My new Dwarf Lion will not eat!

[mark.stefanizzi]

Hey guys looking for some guidance. Ive had a dwarf lion some months back but I only had him for a few months because he didnt make it. I had an extremely hard time trying to get the first one to eat, and now with my new one here its been just about a week and he wont touch and frozen mysis, brine, or even silversides I tried just to see. With my last one I had to feed live feeder minnows and he ate that so I dont know if I should keep trying to feed frozen or just go to live food now since its been about a week since he ate anything. Give me your thoughts thanks guys.

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[Sa6hir]

When I brought mine dwarf lion(3 inches) he was feeding on live river shrimps so for 2 weeks I continued to feed him them, 3rd week I brought 2 more packs drained 1 and froze them, feed him and he took them, I carried on feeding till they finished and I moved on to lance fish! From what I read they can go without food for a while being a predatory fish!


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[JaimeAdams]

How are you trying to get him to eat? Are you just tossing chunks of silver side in the tank and hoping?

First off brine is certainly too small for any sized lionfish. Mysis is probably boarder line for very small lionfish depending on the size of the mysis. Lionfish are more of an ambush predator. Chunks of silver side are good. Chunks of squid and shrimp are also good.

They want to see the food moving. They make thin acrylic rods that some people use to make the food seem like it is alive and moving. I used to feed my first fuzzy dwarf by hand wiggling the chunks at the top of the water. Granted that is certainly risky with the whole venomous spines and all.

After trying to see if you can get the fish to eat while making the food seem alive you may want to try alternatives short term. A lionfish can go for awhile without eating but since you just got it you don't know when the last time it eat was. You could give it either gut loaded live ghost shrimp or live saltwater feeder shrimp or small saltwater fish. Feeding fresh water fish is bad because it will lead to a buildup of the wrong kinds of fats in the liver and ultimately lead to pre-mature death. Once the fish is eating and has some stored up energy you can force it to go on a hunger strike while getting it to eat frozen. The lionfish may go on a hunger strike but generally once they get hungrey enough they will start eating frozen. I've had about a dozen fuzzy dwarfs that I got the eat frozen to exclusion.

 

[mark.stefanizzi]

Well he died last night. Had him 4 days. It must have been a long time since he last ate and was not willing to eat from me either. Sucks.

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[Anthony357]

I have had a dwarf for about a month now, the first 2 weeks i would occasionally drop ghost shrimp in there and he would destroy them. I tried some frozen brine shrimp i would feed my other fish and he would strike it but them would turn his nose up at it. I then tried this marine cuisine stuff and he loves it, been eating it for about 2 weeks ( i cut the cube pieces up, each cube i maybe get 4-6 pieces out of) and i dangle it in front of him to entice him and he gobbles these up. But i know its different for everybody, sorry to hear about your bad luck they are beautiful creatures for sure.

 

[Anthony357]

sorry didnt attach pic on last post, but this is the stuff he eats now

 

[cougareyes]

I feed a fuzzy, fu manchu, zebra, and antennata mostly live, occasionally something dead for the 1st bite of the feeding. My 2 oldest the fuzzy and fu I've had for over 4 years. I've done tons of research at 4 of the lfs in town and many hobbyist in person. I've pm'd many online posters and for the most part, none of them do well in the long run on exclusively dead food. They are also so much more active and entertaining when they aren't being fed from a stick. Predators like this need the stimulation of stalking and hunting while being kept in captivity.