dwarf lion fish

[AaronSB]

Ok, so I got carried away with myself. I bought a dwarf lion fish as my first fish in my new aquarium. The problem is, I am new at this. He is only about 2" long. He is eating live brine shrimp twice a day when I feed him and he appears healthy and normal. Is there any advice people can give me concerning how to take good care of him? I know I should have bought a couple of damsels and that is what I had intended to do, but it is too late for that now. Any lessons learned and passed on will be greatly appreciated.

[Alice]

Hi Aaron;

Couple of questions for you and then I'll make some general comments.

How big is your tank? How long has it been set up? Filtration (how much rock, sand, skimmer, etc.) All of this info could be posted in tank specs and then you could include that topic in your signature line for easy access to info about your tank. It makes replying so much easier and you don't have to answer that question again and again

Lionfish, or any predator fish, are hard on reef tanks. (If yours is going to be a reef). They eat a lot, create a lot of waste, and don't allow you to keep small fish or ornamental shrimp.

Brine shrimp alone is not enough for your lion or any fish. It's not very nutritious, kinda like iceberg lettuce or Hostess twinkies. Frozen silversides and krill/shrimp, fresh uncooked shrimp and other meaty seafoods is what you should feed him. I'd soak the food in Selcon, a fatty acid supplement, before you gave it to him. He may not want to feed on these foods right away, they eat live fish, shrimp, etc. in the wild and have to be trained to accept other foods. Put the food on the straight (not the pointed end) of a wooden shish-ka-bob skewer and "dance" it around in front of the fish. It may take him several days to get the idea. A few days without food won't hurt him but if he's not hungry, he's not going to be very motivated to try the "shrimp on a stick." He's going to have to eat something besides brine but if he's slow at taking the other you might have to feed him brine, but add Selcon to the brine water several hours before feeding time it it's live brine, 10 minutes if it's frozen.

People do feed their lions goldfish but they are NOT good for SW fish. If you have to resort to live feeders, find some saltwater mollies. I saw someone had them for sale online, it might have been Brine Shrimp Direct.

Why did you assume you should have put damsels in your tank first? Is it still cycling? No fish, not even a damsel, should be subjected to being the guinea pig/cycling agent in a new tank. You can start the cycle with live rock or even a piece of shrimp. Damsels are onery buggers anyway, often taking over a tank especially when they are added first. Although a damsel might make a good tankmate for your lion, if the lion doesn't eat him!

Sorry for the long winded post!

~Alice

[Doug1]

And Yes treat a 2" dwarf lion with the same respect you would treat an adult Volitan.
Be very careful if you are hypersensitive to bee stings. Be careful in there

[Peter_]

Hey, I thought twinkies were at the very top of the food pyramid?

[AaronSB]

Alice, thank you for the response a few days ago. I followed up on some of your advice. I bought a feeder prong, some uncooked scallops, some uncooked medium shrimp, and some selcon. I have not yet marinated the food in selcon. When I have tried to wiggle small pieces of scallop in his face with the prong he will not eat. I have temporarily stopped feeding him the brine shrimp. So with that said here are my questions.

He is really small and cannot eat but the tiniest sliver on dead seafood anyway, so will that work?

Are brine shrimp and selcon (like the selcon package claims) a good alternative.

I assumed that he was more or less a juvenile when I bought him because he is smaller than any lion, dwarf or otherwise, that I have ever seen. Shouldn't I be able to ween him onto hand feeding?

The fish store I bought him at said they fed him ghost shrimp when I called and asked today, would that be a good alternative.

Should I not feed him until he starts taking the dead seafood, or should I be buying fish-store food products for him?

[Alice]

How big is your little guy? I have seen lions eat a lot more (and bigger fish) than I ever thought possible. We had a small Volitan, who I was SURE was too small to eat anything else in the tank, go around for a whole day with the tail end of a wrasse sticking out of his mouth because all of the wrasse didn't fit in his belly!

I've also seen a 2" dwarf lion eat 4 small feeder mollies within the space of 5 minutes.

So, that being said, ghost shrimp might be ok for your little guy, I don't know much about the nutrition the shrimp offer though. (Anybody know?) Maybe the tiny frozen white silversides might work. I'm not saying that you *can't" feed lions live food, it's just that most people find it 1) a hassle in the long run 2) expensive 3) feeders and live foods can harbor disease and 4) it's a good idea to train them away from the fact that everything that swims in the tank with them is food.

You obviously don't want the little guy to starve so only you are going to be able to judge how long is long enough to do a trial with the non-live foods. Try if for three days and if he's still not interested feed him a small amount of food he's used to and then try again the next day with the non-live foods. We've usually been able to train the lions at the shop off of live foods within two weeks; until they are trained, we don't let them out the door.

HTH and keep us posted,

~Alice

[ 03-16-2001: Message edited by: Alice ]

[Doug1]

I agee with Alice regarding the feeding issues. Lion fish are opportunistoc ambush feeders in the wild so are sort used to going fairly long periods between meals. Believe me they can accomadate pery nearly there own size. Ghost shrimp would be ok tho, I would do the selcon enriched brine, it may make it easier to train to other foods, you can add it in with frozen enriched brine and slowly decrease the brine in favor of other foods, shrimp chunks, silversides or something. If it eats well it can go a few days between feeding. If all else fails and it is looking thin and worrysome try feeding gppies adapted to brackish water and fed selcon to make up for the missing SW nutrients