They are almost always available at Big Al's chain stores (it seems, they are sponsor here, it should be OK), under this name. I checked the web through the image search - a lot of pictures with similar name and appearance.
Weaning: I did nothing, it was fed by gut loaded feeder fish for a first weeks, then volitan just joined the other fish during feeding time. Grocery shrimp and salmon were on menu, if this matters. May be feeding was just not sufficient, it started to eat much more - you can see belly at the photo.
I could only wish that the other lionfishes were so self-sufficient, as volitans, but two mombasa lions, that followed, were not possible to wean at all.
You know about sticky volitan thread, right? There should be weaning too.
From what I had seen through volitan web search, there are very similar to volitan lionfishes, Pterois too, but:
- one kind has almost unseparated fin rays, thick-looking,
- other has separated, but wide rays,
- and Pterois volitans, but Sri Lankan one is more elongated and slender, than the shorter hunchbacked oceanic kind.
I could be mistaken, it was long time ago, and now it's recalling from the top of my head - it takes a lot of time to make a new search. Some were mentioned as P. miles and others - P. lunulata, and about Sri-Lankan - just was shortly mentioned somewhere.
About dwarf lionfish: better wait, what Frank Marini says, and check the forums - a lot of posts about them. There is very small difference in the size (1" or so) between dwarf and not dwarf, like mombasa. And the zebra dwarf is very similar to it, only less attactive fins - almost no free standing rays.
BTW, there is drastic difference in behavior: if volitan is free and majestic in its movements, mombasa, having the shorter fins, is more laborious in its movements - totally different impression, with own charm, like dancer with fans. It's like comparing hound and pug
But we all are limited by tank size.
Remember about small colorful frogfish, it's about 4", dwells on the bottom, is very interesting, and could be bought cheap in US, and here the similar looking ones are above $200
Link to
Frogfish files .
I have a few pictures of that fish saved from google images for reference photos (to draw), and always thought it was some kind of cold water lion. How cool! I'll have to rename the files.
