My Fuzzy Dwarf Lionfish: Dendrochirus brachypterus
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Robertchrisroph
Active Member
I have always wanted to ask if you feed your lions love food? I buy mine about 10 cleaner shrimp and it takes him awhile to hunt them all down. It's fun watching him hunt. I also feed silversides and myasis
OP
OP
Lionfish Lair
Renee
I don't know.... I think the lions preferred the word love + food.
No, I don't feed live. Not that I wouldn't, but it's not worth fighting LA traffic to find some. If I have a lion I'm training and have live food around, everyone gets some. I love watching them hunt too. One time the volitans was chasing a damsel and smacked his nose pretty hard on the rock. Sometimes they forget what live is. Our mombasae had guppies hitting his face, but all he would do is look at them. He just stared at me, begging for the frozen. He did eventually eat them.
Your fish is gorgeous. It's the kind of volitans I like. Some just have a longer face that I don't care much for. Yours has the beautiful round face that I love.
Do you ever catch any flack keeping a volitans. A lot of people just don't get that there are lions that exist harmoniously in their natural environments. I've gotten stopped at one of the shows, MAX I think, because I had on my business T-Shirt. She got all up in my face saying we should be killing, not selling lions. Ai yi yi. Go away lady and read a book.
No, I don't feed live. Not that I wouldn't, but it's not worth fighting LA traffic to find some. If I have a lion I'm training and have live food around, everyone gets some. I love watching them hunt too. One time the volitans was chasing a damsel and smacked his nose pretty hard on the rock. Sometimes they forget what live is. Our mombasae had guppies hitting his face, but all he would do is look at them. He just stared at me, begging for the frozen. He did eventually eat them.
Your fish is gorgeous. It's the kind of volitans I like. Some just have a longer face that I don't care much for. Yours has the beautiful round face that I love.
Do you ever catch any flack keeping a volitans. A lot of people just don't get that there are lions that exist harmoniously in their natural environments. I've gotten stopped at one of the shows, MAX I think, because I had on my business T-Shirt. She got all up in my face saying we should be killing, not selling lions. Ai yi yi. Go away lady and read a book.
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FeliciaLynn
Active Member
This reminds me that I should maybe get some live ghost shrimp to watch mine hunt. I was holding off on offering any live food until I got them all completely converted onto frozen. I didn't want to mix in any live and have one of them revert on me. Now that they've all been eating exclusively frozen for months now, I feel like its probably safe to offer some live for the fun of watching them hunt. It would probably be good enrichment for them. What do you think, Renee?
OP
OP
Lionfish Lair
Renee
I've never heard one convert back. It's fun to watch them hunt!
FeliciaLynn
Active Member
Good to know! A trip to the fish store for some live ghost shrimp may be in order soon. A video of them hunting will definitely be fun!
OP
OP
Lionfish Lair
Renee
I haven't forgotten about the sexing. My photos were worse than I thought and I don't know if I have the guts to put up pics that are that bad. LOL!
First, the sexing is pertinent to this species only, the D. brachypterus. None of the others can be sexed at all. But even with this lion, do not let anyone tell you they can without a doubt, determine the sex . There was once 3 criteria to look at and we just assumed they were correct, because how can you prove otherwise? None of use are going to bring them in for chromosome analysis. I however have absolute proof it's not as bulletproof as one may think. That being said, it's kind of a useless tool, if you're looking to use it to pair some up. If you're wrong, you have a future fighting pair of males on your hands. When pairing up the lions, you have to have a "Plan B" in place. We had backup tanks to separate them, if need be. You could also have an agreement with the LFS. Don't have an agreement with a friend. You'll be stuck if their situation should change and they cannot take the lion.
I noticed some discrepancies when lions had a mix of the "male characteristics". So, we started kind of saying 2/3 traits determined the sex. This wasn't based on science or statistics, except we would say "that so totally looks like a male except for "X" trait" or "that totally looks like a female except for "X" trait". I totally knew how flawed that was when my pair started breeding. They were sold to me as a pair. One was identified as the male, the other the female. I agreed with the ID, I'm not criticizing how they were sold. Well, when the "male" started producing the eggs, I knew we were wrong. O.O
OK, so the three criteria are:
This is a general diagram. I'm putting together some real life examples now, to help.
