How to train a lion fish to eat frozen food?

[PaulD]

Just got one as an unexpected gift from a friend and thus did not have a chance to do research on this fish. It does not seem to be eating any blood worms I am feeding other fish. (Except one Cleaner Wrass I just bought a couple of days ago and have not seen it for two days now!)

Thanks for the help.

 

[somethings fishy]

I don't know if they care for bloodworms might try some frozen silversides. I'd say he made a meal of your cleaner wrass and it willmake a meal out of any other small fish or shrimp in your tank. I too had received a lion fish as a birthday gift some time ago and ended up having to get rid of it. I don't consider them too reef friendly because of their tendencies too eat small fish which is typically what you put in your reef. very nice looking fish though.

 

[MIKE NY1]

The cleaner wrasse is history. When I had one a few years ago. I trained it to take frozen krill and silversides and fed it live once in awhile. I trained it by not feeding it for a few days and put the food into an area with some current. If the food was not fully thawed out it would spit right out. Some people use a thin skewer or thread, but mine didn't fall for that.

Good Luck
Mike

 

[Anonymous]

One of the best ways I've ever heard of was to use a net to feed him live food for a few days in the same corner of the tank every time. They eventually associate the net with food. When they are rushing the corner when they see the net start adding in some thawed shrimp and eventually they'll start snagging that as well.

Glenn

 

[MattM]

Go with the frozen silversides. Put one in the top of the tank where he/she can see it float down. Once it hits the bottom, it will be ignored, so remove it if the lion doesn't go for it. It'll be fine if it doesn't eat for several days - just try the silversides a couple times a day and as the lion's hunger grows, so will interest in the food.

If it doesn't go for it in a week or so, you may have to get some live food, but keep trying with the silversides.

 

[TMIB]

When I trained mine, I started by letting him go hungry for a short bit (About a week, if I remember correctly.) I then put some of his normal live food on the end of a skewer, and wiggled it in front of him until he struck at it.

After doing this a few times, I switched to non-live foods (Krill) and repeated the process of putting it on the stick and wiggling it in front of him.

After that I was just able to either feed him off the stick, or just drop it into the tank near him.

--TMIB

 

[PaulD]

Thanks very much for the input. Do I get krill and silverslides from the LFS ? It looks like I am going to have to get rid of it at a loss. Did have a chance to find out how painful it was to be stung by this fish. I thought I was going to pass out from the pain. I can still feel the pain 3 weeks later!

 

[FMarini]

Paul:
can i ask what spieces of lion it is??
i ask becuz P Volitans and P Russels will ween over almost immediately. The med sized lions (e.g.,antennata and radiata) are more difficult, but do-able. The dwarfs (dendrochirus) tend to be problematic in that you need them established in the tank first, then they'll switch over.

If you email me directly i can send you my lionfish info sheet which has lots of husbandry tips including how i ween mine over, and it might help.

In cliff note form:
Like the rest I starve the lion for about 5days then i use a clear feeding stick and impale either a silverside(w/ an eye) or a mid size shrimp also w/ an eye. I move the food item thru the water away from the lion but in its view, when the lion rushes over to check it out, move the food item away.The lion will key in on the eyeball. After you get him interested allow the lion to take the food. Don't worry if he doesn't. Remember your job is to convince him to eat this stuff, he has no clue its food.

If he doesn't take it try again later. Keep in mind a hungry lion is a brave lion.

W/ most volitans and russels they will take anything which looks like food in the water column and usually just require food, no convincing
HTH
frank
[email protected]
_______________
To see my 180 gal tank of lions:
http://www.marshreef.org/members/fmarini/index.htm

 

[FMarini]

Paul:
i sent to your hotmail acct the lionfish info sheet.
In case you haven't figured it out yet. Lionfish are live fish eaters. They require either live ghost shrimp or live feeders fish. NOW I SAY THIS, only feed these items a few times to your lion before you switch them over. I do not recommend the longterm feeding of freshwater feeders to saltwater fish.
if you haven't recieved the info sheet email me again w/ a good email address.
Apparently paul you neeed to clean this acct out i keep getting an "over the storage limit".
frank

[ December 20, 2001: Message edited by: FMarini ]</p>

 

[loosbrew]

i had a black volitans a few years back. grew him up from less than 4 inches to almost 8. strictly on fresh seafood. the fod that most interested my lion fish was squid tents. i would spear the end with a shish kabob stick, and dangle the tenct in the tank. give it alittle wiggle, had him eating the first day! never touched my cleaner wrasse either. would actually sit still for the cleaner to "clean" its spines, kind of a neat scene! patience and variety should get him eating quick!

loosbrew

 

[nm]

Had a few lion fish long time ago. I got all of them to take dead food. I used needle and thread ,i stuck a piece of shrimp on the needle (just barely on the needle , so when he strike it; it will come off) . Kinda like fishing --move it up and down until he strikes it. once he eats it,he'll eat dead food