How to get Volitan Lionfish to eat frozen silversides
 

I have a 5" Volitan Lionfish. He currently will only eat live minnows. I'm trying to get it to eat frozen silversides. I stopped feeding it live minnows a couple of days ago. Is it just a matter of time before it finally gets hhungry enough that it will finally start to eat the frozen silversides? Anybody have any experience with this?

You can take a wooden skewer and impale the silverside, then wiggle it in the water. The live prey simulation often triggers a feeding response. Some lions will simply cave to their hunger and eat them w/o your efforts. Also add other things to the menu; chopped table shrimp, small pieces of scallop, bonelss whitefish, squid, etc...
When I had my larger tanks, I kept a few lions, and all of them quickly weaned to "dead" foods.

First, get the fish off of the minnows...I realize that's the goal here, but if you can replace them with mollies, ghost shrimp, or large guppies, they're MUCH better for the fish.

I dunno if you've seen this article or not, but if not, you should give it a read:

Tools of the Trade: Equipment & Techniques to Convert your Fish onto Frozen

I highly recommend using "Renee's Super-Sleuth" stick. We use it to feed fish from 1" all the way up to our adult volitans. It doesn't freak the fish out, nor does it cause issues if they get a little too aggressive and "swallow" it.

Also, the size of the food item makes a big difference when weaning your fish. Don't give them anything that is much larger than their eye to start, as they can be intimidated by larger dead food items.

Here's the "stealth stick" in action:

STEALTH STICK

I can vouch for the stealth stick. It is great.
I use it for all my predators

On the Stealth stick, what did you use as a clear plastic stick and where would you get it from? For the 50/lb monofilament fishing line, would you put one end of the line in one side of the gill on the silverside and have the line coming out the other gill?

I have read/been told one of the best ways to get your lion to eat prepared foods is when in quarantine use the feeding stick to entice it to eat. With it being the only fish in there it will have no competition and a smaller space to swim in so its more likely to see and smell it.

I am currently on my third antennata. The previous two were from my lfs weak stock. This one is African and from liveaquaria.

My second one ate minnows and ghosts ferverishly. I did get it to eat a while frozen Alaskan shrimp once. It died a few days later from unknown causes.

I've got my 1.5" new lion in a 20g qt. I feed him gelled krill the first day and he ate it. Still haven't got it to eat NLS.

What's a good place to get the sleuth stick?

Patience

Some lfs sell a clear acrylic rod, then tape the fishing line onto it. Thicker line like the 50 lb works better to help the wiggle then flimsy line does. It is better then the skewer as it can completely scare them off frozen if he happen to skewer themselves just once. The stealth is awesome, once you get one converted you wont use anything else.

So on a silverside do you poke the line through the gill and out the rear fin?

That or through the mouth into the fish.
Here is/should be a easy way.

Get some live ghost shrimp and get him eating those. Once on those try freezing them and using the stealth stick. When they thaw out you can manuver them around to trick the lion into thinking they are alive. Once on frozen place a small piece of silverside on the string and a frozen ghostie after so it sees the ghostie first. It should recognize the ghostie and suck in the silverside at the same time. After a few feedings of this you should be able to switch to silversides completely. You could also mix in salmon or some other seafood fair. It takes time, but is totally worth it in the end. Once on silversides and that much time has passed, it will recognize you as the food guy and come begging.

I only feed M, W, F and only what they can eat till a slight bulge in the belly.

Doesn't really matter, as long as you can make it wriggle a little.

I like the "let's go fishing" method from that article. I had good success with that.

Namxas's article, above, is the standard for weaning lions. I think a lot of folks give in too soon, a Volitan can go a long time without eating; and they are great beggars.

How long can a Volitan go without eating? Today is Saturday and mine hasn't eaten since Monday.

I've had them go a couple of weeks without eating.

Curious. Can lionfish get ick?

Yes. Doesn't happen as often as with tangs or anything really susceptible like that. Back before I learned to QT, I had an outbreak, and the lionfish was the last to show it. It can also be difficult to deal with because they tend to be more sensitive to copper.

Thanks for all the kind words.

A well-fed volitans can esily go a month without losing too much body mass, as can fuzzies, altho fuzzies will lose more weight over the same period of time...IIRC, they will lose about 10% more weight than the volitans.

The 50 lb test monofilament can be had at most sproting goods stores and tackle shops. Our first "stealth sticks" were modified commercial acrylic feeding sticks from the LFS. We now order 1/8" acrylic rod and make them from that, which is nice, because we can control the length of the stick that way.

It's really all about presentation, food size, technique, and patience (as mentioned).

We're currently working on an "improved", less visible stick, so stay tuned...

double post

A pic is worth 1000 words:

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ncrypto900.jpg


Altho lionfish have a cuticle they shed periodically which makes them fairly resistant to ectoparasites, they can indeed become infested with Crypto. We used to use hypo to treat our fish, but we now use quinine sulfate(Crypto Pro) , as it is more effective against "resistant" strains.

That's true, but with new additions, I start to worry at about 2 weeks, since I never know when they really last ate.

Is there anything wrong with the lionfish continuing to eat live minnows or what about frozen krill if he will take that eventually?

Several years ago I bought an acrylic feeding tube designed for morays. I forget who the manufacturer is. It is a T-shaped tube with a long, removable acrylic stick inside which is used to impale food on. I've never used the tube, but the stick is great for eels, frogfish, and lionfish.

Any FW fish is not healthy, long-term, for SW fish. They're too fatty and that can lead to liver damage. this is especially true of minnows from the goldfish/carp family. Krill have been linked to lockjaw in Lions. there are lots of good foods a trained lion will eat. My Volitans would eat a marshmallow if I was feeding it; once they learn who the Food God is, and that they don't get live minnows, they'll eat anything. Mine get silversides, chunks of shrimp, SW fish flesh, squid, etc. They even get an occasional piece of nori, wrapped around a piece of shrimp. Vitamins are also a big plus.

Do you ever soak the frozen fish in garlic xtreme and selcon?

I use Selcon & Vita-Chem; maybe every 3rd feeding. I'm not convinced that garlic does much, maybe is does, but certainly not all that its claimed to do. There also seems to be some evidence that long-term garlic use isn't healthy. I'll stay out of that argument.