Love my lions

jsparky · 07/19/2007, 10:40 PM

Just to let Frank know that I read his article more than a few times and each time found some tid bit that I missed.. I now have five (5) juvinel dwarf lions.. and I am very surprised that there are not any new posts in this forum.. Every day I watch my lions and learn something new about them.. each seems to have his/her very distinct personallity.. With the exeception of a very few good articles , I have had to learn alot about my guys and / or girls on my own.. I spent a couple of months just researching into a salt water tank and the lions.. and I still do researching on them.. never enough info.. but in all my reading and talking to the LFS guys.. ha !!!!! alot of bull **** out there... The thing I find most is that no two lions are the same.. you need to get to know your lion and what he/she likes.. I have two fuzzy dwarfs a male and female.. and they are so different in how they act you would not think them to be from the same family of lions.. mind you they both eat the same.. very aggresive.. any thing , any time, make no mistake about them.. they are smart.. and they learn.. they have nothing to do all day except watch and get to know you.. so remember ,, that while you are watching them ,, they are also watching you...

gota love your lions..

jeff

jsparky · 07/27/2007, 09:08 AM

Well in my last post I " had " 5 lions.. I have since lost my Radiata or AKA Clear Fin.. To start with.. In the beging I use to check the chemistry of the dealers water before adding the new fish to my quarintine tank.. Since I found every dealers tanks to be almost like mine I had stopped doing it.. I had purchased my first Radiata and he died within a couple of days. A few weeks later I had a chance to purchase another one from the same dealer.. I ship all my lions in an acrylic pet carrier which I had filled with the dealers tank water. I then gently captured the fish using a large measuring cup, so he was never out of the water and never netted. Apon arriving home, this time I checked the water.. Just in the first two test was enough to tell me there was a problem. The Ph was 8.9 and the Alkalinity was off the chart.. I took about 4 gallons of my tank water and using an air line ,let it drip into the container with the fish over a period of about 3 hours. After about a day or so the fish seem to have settled in very nicely. He/she began to eat ghost shrimp and I tried hem/her on a piece of raw white shimp I buy at the local deli. He grabbed the prepared food , chewed on it a bit a promptly spit it out. Not surprising though . But he was settled and he was eating. About a week had gone by and everything seemed well , and then his one eye started to get cloudy and he stopped eating.. I faced this problem with a Fu Man Chu I have.. So I promply began to treat the Radiata the same way I did the Fu Man.. My Fu Man is now in the main tank and is healthy , happy and eating anything I give him.. Unfortunatly the Radiata died. The treatment for both consisted of placing them into my pet carrier I use and then placing it into a sink where overflowing water can drain away.. I then get a bucket of fresh RO water " about 3 gallons " with a measured amount of formulan in the water and allow it to drip into the container using air line tubing , I then reverse it , and using the tank water I drip the fish back to tank water.. the whole proccess takes about an hour and half.. to drip to fresh with medication and then back to salt with no medication. and then releasing the fish back to the tank. After 24 hours of letting the fish settle , I would capture him into the pet carrier and remove enough water to let the container float in the tank.. I would then add a very small , measured for the amount of water , the same formulan medication.. I would allow the fish to float around in this " bath " for a couple of hours and then release the fish back to the tank. This method was successfull for my Fu Man.. so it was repeated for the Radiata..

So either I have had very bad luck with the Radiata's I have had or I am missing something.. If anyone has manage to keep one or has faced the same problem ,, your comments or suggestions would be welcome..

jsparky · 08/16/2007, 09:22 PM

Well for those of you who enjoy your lions as I do.. I have just had a new experince tonight.. In one of the many articles I have read , someone had written about how their fuzzy would come to the surface and basically " beg for food " seemed interesting since the two that I have would do the same thing.. they would literally come to the surface and stick their mouth out of the water and " spit water " very curious behaviour.. however , tonight as I was feeding them the little female fuzzy literally jumped out of the water and fortunately landed on top of the glass.. the foturnate part is that she went towards the back of the tank.. had she gone the other way ,, she would have landed right on me , since I was standing in front of the tank feeding them.. From watching the behaviour of these fish ,, I know they are a more aggressive feeder than my other lions... but I never would have guessed that she would be that aggressive to jump out of the water after food.. this is something that in all my research,, I have never come across anyone with this sort of experince.. I would consider this a " near miss " and a lesson to learn from... in the future I plan on being far more carefull in feeding the fuzzy dwarfs.. In another post I had said about using a feeding stick , which I do use.. and how these fish can learn , and about having a routine.. well they know the routine and the certainly know the feeding stick.. they also know the dish I use to prepare the food and when I do it... the fuzzy dwarfs start to come to the surface and you can see them getting excited.. by the way they swim and act.. of course.. it is dinner time ,,, and a lion loves to eat.. even after her experince of jumping out of the tank .. getting scouped into a net and returned to the tank,, I still manage to intice her out of hiding to get a piece of krill... mostly so I could get a look at her and make sure she was not hurt..