First, the sexing is pertinent to this species only, the D. brachypterus. None of the others can be sexed at all. But even with this lion, do not let anyone tell you they can without a doubt, determine the sex . There was once 3 criteria to look at and we just assumed they were correct, because how can you prove otherwise? None of use are going to bring them in for chromosome analysis. I however have absolute proof it's not as bulletproof as one may think. That being said, it's kind of a useless tool, if you're looking to use it to pair some up. If you're wrong, you have a future fighting pair of males on your hands. When pairing up the lions, you have to have a "Plan B" in place. We had backup tanks to separate them, if need be. You could also have an agreement with the LFS. Don't have an agreement with a friend. You'll be stuck if their situation should change and they cannot take the lion.
I noticed some discrepancies when lions had a mix of the "male characteristics". So, we started kind of saying 2/3 traits determined the sex. This wasn't based on science or statistics, except we would say "that so totally looks like a male except for "X" trait" or "that totally looks like a female except for "X" trait". I totally knew how flawed that was when my pair started breeding. They were sold to me as a pair. One was identified as the male, the other the female. I agreed with the ID, I'm not criticizing how they were sold. Well, when the "male" started producing the eggs, I knew we were wrong. O.O
OK, so the three criteria are:
- males have larger heads than females,
- males have longer pectoral fins that extend back to the middle of their caudal peduncle, while the female’s pectoral fins may only reach as far as the base of the caudal peduncle.
- males have 6 to 10 bands on their pectoral fins, while females have only 4 to 6.
This is a general diagram. I'm putting together some real life examples now, to help.
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OP
OP
Lionfish Lair
Renee
Based on the above info, who do you think is the male and female in the video. The fuzzies come in at around the 30 sec mark. There's a red one and a brownish one.
This tank had crazy coralline. It was even on the substrate. It's nice to a point, but Ai yi yi.
This tank had crazy coralline. It was even on the substrate. It's nice to a point, but Ai yi yi.
FeliciaLynn
Active Member
I went to the LFS yesterday for some dry goods and saw this cutie! I didn't take him home with me because I'm out of space and he wouldn't get along with my dwarf zebra, but I took a photo of him to share.
IMG_1476 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr
IMG_1476 by Felicia Svedlund, on Flickr
OP
OP
Lionfish Lair
Renee
That's lovely!
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LOVE these guys! If only all of my fish wouldn't fit in his mouth...
cody hendrix
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So as im reading this thread I am seeing for the first time that fuzzes and zebras don't get along. With the fuzzes normally being the aggressor. What if you were to have the fuzzes much smaller then the zebra?
I have had fuzzies and zebras living together for years. I had a fuzzy then introduced a zebra half his size with no problem. Then introduced a fuzzy slightly smaller than a zebra. In a 90g with multiple caves and rock work down the center for maximum vertical space. Just my experience.
cody hendrix
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That's what I want to do I am going to try for the 3 different colors of fuzzes and a zebra. I wish I could do radiata but I live in Florida. So this the next best thing.
The trickier thing with be adding multiple fuzzies. Sexing is a bit controversial as to accuracy, aND more than oNE male may prove questionable. Getting them smaller, say no larger than 3" will help. Plenty of caves and vertical spots for perching, and obviously a large enough tank. I have 4 in a 90 and they seem happy.
cody hendrix
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yea that's what the plan is. I have heard that the zebras and fuzzies get to aloud 7 or 8 inches. I have never seen one over 4. Have you ?
JaimeAdams
2500 Club Member
I used to have 6 of them in a 90g. I had a red, a yellow and them your "normal" mixed colorations. They spawned for me once. I never saw any aggression, just who was faster to get to the frozen food 
. Unfortunately I lost them all when we moved a few years back. I cried.
. Unfortunately I lost them all when we moved a few years back. I cried. My zebra is 5" and my yellow fuzzy is a tad under that. I got the zebra at about 2" 3 years ago. My yellow fuzzy I've only had since the beginning of the year. My red was between 4 and 5 when he died of bloat.
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