Tips for getting a dwarf lion to eat frozen foods?

Cole855

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I have been trying to get my dwarf zebra lion to eat frozen foods (silversides, shrimp and scallops) for a few weeks but he will not touch anything that is not alive. Anyone have any tips for getting one to eat?
 

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You might have to feed live, some fish won't convert to dead. You can try using a fishing line to move it around or have the water current move it, but more likely it will have to be live.
 

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Take what you are feeding live and freeze them to get them fresh dead, live looking. Thaw out before feeding, if you were feeding ghosties, get his attention and drop them in as usual, it will need to be suspended in the water column. If it hits the bottom you can use a rigid airline to flick it up and he may take it. The point is it needs to be moving. If you are feeding guppies or some sort of fish you can run a fishing line through the rigid aitline tube and fasten. Have just a bit of fishing line poking from the end of the tube and attach the fish to the line by poking it into them, catch the lions attention by moving it into the water column. Initially you need to offer him dead "live looking" food. There is a human grade krill at Asian markets in the frozen section that many will take also, they are opaque in color and whole.

You may not like this info but please read:
 

leedsrhinojohn

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I used a feeding stick, I used it to hold live fish in so I could target feed the lion, it took about 4 days before he would take fish from the feeder, I kept doing that for a week, intermittently feeding normally, then introduced dead fish on the feeder which he took after 2 days, did that for a week along with just dropping in the odd dead fish and voila he ate everything I put in the tank for him.
 

CaliReefs

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Adding the live and the frozen (thawed) simultaneously has good results. When that failed we tried soaking the frozen food in salmon fish oil from the Asian market, and it worked like magic. Plus, it made us hungry too.
 

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It would be nice to see pics of your 6-7" fuzzies eating a dead only diet, ones that you have had on a dead only diet for years.
 

lion king

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Who is that aimed at?

Anyone offering advice on converting and feeding dwarf lions dead food. In 3 decades I just have not seen much evidence of long term success keeping these guys on a dead only diet. It would be great if those offering advice could give some documentation how they achieved success, it would help the OP and the R2R community to get such insight.
 

leedsrhinojohn

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It would be great if those offering advice could give some documentation how they achieved success
Who said i kept it on dead fish? I explained what and how i got it to eat dead fish, It ate live and dead fish.
It is something for the op to try, it may or may not work for him, nobody said its the only way, but its the way that worked for me, but it might work for him also.
I have kept lion fish and a number 0f predatory fish for over 20 years.
 

lion king

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Who said i kept it on dead fish? I explained what and how i got it to eat dead fish, It ate live and dead fish.
It is something for the op to try, it may or may not work for him, nobody said its the only way, but its the way that worked for me, but it might work for him also.
I have kept lion fish and a number 0f predatory fish for over 20 years.


Thank you, that was what I was getting at, many people get the dwarf lions with the promise from the lfs that it will eat dead food and live for many years. Many teach about converting to dead food because most hobbyist are not interested in feeding live foods. I would just like people feeding a dead diet offer more than just routine advice that doesn't provide long term success. Lions live 10-15 years in the wild, that should be your goal, not 1 year.
 

leedsrhinojohn

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100% agree with what you say, i think it speaks of how lazy some people are when it comes to researching a fish and fish shops just thinking of a quick sale. The sad thing is that the guys who sell these type of fish promising this that and the other know the fish wont last long so the customer comes back for another sale.
I love it if i go to a lfs ive never been before and i get asked questions about my setup and do i know how to keep a certain fish i might be interested in, it shows the lfs genuinely care about their fish but its sad to say that it is increasingly becoming more and more rare nowadays.
 
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Cole855

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I planned on feeding him multiple things frozen and live but if frozen isnt healthy I will just stick with gutloaded shrimp and damsels. Thanks everyone for the advice!
 

lion king

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I planned on feeding him multiple things frozen and live but if frozen isnt healthy I will just stick with gutloaded shrimp and damsels. Thanks everyone for the advice!

A combo diet would be the best, that way you're never stuck if you can't get live for some reason, and it does save you some money. Live offers nutritional value that dead can't and the stimulation of the hunt, I think apathy may lead to some's early demise; so at least a weekly feeding of live is beneficial. I would be careful feeding salt water fish, disease is so rampant you will put him at high risk for disease and parasites. Any salt water fish really should be treated for internal parasites and qt'd to assure free of disease.
 
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Cole855

Cole855

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A combo diet would be the best, that way you're never stuck if you can't get live for some reason, and it does save you some money. Live offers nutritional value that dead can't and the stimulation of the hunt, I think apathy may lead to some's early demise; so at least a weekly feeding of live is beneficial. I would be careful feeding salt water fish, disease is so rampant you will put him at high risk for disease and parasites. Any salt water fish really should be treated for internal parasites and qt'd to assure free of disease.
What would you recommend for live foods other than ghost shrimp?
 

lion king

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What would you recommend for live foods other than ghost shrimp?

Ghosties are my staple and I offer my little guys guppies, medium guys fancy guppies or smaller sized mollies, and mollies to my larger guys. I can get large mollies for a $1 a piece and smaller ones sometimes as low as 4 for a dollar. So a fw lfs in your area likely get tons of mollies turned in, they breed like rabbits. If you get him taking some dead food, a feeding of ghosties weekly and a molly a few times a month would be a good schedule. Each fish is different, my rhino and my old fu will only eat fish, where everyone else will also eat ghosties. My young fu and rhino won't eat dead, all the others will at least eat krill, some will take limited amounts of other chunky foods.
 

Daniel@R2R

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Good tips in here
 

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