jsparky · 08/20/2007, 10:28 PM

In my continuing posts of " love your lion" I have come to realize prehaps another great mistruth about lion fish.. My Fu Man Cu will pretty much eat anything I offer him.. One of the mistruths I find is in what a lion will or will not eat.. In my tank I currently have 3 small chromis damsels.. small enough to eat.. but since the lions have become use to the routine of dinner time and that they no longer have to hunt... seems they could care less about the damsels.. or anything else in the tank for that matter.. But here is a very interesting observation I have made concerning my Zebra lion.. Since I have gotten the zebra onto prepared foods , he/she has a taste for krill.. any time I try to offer a piece of white shrimp to the zebra , he/she will turn it down and ignore it.. the krill having an orangish or red colouring to it ,, seems to attract the zebra , and will everytime take the krill... I have since expanded their diet to include king crab.. pieces of the crab meat have a red colouring to it.. so I cut a piece about the size of a ghost shrimp and offered that to the zebra.. he/she grabbed that so quick I hardly had time to see him/her do it.. It would seem to me from observation and trial and error that , in the case of the zebra,,, the colour of the food being offered has some influance to if they will eat the prepared food or not..

Here is another interesting observation... my little female fuzzy dwarf " the one who jump out of the tank " is a very aggresive eater.. and will grab in a second anyting I offer.. well !! when I gave her a piece of the king crab she grabbed it , and went of to eat it.. watching her out of the corner of my eye ,, I noticed that she chewed on it for about a minute and then spit it out.. went after it again and grabbed it... chewed on it a bit more , then spit it out again and ignored it.. not like her to spit out anything at all.. now this is the interesting part.. the next piece I offered her was a piece of white shrimp which she will grab in a heart beat.. but this time she came to the feeding stick and very carefully circled around the food , examing it very carefully before grabbing it ... it was like she wanted to make sure this time it was something she wanted and liked...

One of the most important things I can say about keeping lions , is that you really need to spend time getting to know them.. Each seems to have their own personality.. and like us have their likes and dislikes. but understanding them and their likes and dislikes can only lead to having a healthy and happy aquarium..

07/19/2007, 10:40 PM	#1
jsparky Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 6	Love my lions Just to let Frank know that I read his article more than a few times and each time found some tid bit that I missed.. I now have five (5) juvinel dwarf lions.. and I am very surprised that there are not any new posts in this forum.. Every day I watch my lions and learn something new about them.. each seems to have his/her very distinct personallity.. With the exeception of a very few good articles , I have had to learn alot about my guys and / or girls on my own.. I spent a couple of months just researching into a salt water tank and the lions.. and I still do researching on them.. never enough info.. but in all my reading and talking to the LFS guys.. ha !!!!! alot of bull **** out there... The thing I find most is that no two lions are the same.. you need to get to know your lion and what he/she likes.. I have two fuzzy dwarfs a male and female.. and they are so different in how they act you would not think them to be from the same family of lions.. mind you they both eat the same.. very aggresive.. any thing , any time, make no mistake about them.. they are smart.. and they learn.. they have nothing to do all day except watch and get to know you.. so remember ,, that while you are watching them ,, they are also watching you... gota love your lions.. jeff

07/27/2007, 09:08 AM	#2
jsparky Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 6	Pterois Radiata Well in my last post I " had " 5 lions.. I have since lost my Radiata or AKA Clear Fin.. To start with.. In the beging I use to check the chemistry of the dealers water before adding the new fish to my quarintine tank.. Since I found every dealers tanks to be almost like mine I had stopped doing it.. I had purchased my first Radiata and he died within a couple of days. A few weeks later I had a chance to purchase another one from the same dealer.. I ship all my lions in an acrylic pet carrier which I had filled with the dealers tank water. I then gently captured the fish using a large measuring cup, so he was never out of the water and never netted. Apon arriving home, this time I checked the water.. Just in the first two test was enough to tell me there was a problem. The Ph was 8.9 and the Alkalinity was off the chart.. I took about 4 gallons of my tank water and using an air line ,let it drip into the container with the fish over a period of about 3 hours. After about a day or so the fish seem to have settled in very nicely. He/she began to eat ghost shrimp and I tried hem/her on a piece of raw white shimp I buy at the local deli. He grabbed the prepared food , chewed on it a bit a promptly spit it out. Not surprising though . But he was settled and he was eating. About a week had gone by and everything seemed well , and then his one eye started to get cloudy and he stopped eating.. I faced this problem with a Fu Man Chu I have.. So I promply began to treat the Radiata the same way I did the Fu Man.. My Fu Man is now in the main tank and is healthy , happy and eating anything I give him.. Unfortunatly the Radiata died. The treatment for both consisted of placing them into my pet carrier I use and then placing it into a sink where overflowing water can drain away.. I then get a bucket of fresh RO water " about 3 gallons " with a measured amount of formulan in the water and allow it to drip into the container using air line tubing , I then reverse it , and using the tank water I drip the fish back to tank water.. the whole proccess takes about an hour and half.. to drip to fresh with medication and then back to salt with no medication. and then releasing the fish back to the tank. After 24 hours of letting the fish settle , I would capture him into the pet carrier and remove enough water to let the container float in the tank.. I would then add a very small , measured for the amount of water , the same formulan medication.. I would allow the fish to float around in this " bath " for a couple of hours and then release the fish back to the tank. This method was successfull for my Fu Man.. so it was repeated for the Radiata.. So either I have had very bad luck with the Radiata's I have had or I am missing something.. If anyone has manage to keep one or has faced the same problem ,, your comments or suggestions would be welcome..

