Lion fish and fish requiring live food

[mling]

I am thinking of getting a Lion fishes. Do they require daily feeding ? Has anyone been successful in getting a Lion Fish to eat prepared food ?

I often make long weekend trips and no one is home, this is the only reason I have yet to get a Lion fish since the auto feeder cater to it. For those who have fishes that require live food, how do you feed it if you have to be away ?

 

[cindre2000]

I try and feed large predators 2-3 times a week to satiation; however, they learn to beg so quickly that I cannot help but give them treats every day. As for live food- a lot of the predators (lions, triggers, puffers, groupers, etc.) learn to take frozen and even dry fairly quickly when they are healthy.

You may be able to put dried krill in the feeder; if it can fit; however, I would just get someone to come over and feed the fish (frozen food) every third day.

 

[Len]

When I had a grouper and lionfish tank ages ago, I would feed every other day, mostly with supermarket-bought fresh seafood. They were fine going 3-4 days without food, but they definitely preferred to be fed more often I rarely fed live foods.

 

[Eboman]

I've had two lionfish at different times during my life. Both needed "live" food and never did make the transition to frozen.

I once read somewhere on this website that feeding marine fish with freshwater fish is a bad idea (I was feeding the lionfish guppies and such). They both croaked within a month.

My wife has since "nixed" any additional plans to use live feeders. When she came home the first time and saw the guppies in a fish bowl on the counter and said "Wow!! They're pretty and cute!!" I knew I was in trouble.

I once had a porcupine puffer that would eat frozen (the thing would eat anything). I actually had it trained to eat out of my hand for a while, which was a neat trick. Unfortunately, every time I stuck my hand in the tank after that to do any type of maintenance, he started to chase my hand around. I've had damsels bite me before without too much consequence, but I'm guessing a porcupine puffer could do some damage so I quit hand-feeding him. Cool fish, by the way. Very entertaining.