Mystery involving 2 dwarf lion fish

[Miami Reef]

I added 2 dwarf lion fish to my tank yesterday in the same area of the tank. The first one immediately went in the rocks and the second stayed in the circles spot the entire day and didn’t move.

I tried looking for the 1st lion fish and I couldn’t find it no matter which angel I looked. The rock work on the right side is hollow, which means there is only 1 layer of rocks and the entire back is exposed. I tried peeking through the cracks between the rocks and I couldn’t find it.

I was never able to find the 1st lion fish, but this morning the second one is gone too! As with yesterday, I couldn’t find either of them.

 

[Miami Reef]

My question: how likely is it that they BOTH died?

For acclimation, I put them in a bucket with a heater to match display tank temp. I used a calibrated refractometer and checked both salinity of tank and bucket of new arrivals and they matched. I dripped them for 5 minutes and added them. To be frank, I had an urchin, brittle star, and 2 red star fish from the same store and same bucket and all those inverts are alive.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

Where is waldo!? They might be doing there thing by blending in, waiting to pounce on prey

 

[dedragon]

prob for the best they would have just made snacks out of those anthias and the clownfish

 

[Miami Reef]

I hope so

@monkeyCmonkeyDo

D, what’s your experience with these fish?

 

[Miami Reef]

Update. They are both alive. I tried adding 2 ghost shrimp but either the lion fish weren’t ready to eat, or the wrasses chased the shrimp away before the lion fish could see them.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

I have mixed exp. With these fish. Try live feeder guppies if you can find em.
In the past I've had them to where I can get them to eat and I had a good success for 8 or 9 months. Recently I tried one and he wouldn't eat.
I think the key is dim to low-light and a low key not highly active fish such as free swimmers and tangs. Low.stress tank will help imo.
Hopefully lion king will chime in. He's the r2r predator local expert. I can't tag him cuz he's hidin.
D

 

[lion king]

These fish, lionfish, need an observation tank to get acclimated to xaptive living, before introduction to the dt. Feeding them is a challenge and a feeding routine mustbbe established prior to introduction into a commmunity for best success. Since they almost exclusively initially eat live foods, and will mostly requirement at least including live food for long term success, getting them food will be a challenge. Most people will not be able to get them to eat the proper balance of dead food for long-term, if they ate able to getting them eating dead food at all. Once in the display it is almost impossible. I posted an example yesterday how to get a lion eating inba large reef tank. You can click my name and "find all posts", and "find all threads" for a ton of info on lions.

They are very good about tuvking away into the rocks, making it hard to find them. They also jump so the tank needs to be covered.