Lion Fish...

[blacknails]

Hey guys... Just wanted to share a piece of news again... I bought frozen lance fish from Reborn yesterday and crossed my fingers as I dropped a piece into my tank for my Lion Fish...

I've been keeping this Lion for more than a year already and after it examined the piece of fish (evidently it could tell that it was dead), it gulped it down... I didn't do any prior training for my Lion (unlike my trained seahorses in their species tank), been feeding it live fish all this while (mollies, ghost shrimps, damsels etc) and so was pretty happy it trusted me enough to eat the dead food I threw in (Praise God!!)..

Haha.. So this means no more spending too much money and time buying live food for my lion anymore...

Just wanted to share this piece of god news with my friends in SRC as I've heard from many different people how hard it can be to wean lions to eat dead fishes...

So not my Mandarin fish, seahorses and lion all eat frozen food!!

[angry]

What type of lion do u keep dude? Volitans normally are alot easier to ween to frozen food unlike their cousins. I currently have two 4" in my tank and they are all ween to frozen food. Based on my experience, russells and antenatas are really hard to ween, especially when they are not bought young enough to be trained.

Lance fish might be included into my lions' menu list now. Thanks for sharing anyways:)

[blacknails]

I keep a tailbar lion... Thing is that I'm pretty happy because it just started eating the lance fish without any prior training!!

How'd you get your lions to eat the frozen fish, angry?

Oh and what other type of frozen fishes do you feed your lions? I think reborn only got sell lance fish right? Where else can I get other type of frozen fishes?

Thanks for advice!!

[angry]

Hi, i fed my lions with frozen market shrimp, shell meat, nemos, etc haaahaaahaaaa or anybody with damsels to spare or discard:) I first attach a string to the bait which in this case is the shrimp and entice them to bite. Of course, i starve them for a week to curb their stubborness which eventually they gave in.

How big is your lion by the way. Hey, i'm a lion fanatic! Got a pic?

[alanseah]

hmm since u ppl keep lion fish.. then u got other fish in the same tank as the lion..??

[blacknails]

Oh my lion's really pretty small... Although I've kept it for a year plus it barely grew very much... But when it swims it still looks very very majestic... which is why I love lions too...

I'll post a pic when I get the chance.. Meanwhile would like to see your pics too!!

[blacknails]

I keep my lion with a very small mandarin fish.. Small enuf to fit inside its mouth!! But as I expected because of the mandarin's poisonous skin my lion never touches the mandarin..

I also keep it with a small Tang and that's about all cause my tank's pretty small...

But you can keep lions with just about anything that doesn;t fit into its mouth...

Just outta curiosity.. Do lions eat ermm.. squids and octopus?

[alanseah]

hmm.. how often u ppls feed your lionfish..?

[FuEl]

Lionfish usually die from overfeeding rather than from starvation

[alanseah]

icic...

but at least there must be a guide as to how many time we need to feed them... once read that we need to feed them about twice a week...

correct me if i'm wrong.. it's a longtime back..

cause if u starve them.. then they will attack your other fishs..

[angry]

I have two 4-5" lions in a 100 gallon tank. An adult lion deserves at least 40 gallon each. Don't intend to keep other fish as the bioload is already quite heavy in a mix reef tank. I don't think its wise to overfeed your lions. I fed mine with half a shrimp each everyday or until i see a bulge in their tummys. They are like the luohans when it comes to feeding and tend to over eat. The thing is, they have a slow digestive system which means excess food will not be able to get digested and will rot in their tummys resulting in probably death. Or they might just spit it out if you are lucky (if they over eat) which in a way will cause "not so pristine water parameters".

Will get a pic posted soon:)

Cheerios

[angry]

I usually soak enough market prawns for a week with garlic guard and vitachem in a container before storing it in the freezer. When i need to feed them, just remove it from the freezer and thaw it for a little while. This has been working for me. Hope this helps.

[blacknails]

Ahh.. Yes good method I will freeze my lance fish with garlic guard too...

I feed my lion once in awhile and it can actually live up to really really long periods without any food at all...

Can you believe the boss of R*born told me to feed my fish with 5 guppies everyday? Hahahaha... But that was a year plus ago when I just bought it... The guy really knows quite alot about Marine fishkeeping..

[angry]

Some ppl feed their lions once every three days. IMO, that can't suffice their diet and proper growth, I would luv to keep them growing to the max they can, but i'm not advocating over feeding them. Just feed them enough and you will witness the spped of their growth. Its damn amazing and they will luv u to the maz:)

[eaquarist]

Wow..glad to see the mass inflow of advice from hobbyists, this forum is really getting HOT! Very good advice I must say and to add my two cents worth, I totally agree that feeding of lionfishes should be done periodically...I feed mine (volitans, mandarin and zebra)just once a week or else they overeat and die. This mimicks more of their natural behaviour as food does not come by easy and they hunt in packs at night. Research on mice have also shown that periodic starvation actually forces the body to adapt and survive longer....interesting eh?

I have weaned my lionfishes to take even freeze-dried prawns from the surface but to train them you must starve them a day or two first...

Feed them all sorts of sea food, they need the balanced diet of proteins and lipids from sea sources. They love a little action so I feed them live ghost shrimp once a while.

And another point to note...never keep a small lionfish with a big one, especially not "mouth size", these fellows are cannabalistic and eat their kind.

[alanseah]

guess I have to give up the idea of having lion, cause most of my fish quite small as most r clown fish.. nemo..

and it's really very troublesome when u go oversea and noone around to help u feed your lion then die la..when u come back all your fish gone already...

[eaquarist]

Don't give up yet.... I have a solution to help hobbyists with problems looking after their pets while away...a new service is in the pipeline for our customers...look out for the news in our website at www.eaquarist.com...like what they say in the movie Galaxy Quest, "NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER SURRENDER!"

[fangtooth]

equarist---- are you trying to start a marine hotel?

i think its quite difficult to practise this for marine as catching the LS

almost impossible as compared to Koi etc....

maybe you can enlighten us. thanks bro (or sis).

[alanseah]

well what he say is maybe he will come over to your house to feed the fish and maintain the tank then go back...

think this is the best way.

[arcanehacker]

well what he say is maybe he will come over to your house to feed the fish and maintain the tank then go back...

think this is the best way.

wow.. good but I wonder how much? .. .. I will need it when I'm in reservist.. dun think my mum would know how to mantain..

[ervine]

Interesting... u mean someone has gotten it's lionfish to feed on freeze dried shrimp like a luohan??

[blacknails]

Heh you're not gonne believe this but my girlfriend's lion acutally refuses to eat live food and chooses to eat the small pellets meant for other marin fish!! I only believed it when I saw it with my own eyes.. The fish rejecting ghost shrimps and guppies and going for the pellets instead!! Go figure..

[blacknails]

Don't give up yet.... I have a solution to help hobbyists with problems looking after their pets while away...a new service is in the pipeline for our customers...look out for the news in our website at www.eaquarist.com...like what they say in the movie Galaxy Quest, "NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER SURRENDER!"

Hey man pls tell more!!

[fangtooth]

bro, yur GF cast a spell on the lion is it?

can do it to mine?