Dwarf Lionfish not eating

[jiggly75]

Hello,
We bought a dwarf lionfish(Dendrochirus zebra) Monday. Been trying to feed small pieces of silversides on a feeding stick once a day and he won't have anything to do with it. How long can they go with out eating?

Thanks in advance for any info.

[xxpipedreamxx]

fish can go two weeks without eating. use live foods and wean it to frozen foods.

[Nemoislame]

I have a fuzzy dwarf and he feeds one live and frozen food. To get it to start eating, I would highly recommend live glass/river shrimp to start with. They really love these shrimps. After a few weeks on live shrimp, I started weaning my fuzzy dwarf to frozen foods like chopped shrimp, mysis, brine shrimp etc. It takes all these foods greedily now although I still put in the odd live shrimp in as a treat. Good luck.

[DrHank]

Mine enjoys frozen krill and loves (I mean loves) feeder guppies. He gets them as a treat about once a month. Remember that the fuzzy is a nocturnal predator so best time to feed is just before lights out. Mine is out and prowling about 30 minutes before lights out. Good luck!

[VolitanLioness]

jiggly75 - Try some ghost shrimp for your fuzzy, feed the ghost shrimp something nutritional (flakes, pellets, cyclopezee) first.
Keep trying to feed small chunks of silversides, you can try krill, raw shrimp chunks or frozen sand eels.

They can be stubborn but be patient, it will come around. If your lion is young, try not going weeks without feeding, you do not want to starve this lion to death either.

Here is the Lion info sheet in-case you missed it: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-11/fm/feature/index.php

Kaye

[jiggly75]

He's still not eating! He won't youch ghost shrimp, siversides, or krill. Not sure what else to try. He's only about 2 1/2 inches.

[VolitanLioness]

Try some frozen mysis, are you sure the chunks are small enough?


Kaye

[jiggly75]

He died a little while ago.:( I called the lfs where i bought him and he admitted not knowing if he had ever eaten for the 2 weeks he had him in stock. I'll try again but not from that lfs and will make sure I see the fish eat before ever buying. Very sad situation.

[VolitanLioness]

Sorry to hear that........



Kaye

[lionfishlady]

so sorry for your loss...

i have a red volitan. he ate at the store then didn't at home...if you do get another one...which i highly recommend and hope you do..should the problem arise again...try garlic. liquid garlic, bought either at the fish store or at a health food store. a few drops on the frozen food (thawing in tank water in a bowl) did the job for me... stimulates the appetite. as for the live food......be careful. the ammonia content is high as well as the amount of toxins in guppies and goldfish. think about it.....how many dead guppies, goldfish are floating around in the tanks at the pet store every day?!?!?!? a reefer friend of mine (also pet store employee) calls them F.S.S.....floating sacks of s*#%!
again...sorry for your loss.....what was his name? i love mine so much...i know what u must be feeling.

just keep swimming
and
stay salty
mandy