lions not eating

[gotoneon]

Ok, I'm stumped. I have two lions in a 300 gallon tank. This particular tank has been set up for close to two years and has been completly quarintined. I have not added a new fish in over a year and every fish ever introduced went threw a tight hyp/copper quarintine. I only feed frozen food and dried nori. The tank has over 200lbs of very established live rock and the sump is a 50 gallon refungium. My snails are reproducing like crazy, I have all sorts of small soft corals and clams growing from my live rock. I have 1/4in mico pods all over in my refungium. There is also a huge forest of seaweed growing in my upper tank. All the other tank mates are fat and happy (purple tang, sailfin tang, clarkii clown, two banner fish, a lemonpeel angelfish and two small damselfish, and a snowflake in the sump). The larger Lion I have had for about five years and has been through many tanks and moves with me, the smaller one I have had for about two years. about three weeks ago the smaller one stoped eating. In the begining he would swim over to the food but not eat, after a week he stoped even looking at food. A week later the larger one started to eat less then nothing at all, he to does not even move when I feed the tank. Externally they are extreamly heathy looking, even there color is great. I took the smaller one out last week and put him in a smaller tank to treat with coper, thinking they have some kind of internal parasite. He sluffed a coat of slime but that is it. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[White Tiger]

Questions

1. Does the sick lionfish have any symptoms similar to ick such as darting around the tank or scratching itself against rocks? (fish can sometimes get food poisoning and display ick like symptoms)
2. What have you been feeding the lionfish?
3. Do you add iodine supplements to the tank water?
4. Is there a difference in appearance on the bottom of the lion's throat between the sick and un-sick lion?

 

[gotoneon]

1.They do not move at all, they just hang against the rock, which is fairly normal for these two.
2. I feed a mix of raw human shrimp, silver sides, krill, and they love to eat the cubs of frozen food I feed my other fish, like marine quazine(SP) inriched misiass(sp) shrimp, brine shrip. all kinds of fish food, but never live. I have small damisils in the tank maybe 3/4 of an inch long, and the lions are both over 7". Unusuall, or trained?
3. Not in a long time, and I can't belive I never though this, I had to do this with my shark. I bet this is the problem, I'm leaving right now to get some.
4. They are both sick, one just more then the other, but there are no differences, should I look for something?

 

[White Tiger]

"They are both sick, one just more then the other, but there are no differences, should I look for something?" (gotoneon, 2006)

You should look for swelling underneath the lions' jaw. You could be dealing with a goiter. How much silversides are they getting per feeding? Silversides have iodine which can prevent goiters. I cannot say for sure right now whether or not your fish have goiters until you answer my most recent questions. For now, add iodine. There is also the possibility that the lions' broke their jaw. Do both fish seem to have demented mounths?

 

[gotoneon]

I looked very closely at their jaws and how they where breathing. They are both opening and closing their mouths as they breath like normal. I do not see any swelling iether. As for the first question. I would guess 30-40% of their diet is silversides. I'm really confused. I added the iodine about two hours ago, fingers crossed.

 

[White Tiger]

I think that goiters are behind this. You should feed more silversides from now on. Keep dosing the iodine. Your fish should be able to eat in at least 3 weeks from now. Another possibility that could be causing this is a bacterial infection in the mouth. I cannot determine that. However, I am betting that your lions have goiters since your lions were eating well and were not sick 1-2 weeks from this date.

Once your lion is into 3 weeks of its treatment, throw in one orange colored gold fish and see if they will eat it. If not, wait one more week. After that, put in one orange colored gold fish. Be sure NOT TO FEED MORE THAN ONE GOLDFISH to each lion. Also make sure that THE GOLD FISH ARE ORANGE IN COLOR!

 

[gotoneon]

Why orange?

 

[White Tiger]

Lionfish are more likely to eat if they can clearly see food. It is hard for lionfish to spot silver colored gold fish. Nevertheless, it is easy for lionfish to spot orange colored gold fish.