Pictures of New Fuzzy Dwarf Lionfish

[Soakem]

I picked this guy up last week and wanted to share a few pictures that I just took.

Right now he eats live foods only but I eventually would like to get him on frozen foods. Ive been reading up a little bit on how to convert them and seems hit or miss. Does anyone have any tricks?

 

[geddavis]

Nice photos.

 

[lion king]

Wow you take great pics. What are feeding him, trying to feed him fresh dead of what you are feeding him live is a good first step. PE mysis which are larger and a good nutritious food, you can find whole pieces that will fool him into thinking it's alive. Try turning off the pumps so you can target feed him, train him to come up to you to get the food(or he'll be training you) drop the live food in, then switch out with some dead. These tricks work for some although my lions get a live dominant diet though I have had some of them for several years.

 

[Soakem]

Nice photos.

Thank you!

Wow you take great pics. What are feeding him, trying to feed him fresh dead of what you are feeding him live is a good first step. PE mysis which are larger and a good nutritious food, you can find whole pieces that will fool him into thinking it's alive. Try turning off the pumps so you can target feed him, train him to come up to you to get the food(or he'll be training you) drop the live food in, then switch out with some dead. These tricks work for some although my lions get a live dominant diet though I have had some of them for several years.

Great info. Thank you! Ive only had him for a little over a week so ive only fed him 3 times but its been with live mollies. He definitely loves the hunt, haha its fun to watch. I would like to get him on frozen ghost shrimp and maybe once a week give him a live fish. Is it doable to give him the variety of both fresh and frozen foods or would you recommend sticking to one?

 

[Brittany Marie]

I don’t have a lion, but my angler takes all kinds of food. Live, frozen, freeze dried. At first I’d drop a dead ghosty in and blow water at it with a 10 ml syringe. He took it no problem. Now he takes food from tongs with a little wiggling, and from my hand. But I’ve learned from others not to rely on just frozen because it will take away their natural instinct. So I still throw in live ghosts, he gets his lure going and chases around the tank.

Gorgeous little lion! I hope to get one after I set up a predator tank

 

[lion king]

Thank you!



Great info. Thank you! Ive only had him for a little over a week so ive only fed him 3 times but its been with live mollies. He definitely loves the hunt, haha its fun to watch. I would like to get him on frozen ghost shrimp and maybe once a week give him a live fish. Is it doable to give him the variety of both fresh and frozen foods or would you recommend sticking to one?

As I am a live food advocate, a diet of a variety of which ever dead food he'll take with a live feeding once a week would be great. There is something in the hunt that does enhance the life of the dwarf lion in captivity. You'll likely find him to be more active, vibrant, and live longer when he is offered a live hunt at least once a week. Live ghosties are a good food also, you can keep some in a tupperware type container and a simple sponge filter to gut load them with marine foods, micro pellets or flake, and even enhance them with vitamins, selcon, etc. Fuzzies are generally pretty agreeable to take a variety of foods you offer.

 

[Medic58]

I’m looking to get one. What live foods do you feed. I know the freshwater have something called feeder fish. Is there a saltwater feeder fish.

 

[lion king]

I’m looking to get one. What live foods do you feed. I know the freshwater have something called feeder fish. Is there a saltwater feeder fish.

While fresh water feeder fish like rosies and gold fish are a no no, other fresh fare like ghosties, guppies, and mollies are fine fare. I've fed an array of predators successfully for several years with their main staple gut loaded ghosties, with guppies and mollies throw in depending of the species.

There are marine cousins to the ghosties, which actually live in fresh, brackish, and salt water and marine feeder fish which are actually salt water adapted feeder fish you can get from https://www.livebrineshrimp.com/ but I find no evidence that these would be any better than ghosties, guppies, or mollies; which all can be acclimated to salt water. Going this route will be much more expensive and not as readily available as going to your lfs.

The other more serious complication from feeding saltwater fare is disease, fresh water fare from my knowledge have no transferable disease or parasites. While if you feed saltwater fare and do not qt and treat for parasites, I'll give it a few months at best before you've introduced something that could deadly. While I'm sure livebrineshrimp keep their inverts separate from fish, most lfs today I see run inverts systems with fish, which means even your inverts could carry fish disease to your lion.

Most people that stand to be purist against feeding fresh water fare to marine predators have likely never kept any for any length of time. The consideration of expense in the cost of saltwater fish, qt care and expense and maintenance of a feeder saltwater tank and the availability prove to be prohibitive to most. And as I stated earlier, I;ve seen no evidence that a diet consisting of ghosties, guppies, and mollies to be detrimental in any way.