Prepared food for Lion Fishes

[mling]

I would really like to have a Lion Fish and I understanf that it prefers live or frozen food. I don't know if our family life style would permit it since we tend to be away from home, 4 to 7 days, very often and have to use a auto fish feeder.

Has anyone been able to keep a Lion Fish with dried & prepared food?
I am eyeing this Fuzzy Lion at the LFS.

 

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately it wont work as they prefer and need meaty foods, like frozen silverside, shrimp, eel, squid, etc. The only other thing you could try would be to keep live feeder marine critters in the tank with it which will become expensive.

Regards,
David Mohr

 

[Anonymous]

Since you live near the coast you can collect grass shrimp. If there is nothing else that will eat the shrimp in the tank he can go a long time on a few dozen shrimp in the tank. Other than that, what David said is correct.

 

[Anonymous]

I have never had a lionfish that would accept dried foods. However, I have "trained" them to eat frozen or "dead" foods by using the automatic feeding response they had to a small green fish net. This trick might work for you.

Since these guys would only eat live foods on arrival, I would use feeder guppies (bad food, I know). Using the same green net everytime to dump the feeders into the tank, the lion learned that when he saw that net over the tank, food would drop into the water and he would snatch it right up.

I eventually got him to eat the frozen cubes (slightly thawed) that way, he never even noticed it wasn't swimming.

HTH

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I think these are particularly smart fish. Mine became totally nocturnal with all the shrimp in the tank, but a week ago he ran out. Now I put them in the tank using a little green net. The very first night he swam into the net to eat them, and has done so every night since. Soon I will try to get him to do it in daylight, and then with frozen food.

Might have to let him go hungry a bit for the daylight part though.

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I think these are particularly smart fish. Mine became totally nocturnal with all the shrimp in the tank, but a week ago he ran out. Now I put them in the tank using a little green net. The very first night he swam into the net to eat them, and has done so every night since. Soon I will try to get him to do it in daylight, and then with frozen food.

Might have to let him go hungry a bit for the daylight part though.

That does help, also, be careful that he doesn't surprise you and latch onto the net 8O. Had that happen and it wasn't pretty.