Fu Man Chu lion

[Fireworm]

I would like to get a fu man chu for my reef. I was wondering if any of you have any words of advice from owning one in the past or present. Not real worried about him eating any other fish in the tank, and I know he won't eat coral. The LFS said that they start them on guppies, and then over to krill with in a week or 2.

Any advice

[RealReef7]

Stay away from fresh water fish!! If you have to feed live then choose a saltwater fish maybe like a damsel if you have really have to. You asking for all sorts of disease.

[Fireworm]

What about freshwater ghost shrimp? If I gut load them first and then throw them in

[RealReef7]

I guess you can do that. Personally I would get silver sides and stuff them with NLS pellets and put it on a feeding stick. If you can get it to eat NLS pellets without the use of silver sides that will be even better as silver sides are fatty. Kinda like you eating salami all day, not the best for you.

[Fireworm]

What is NLS.... sorry about the stupid question, but haven't seen that one before.

[IFbettas]

What is NLS.... sorry about the stupid question, but haven't seen that one before.

New Life Spectrum

[Fireworm]

duh stupid..... I don't know why that didn't dawn on me

[Fireworm]

Anything to know about these little guys... besides the obvious sting

[TheH]

There are some people talking about fu man chu lions among other lions in that thread "my wife wants a lionfish", I don't remember if it was in Reef Fishes or Fish Only subforum.

[FMarini]

took me about 3-4 months to convert my Fu's over to prepared foods. months not weeks. i fed gutloaded ghost shrimp 3 times weekly until he weaned over.
please do not use krill, but consider other prepared foods as well.

Lastly, please read this article on lionfish husbandry
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-11/fm/feature/

[nivram]

I've been able to switch ours over from sw ghost shrimp to krill in like two weeks. First get it to eat the shrimps. I like to place the live shrimp on the tip of a bamboo skewer. Soon the lion will associate the skewer with food. Once its eating the live shrimp good. Skip a meal and feed one live, one krill. Then at some point you will be able to just feed krill. I have also found it helps to provide some movement to the krill.

My fu manchu did not care for silversides and would spit them back out.

[FMarini]

thats fantastic you were able to get your fish to wean over so quickly

my comments about krill still stand
please do a search for krill, lockjaw, and lionfish, a google search will reveal more than you'll want to know

[sanchoy]

the foo man ...

I used to have one back when i had my 75 fowlr setup. At first he was finicky and did not eat at all. Than I chopped up some clams and mix with garlic. He gobbled it up.. Than next came the silversides and shrimp. The one i had did not eat for a whole week, after that he ate like a pig.

[sanchoy]

BTW i sold him because i was setting up a reef tank. He will eat all my shrimps.

[Fireworm]

Wow... sounds like like I have some reading to do. I really want one..

If you feed it clam meat with garlic, do I need to worry about it attacking my clams that I have in my tank now?

Where is a good place to get salt water ghost shrimp? I know I can get fresh water ones, but not salt locally.

How will they do with gobies or blenny? I don't have any now, but I have my eye on one, it is like around 4" usually at the LFS, so will the lion try to swallow him

[namxas]

lions won't eat anything that doesn't fit into their mouths. i do recommend getting a juvie and growing it up, as they are easier to wean.

IME, you'd be doing yourself a favor if you work on weaning the Fu while it's in QT. as mentioned, start it on live, gutloaded ghosties, and once you get it eating well, you can try weaning it. this will also give you the chance to see their hunting display...simply one of the coolest/weirdest in the world of scorpionfish.

we use a modified acrylic feeding stick pretty much exclusively now for all of our scorps (i think we currently have 15 specimens). it has a length of 50 lb test monofilament attached to the b'ness end. this allows you to put a good wiggle on the bait as well as keeps the fish from swallowing the stick and becoming "stick shy".

here's what the stick looks like:

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll73/hixphotobucket/stick900.jpg
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll73/hixphotobucket/sticktip700.jpg

here's the fu feeding from the stick:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrD4ln1xm3g

HTH

[Fireworm]

Nice video. That was pretty cool.

