Lionfish won’t eat

[Tommy McDonald]

Picked this guy up on Saturday. I introduced ghost shrimp when I added him. He hasn’t eaten since introduced to the tank. I’ve tried piece of shrimp, mysis no luck. Is it just a waiting game till he get hungry enough? He looks huge in pic but only about 3” long

 

[James M]

It’s probably still acclimating. Give it time

 

[Mical]

In my experience they only like live food. Drop a live ghost shrimp in there and see what happens...

 

[James M]

In my experience they only like live food. Drop a live ghost shrimp in there and see what happens...

He said he added ghost shrimp

 

[Tommy McDonald]

I did when I first introduced him into the tank that’s what I did with my dwarf lion to get him to start feeding.

 

[lion king]

These guys are usually starving when they get in, so a healthy lion, regardless, should munch some live ghosties right away. My 1st instincts, as I have seen it so many times, is the possibility of internal parasites. Many times these guys are fed dying and diseased fish along the way, so an immediate treatment for internal parasites is highly recommended. It looks as if you have already added him to your reef, which will make this much more difficult, if necessary. Add some more info about the tank you put him in. A volitan is usually pretty easy to get eating, even if he starts eating, I would still treat him for internal parasites.

 

[tehmadreefer]

Lionfish are a bit difficult at times to get eating, regardless of the fact that they are quite hardy.

I always used a wooden skewer with a silverside on the end or a piece of raw shrimp and mimicked a swimming motion.

 

[Tommy McDonald]

He’s in with a marine betta dwarf lion a clownfish and 2 damsels he is by far the smallest in size compared to the betta and dwarf. I feed in the center of my tank my betta and dwarf come right to the top when I feed the new guy is starting to hang around where I put the food in my tank. Yesterday he was just swimming around. Best way to discribe it it’s like he is shy being he’s the smallest of my predator fish. I soak my fish food in brightwell vitamin C. He’s not breather hard still has the same colors as I picked him up from the store physical don’t see anything alarming that I would be stressing about. He was more stressed about being in the bag than in the tank

 

[lion king]

It could just be a case of intimidation, the fish you have would give him competition. Although I do still do hold by the advice of treating for internal parasites, a lionfish can easily go a couple of weeks without eating. If you can somehow target some food to him while feeding, it would help. Under these circumstances it is understandable it may take a few days.

 

[Tommy McDonald]

Ok I was able to get live minnows from brackish water that we’re free he ate two also when I added the minnow I also added mysis he only went after the minnow. Is that a good sign or is he gonna be a picky live fish food only? He ate 2 minnows now looks like he’s pregnant

 

[Jon Fishman]

Probably need a steady diet of those little red feeder fish (forget what they're called) etc.... "Picky" with live food only? I have always been under the impression that live-food-only was pretty much par for the course for Lions. I "happened" to get a 7" one or so..... and immediately donated it to my LFS for just that reason.

 

[Tommy McDonald]

Picky on frozen so far. Little picky on live food wouldn’t eat ghost shrimp but tried first day I added to tank. Also being I can get all the minnows I want for free being I live on the coast

 

[Tommy McDonald]

Assume can’t or wouldn’t advise goldfish?

 

[Jon Fishman]

I'm not sure of the contamination risks (disease/parasites) of feeding live.... if any..... I'm sure those successfully keeping a bunch of predators know. I personally would try to buy in bulk and breed in my sump.

 

[Tommy McDonald]

I’m gonna try frozen silver sides what I just fed him looks exactly like live silver sides

 

[lion king]

Volitans will generally take to dead food pretty easily. With that big belly he doesn't need to fed for at least 3 days. Lions generally only need to fed a couple of times a week, every other day at the most, until you see the nice bulge in their belly. Even though they can eat larger items it is best to stay with a few smaller items, lions eyes can get too big for their bellies, and they can overeat and get bloat, which will kill them. If you stick with smaller items, they will let you know when they are full. If it's a larger item, they may gulp it down before they realize it's too much.

Get a rigid airline and angle cut the end to skewer some dead food items. Ones to start with, silversides and krill. If you are using the large silversides, angle cut so you use about 1/2, skewer so the head can be facing him when you introduce to the water. If you can get whole pieces of krill, this fools them also, sometimes just dropping it in will trigger him to give chase, or you can use the stick. Eventually he will take shrimp, scallop, squid, octopus; mine even snags chunks of ocean nutrition formula cube foods from the water column.

Those aren;t the rosies that we get from the lfs right, you said you live on the coast and get them for free, what are the minnows you fed him. The minnows we get from the lfs are usually not the best food, live fancy guppies or mollies would be a better choice. If those are wild brackish minnows, that would be an excellent food source until you get him eating dead food. I would just be careful to only feed him one at a time, or 2 small ones.

 

[Tommy McDonald]

I call them bull minnows but they can pretty much live in any water. We get them from a creek that gets stingrays in mid summer I can get them free for about 5-6 months out of the year out a minnow trap everyone uses them from flounder fishing to bass fishing

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

Have you tried soaking the food in garlic or entice? That has worked for me for multiple fish over the years.

 

[lion king]

Even freezing your bull minnows to feed to the lion dead is a good "break the ice" routine. Once he eats those dead, he'll open up to eating other dead items.

 

[Tommy McDonald]

I’ve been using vitamin c from bright well but no garlic. This has been the only fish that seems to have trouble taken frozen so far all my other fish took food the same day when I bought them. He seems a little interested in mysis but like said above I don’t think it triggers his feeding instinct like live. I dropped the minnow in bam he at it. I’ll try freezings the minnow I have no shortage