How do you train a fish?

WVNed

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I saw a reference to training a fish to eat pellets.
I have several fish that will only eat certain live foods. I have spent hours waving various different foods on sticks and in tongs in front of my lions. The little light in their head never goes on that it is food. My CBB went for months before it would eat anything but live white worms. It has just started eating frozen mysis that I was adding for another fish.

I see it mentioned all the time.
So how do you train a fish to eat things?
 

Jimbo7

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Training is a deceptive word which implies that it can be applied to all fish. You should prepare for an outcome where some fish never take to prepared foods, though I think most people find success given enough time.

That being said, the general method I've seen is to use one of the garlic additives available for fish food and start soaking what they will definitely eat in that to make it super enticing. Over time, slowly start to add in prepared food to the mix and phase out the live food all while still soaked in garlic. If you've found success they are eating the prepared food then you can start to phase out the garlic. Unfortunately I can't help you with a general schedule but maybe someone else can chime in on that.

In general, having as fresh of frozen food as possible also seems to help. If your frozen has been kicking around in the freezer for awhile it would be good to get something new.
 

Jimbo7

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You starve him until he gets hungry enough to eat the pellets.
Yeah don't do this, it doesn't work.

If you've only ever eaten cheeseburgers your entire life and someone puts a salad in front of you, you'd have no idea that you could eat it or if it was for table decoration. But if someone put a taco salad in front of you, you'd recognize parts of it and start to eat, and then eventually would eat salad. This is the general practice behind the garlic, to have a unified trait between edible items.
 

Fish man

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Funny this should come up. I just got back from my lfs and picked up some live feeders for my Dwarf Zebra. Lion fish are carnivores. They won't eat pellets, nor will they live long term (more then a year and a half) on a totally dead diet. They need a primarily live food diet. If you plan to keep them you should get better diet information on them or they won't last long term. Search Lionfish diet and look for threads from lionking on this forum. He is the guru on predator species. I feed mine live ghost shrimp, guppies, and mollies, supplemented with fresh fish pieces like cod and salmon.They are also susceptible to thiaminase poisoning caused from a bad/incorrect diet. Why do I know? Been there. Silversides are ok depending on what brand you feed. Sally's San Francisco bay brand and Hikari are low in thiaminase. They are kind of high maintenance when it comes to diet so research it. Let me know if I can help.
 
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WVNed

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Funny this should come up. I just got back from my lfs and picked up some live feeders for my Dwarf Zebra. Lion fish are carnivores. They won't eat pellets, nor will they live long term (more then a year and a half) on a totally dead diet. They need a primarily live food diet. If you plan to keep them you should get better diet information on them or they won't last long term. Search Lionfish diet and look for threads from lionking on this forum. He is the guru on predator species. I feed mine live ghost shrimp, guppies, and mollies, supplemented with fresh fish pieces like cod and salmon.They are also susceptible to thiaminase poisoning caused from a bad/incorrect diet. Why do I know? Been there. Silversides are ok depending on what brand you feed. Sally's San Francisco bay brand and Hikari are low in thiaminase. They are kind of high maintenance when it comes to diet so research it. Let me know if I can help.

It was a general question. I have been keeping lions for a while. I would love it if I could buff them up with some meaty foods like shrimp or squid. They get live shrimp and guppies now. I have a 55 gallon tank of live feeders for them.
IMG_3433_HEIC-M.jpg

There are times though when it is hard to keep that up and it would be great if they would look at some dead food.
I keep live worms, guppies and both fresh and saltwater ghost shrimp around depending on what I can get.
IMG_3446_HEIC-M.jpg
 

Fish man

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It was a general question. I have been keeping lions for a while. I would love it if I could buff them up with some meaty foods like shrimp or squid. They get live shrimp and guppies now. I have a 55 gallon tank of live feeders for them.
IMG_3433_HEIC-M.jpg

There are times though when it is hard to keep that up and it would be great if they would look at some dead food.
I keep live worms, guppies and both fresh and saltwater ghost shrimp around depending on what I can get.
IMG_3446_HEIC-M.jpg
Good. I get it with live feeders. Sometimes hard to get. My lfs just got in some feeder mollies so I Picked up 3 dozen. Mine will take frozen Silversides. Check the brands I mentioned before. I get fresh Cod and Salmon, cut it in slivers about the size of a ghost shrimp and wiggle it around with my feeding tongs. Whatever it takes to get some prepared food in them. BTW. Nice looking lions.
 

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