My other problem is not having a QT tank. I had one at one point in time, but it just became another hobby tank. The wife was fine with it being a hobby tank, but did not like the extra empty tank. So it is either sink or swim with having any fish in the reef tank. I get all of my fish from a LFS that I trust. They are probably the best in our area when it comes to the health of all of their stock, fish or coral. So with that said, I am not worried about protecting my other fish from disease. Not even worried about him eating my other fish that I have now. My only other stock is a pygmy angel, a yellow tail damsel, and a 6 line wrasse.

I do have a RBTA, does that pose a threat to a lion at all?

If krill is not recommended as stated above, and I have had bad luck in the past with silver sides, how about getting fresh raw shrimp from the grocery store? I can soak them in garlic if that would help with anything.

Sorry if some of these questions seem retarded, I just want to make sure I can do everything possible to give me success in bringing home such a wonderful fish. Also calling a guy about getting my 8g nano back to see if I can use that as a QT tank to get it to feed.

[namxas]

you could try weaning it in the DT if you have non-boisterous fish, but Frank's method is a good one as well. he uses a weaning basket. if you haven't yet read his excellent article on Lionfish, it's a must. he also describes his weaning technique.http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-11/fm/feature/index.php

we recently added a female red-finned waspfish to the Fu's tank which feeds from the water column, and i'll be dipped if the darned Fu didn't pick up the behavior, so it also takes a bite or two in this manner in addition to the stick.

by all means go to the fish market for your fish food! it's fresher and less expensive than food from the LFS. we've been doing this for quite awile. you can pre-cut it into chunks and freeze it for later.

as for the RBTA, i don't think it will be a problem.

[Fireworm]

Just waiting for the kids to go to bed so I can read in piece...LOL

[Fireworm]

Ok, after a quick glance, and a diaper change for the baby, I wonder if I would be better off with a fuzzy dwarf? I only have a 57g, and wonder if that would be to small for a dwarf.

[Fireworm]

Finally I got to read it all with no stopping.... rare in my house

So it looks like if I am getting a lion, it has to be a dwarf of some sort or the fu man chu. If I can still get ghost shrimp from a local store, I will try the fu man chu for sure. From the article I gathered that it was ok to use fresh water live fish or ghost shrimp for a short period of time, and with gut loading.

Where can i get a acrylic rod for a feeding stick, or can I use a piece of rigid air line to do the same thing with?

[namxas]

rigid airline is fine, works just as well. we have so many sticks and tanx, we get the ones from the LFS in different colors for different setups.

fuzzy dwarfs (D. brachypterus) are simply great fish...very interactive, esp with the "food god". they're kinda like the volitans of the genus.

of the dwarf lions, we have (2) fuzzies (an adult male and a juvie "not sure yet"), a juvie green/Hawaiian (D. barberi), and a young Fu (D. biocellatus).

how can you resist these?

fuzzy on left, Hawaiian on right:

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll73/hixphotobucket/Our%20Fish/friends700.jpg


our adult male is pretty stunning tho (if i do say so myself ;) )

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll73/hixphotobucket/Our%20Fish/yellowfuzz.jpg

[Fireworm]

Great news. ..... I stopped at my favorite LFS today, and they have a yellow dwarf fuzzy. I am getting him tomorrow. I can't wait..He is already eating

[Slim_jim989]

O yeah one thing dont get damsels to try and feed him thats bad juju. I bout some of those thinking they would be food ended up they stayed in my tank and bulled everyone besides the lion and he never ate them. They do make salt water guppies or called mollies. But once you get them to eat frozen food your in the money.

[Fireworm]

Thanks. I was wondering. i will post pics later

[Fireworm]

Alright,

I got my yellow fuzzy dwarf today. I watched him eat at the LFS, but he did not touch the food here yet. Although at the store he ate mysis, and I have krill. I don't expect him to eat for the first few days anyway. I am stoked, and can't wait for it to find its place in my reef

[Fireworm]

Alright. He ate a little last night when I fed the others. A good sign. He really did not move last night from a spot on the sand in the front middle of the tank. He found his way last night up to a rock formation where it is blocked from the flow, and has not moved from that spot today... kind of disappointing really.

I know that lion fish are not the most active fish by any means, but roughly how long can I expect him to stay in this spot before he is moving a little? Also, I know in the RK article mentioned on page 1, the author said that he would wait for a day or 2 in between feedings. Is this something that you guys do as well?

