp. Start with letting 4 or 5 loose in the tank and let the fuzzy hunt
- After 3 good feedings, hand feed using feeding tongs or one of these options: LionfishLair.com - Library Be careful if you go with tongs. If the fuzzy strikes at the tongs, it may startle the fish and make it unwilling to want to do that again.
- Slowly start switching to frozen foods after 5-6 good live feedings with the hand feeding method. You may have to experiment with different types of frozen foods
goldy26
Community Member
what kinds of frozen foods have you seen to be successful, or does it depend on the fish?
tyler1503
2500 Club Member
I haven't had a chance to read the entire thread yet, so sorry if this has been mentioned already.
I've found pieces of chopped squid is best for large ambush predators. If it doesn't work straight away, try roughing up the squid with a fork to get the juices going. It's rare that this didn't work for me in the past.
I've found pieces of chopped squid is best for large ambush predators. If it doesn't work straight away, try roughing up the squid with a fork to get the juices going. It's rare that this didn't work for me in the past.
SeahorseKeeper
Where's the mysis?
It depends, somewhat. I had success with mysis for baby fuzzies. I also would use a variety of seafood like shrimp, clam, tuna, tilapia, etc. I would get seafood that I thought all my fish would enjoy. Worst case scenario I would toss it in the blender and freeze the gruel for my other fish. Oh and it is super important to have pieces that are not too big.
tyler1503
2500 Club Member
This is essentially what I would do whilst working at the LFS. In my personal tanks I didn't need to try to get them feeding as I would get them from work already eating prepared foods.
I didn't use tongs though, my lions learnt when food was coming as I would always feed in the same corner of the tank. They will learn food is coming, so when he was eating live shrimp, I would (after a few feedings) add a frozen one to the tank too and he would be so fast to eat it, he would realise it wasn't alive. I used less and less live shrimp and more and more frozen shrimp until he would reliably eat the frozen ones without hesitation. It helps to feed the live shrimp one at a time (once he learns where the food is coming from) so he doesn't go after the moving ones and ignore the frozen ones.
I've also had luck using this method with eels.
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