08/16/2007, 09:22 PM	#3
jsparky Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 6	Fuzzy dwarf Well for those of you who enjoy your lions as I do.. I have just had a new experince tonight.. In one of the many articles I have read , someone had written about how their fuzzy would come to the surface and basically " beg for food " seemed interesting since the two that I have would do the same thing.. they would literally come to the surface and stick their mouth out of the water and " spit water " very curious behaviour.. however , tonight as I was feeding them the little female fuzzy literally jumped out of the water and fortunately landed on top of the glass.. the foturnate part is that she went towards the back of the tank.. had she gone the other way ,, she would have landed right on me , since I was standing in front of the tank feeding them.. From watching the behaviour of these fish ,, I know they are a more aggressive feeder than my other lions... but I never would have guessed that she would be that aggressive to jump out of the water after food.. this is something that in all my research,, I have never come across anyone with this sort of experince.. I would consider this a " near miss " and a lesson to learn from... in the future I plan on being far more carefull in feeding the fuzzy dwarfs.. In another post I had said about using a feeding stick , which I do use.. and how these fish can learn , and about having a routine.. well they know the routine and the certainly know the feeding stick.. they also know the dish I use to prepare the food and when I do it... the fuzzy dwarfs start to come to the surface and you can see them getting excited.. by the way they swim and act.. of course.. it is dinner time ,,, and a lion loves to eat.. even after her experince of jumping out of the tank .. getting scouped into a net and returned to the tank,, I still manage to intice her out of hiding to get a piece of krill... mostly so I could get a look at her and make sure she was not hurt..

08/20/2007, 10:28 PM	#4
jsparky Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 6	food identification In my continuing posts of " love your lion" I have come to realize prehaps another great mistruth about lion fish.. My Fu Man Cu will pretty much eat anything I offer him.. One of the mistruths I find is in what a lion will or will not eat.. In my tank I currently have 3 small chromis damsels.. small enough to eat.. but since the lions have become use to the routine of dinner time and that they no longer have to hunt... seems they could care less about the damsels.. or anything else in the tank for that matter.. But here is a very interesting observation I have made concerning my Zebra lion.. Since I have gotten the zebra onto prepared foods , he/she has a taste for krill.. any time I try to offer a piece of white shrimp to the zebra , he/she will turn it down and ignore it.. the krill having an orangish or red colouring to it ,, seems to attract the zebra , and will everytime take the krill... I have since expanded their diet to include king crab.. pieces of the crab meat have a red colouring to it.. so I cut a piece about the size of a ghost shrimp and offered that to the zebra.. he/she grabbed that so quick I hardly had time to see him/her do it.. It would seem to me from observation and trial and error that , in the case of the zebra,,, the colour of the food being offered has some influance to if they will eat the prepared food or not.. Here is another interesting observation... my little female fuzzy dwarf " the one who jump out of the tank " is a very aggresive eater.. and will grab in a second anyting I offer.. well !! when I gave her a piece of the king crab she grabbed it , and went of to eat it.. watching her out of the corner of my eye ,, I noticed that she chewed on it for about a minute and then spit it out.. went after it again and grabbed it... chewed on it a bit more , then spit it out again and ignored it.. not like her to spit out anything at all.. now this is the interesting part.. the next piece I offered her was a piece of white shrimp which she will grab in a heart beat.. but this time she came to the feeding stick and very carefully circled around the food , examing it very carefully before grabbing it ... it was like she wanted to make sure this time it was something she wanted and liked... One of the most important things I can say about keeping lions , is that you really need to spend time getting to know them.. Each seems to have their own personality.. and like us have their likes and dislikes. but understanding them and their likes and dislikes can only lead to having a healthy and happy aquarium..