Need Help With Dwarf Lion, Please Help

[Cutiewitbooty]

When I woke up this morning my lion's tail was, well..gone. It looks like something has eaten it, but i'm not sure what could have done that to a lion fish and why my lion would even sit there long enought to let that happen. He is having alot of trouble swimming up to get any food (he only eats by gone to the top for krill, wont eat from a feeding stick ect) and i'm kinda worried about him. I have no idea what could have done this to him though. All I have in there is a blue damsel which ignores him (he thinks he is a rock) and a cleaner shrimp which has a great intrest in the lion and is really big, but would he actually eat away at his tail? I was thinking maybe the hermits, but they are so small it would take hours and i can't see the lion sitting there for that. I know there arn't any hidden hitchikers that would do it because of the size of the tank, plus i have taken the rock out a million times. The only one i could even concider being able to do it is the skunk cleaner. Please help, i think i'm going to put him in my fuge. Has anyone heard of a psyco tail eating cleaner shrimp before?

 

[Wolverine]

My money would be on the damsel. I've seen dominoe damsels do similar things to volitan lions. The tails aren't venomous. I wouldn't bet on the cleaner shrimp doing it, though I suppose it's possible.

I agree with you that unless you have a huge hermit crab, that's unlikely.

Are there any pumps/powerheads that he could have gotten near the intake?

Dave

 

[Cutiewitbooty]

well i got the answer and the lion died last night. It was most likely a bacterical infection, it's amazing how fast these spred, killed him in about 24 hours.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=803737&perpage=&pagenumber=1

 

[VolitanLioness]

Did you have the Hog fish in there with the lion when this happened?

Oh! I remember my hog fish all to well and how mean that fish was, it started to go after my cleaner shrimp, it even went after my trigger............

Kaye

 

[Cutiewitbooty]

no i'm picking him up on tuesday, it's one of the only reefsafe hogfish that stays about 4"

 

[VolitanLioness]

I seen the picture it was the same one I had, I think the Scott M. Book explains that they are reef safe until they reach adulthood than they should go into a FO system. I learned it the hard way.... If I recall Scott M. is the only one that really states this on this fish, mine turned into a nightmare, than I had to remove it from my 300g.

Kaye

 

[Cutiewitbooty]

i bet that was fun lol Mine will be in my 40gal system and is he gets to big or too aggressive he will be taken out. My tank is a kinda aggressive reef though. My stocking list is a maroon clown, blue damsel, candy hogfish and maybe one more fish, but i'm unsure which one.

 

[VolitanLioness]

Good luck with the hog fish just keep an eye on it as it matures, the one I had was out all the time, no shy at all. For about 2 years it was my favorite fish....

BTW sorry about your lion.

They can be tough to keep, I just had 4 sick at the same time, they just started eating again a few days ago and today my fuzzy finally ate again.....

Whew, I have been worried about them for a week now .......

Kaye

 

[Cutiewitbooty]

yeah it was pretty sad, he just went down hill so fast, but from what we have figured he had parasites that caused the seconday infection. He even ate the night he died, i can't bring myself to get another, i was kinda attatched to the little guy.