[Stickboy97]

our adult male is pretty stunning tho (if i do say so myself ;) )

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll73/hixphotobucket/Our%20Fish/yellowfuzz.jpg

What kind of lion is this? Is he a Hawaiian like the small one in the other pic?

[namxas]

that fish is a dwarf fuzzy (Dendrochirus brachypterus).

we feed M-W-F. give your fish a little time to figure out who the "food god" is, and it will come running like a puppy dog when it sees you. we had a solid red specimen that would come to the surface and spit water at us.

[Fireworm]

Well, I am sad to say, even with watching the yellow dwarf fuzzy eat twice in my home tank, he did not make it very long. He died sometime last night or throughout the day. Either way he was not alive tonight when I got home from work...

I really thought he was cool, but now I am nervous on trying to add another one and take a gamble on one again

[namxas]

oh man...sorry about your fuzzy.

we had our eye on a yellow fuzzy, but we noticed it gilling a bit hard, so we asked the LFS owner to treat it. it died the next day. sometimes you get a fish like that...they just don't make it (not just lions).

IME, fuzzies are the easiest dwarf lion to keep (i can't seem to find a "good" D. zebra)...they always seem to do well for a little while and die for no apparent reason). it's possible that your fish's inactivity was a clue, but not having seen the fish, it's conjecture on my part.

i know it's a bit disheartening, but i'd look around for another fish, as they are normally super tuff, interactive, and the best all-around of the dwarf genus, IMHO.

[pktech]

Hey Nam - Is it the time of year in your opinion, that "fu's" become available?
I just got a email from DD that the sneak peak includes a pair, stopped by Petco to pick up some flake on the way home & they have one ....

I ask you because you seem to have a handle on lion fish & I respect that ... I just thought it was funny (not haha funny) ...

[namxas]

i just have a bit of experience with scorps...they're my faves. :)

actually, i've been seeing an influx of Dendrochirus lions in general lately. i also find that certain shops tend to carry certain fish. Lisa D picked up the last pair of biocellatus from DD, altho i haven't heard an update on them. personally, i've had mostly good luck with the specimens i've gotten from DD (none of our lions came from them tho).

Petco and a fu is a bit scary tho...at least from what i've seen of their typical SW dept. Fu's are indeed a bit more touchy in terms of getting them to eat. they're also more picky about water quality, but i really like ours. try to get a younger fish if you can as they seem to adapt better, IME.

HTH

[Fireworm]

I will try another one sooner or later. It was gilling a bit in my tank that I noticed, but not at the LFS. I want to assume maybe 1 hr acclimation was not long enough, and that going from dirty store water to clean home water shocked it a little

[Fireworm]

What do you find to make good tank mates, or won't get eaten?

[LisaD]

Sorry about your loss. The fuzzy dwarf was a better choice than the Fu - easier to wean to frozen, a bit hardier (at least during the acclimation to captive life process). I am concerned that you don't have a QT. Can you buy a large plastic container (Rubbermaid or Sterilite) and use it for QT, then put it away?

[namxas]

the only reason a lion will bother any other fish is if said fish willfit into its mouth. they're very easy-going, with the exception of a couple of species (such as the fu) that don't tolerate conspecifics well. speaking of, Lisa...how are yours doing?

our adult male fuzzy is curtrently sharing a std. 60 gal with:

(3) H. borbonius (blotched anthias)
(1) A. tomentosus (bristletail filefish)
(1) A. taenianotus (c.ockatoo waspfish)
(1) P. rubripinnis (red-finned waspfish)
(1) S. litoralis (cheekspot scorpionfish)
CUC of assorted snails
a few polyps (GSP, etc)

here's a pic of the tank:

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll73/hixphotobucket/fts.jpg

[Fireworm]

What a great looking tank....


I have a pretty small house, with a bigger family. 5 of us in 1200 sqft... a little tight. I think I might have her talked into a QT that I can use in the bed room, or possibly set it on the work bench in the garage. Bad thing there is not being able to control it as well.

How do they do with light adjustment? I have lots of par in my tank ( to much really). Could the powerful bright light been a factor that lead to the end of my nice little fuzzy